sad news for Guatemala's orphans
The President of Guatemala announced that all adoptions to the U.S. will be suspended as of Jan 1, 2008 (the date the Hague Convention takes effect in Guatemala).
The shocking part of the announcement is that there is no provision for grandfathering in adoptions already in process. This was something the US Dept of State warned the public about just last week, but it's still hard to believe.
This news breaks my heart, as thousands of people who are in the process of adoption their child(ren) from Guatemala, who already know the child they have been matched with, and who will be blocked from bringing them home. And the children will wait, who knows how long, before getting a family of their own. Very sad.
See the announcement here on Dawn's excellent Finding Your Child site, and more info at the Joint Council on International Children's Services (JCICS) site.
I can't help but wonder what this means for programs like Ethiopia, which remain open.
Ethiopia is struggling to handle the current volume of adoptions - I have a feeling the floodgates are about to open, and I hope they can scale up to deal with the thousands of new prospective adoptive parents. God knows, with literally millions of orphans in Ethiopia, there is a need for these parents - but there sure isn't an infrastructure in place to process them.
I am selfishly grateful and relieved that my dossier is already logged in at the orphanage in Addis, but I also wish the best for all the parents who are adopting, no matter where they have chosen to find their child.
My heart goes out to people in the process of a Guatemalan adoption, and I hope and pray that they can get their kids home before January 1, 2008.
5 comments:
This is heart wrenching news. I couldn't imagine meeting my child, having her meet me, and then being told 'sorry, you can't become a family after all.' That's like a death in the family.
Stories like this will keep me good and scared right up until I bring my girl home.
This seems to be a growing 'trend' internationally. Liberia is making it near impossible to adopt, Nepal has suspended international adoption, and the list goes on. I can't quite figure out what's causing all this. Is it 'shame' for bringing to light that the country has a lot of orphans? Is there a fear (and I can't blame them) regarding child trafficking?
It's all very interesting, albeit nerve wrecking for those of us not 'locked in' yet.
This is so sad. I hope this is temporary but I have a feeling that is not the case.
It's scary, isn't it?
This is heartbreaking for all families hoping to adopt from Guatemala, but particularly so for those in process already. There are families that have been living with their child for months and months because they were thrown out of PGN for one reason or another. I can't even imagine.
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