Uncertainty

Hi everyone,

we want to thank you all so much for the support extended to us last week. Many of you faxed, emailed and called senators offices on behalf of continuing adoptions in Guatemala and we appreciate it. As of today March 5th the situation is still unstable and there seems to be no real consenus on what will happen to in process adoptions like ours. For adoptions to continue in Guatemala they must become Hague compliant and to do that they must make major changes to the system. But, it is unclear as to whether the Guatemalan government will "grandfather" existing cases and simply apply the new guidelines to "new" referrals. It seems to make sense that they would, right? But, not much makes sense down there and to be honest the government does not seem to have the finances and organizational skills to transition into the new process smoothly.

Our case was kicked out of the PGN court last a week and a half ago for an error and should have entered last week for another review. We will hopefully find out today from the Adoption Supervisors where we stand. I think the most difficult part is the uncertainty. There is a real lack of information from authorities and the threat that this may end poorly seems very possible now. The government feels that it will take weeks to implement their new plan (I would guess mnay monthes) so hopefully we can finish up in PGN before they make any real progress. As of right now (and that could change in a nano second) there is NO moratorium on adoptions. If anyone is interested in keeping themselves up to date on the situation I have posted some websites below

www.guatadopt.com
http://travel.state.gov/family/adoption/intercountry/intercountry_3146.html

Take Care,
Lee Anne