Where do I begin? In a comment section of a personal blog is not the place to type up a long rebuttal to an article like this. But here I am. The social and political issues and agendas are so deep and much more complicated than I can begin to explain here. The media comes out with a story like this, touches on a few things, overemphasizes some and underemphasizes others until the story accomplishes its purpose. I am a busy mom and business owner and don’t have the time I wish I did to hash it all out, but I hope that those who read articles like this are intelligent enough to know that the media does not tell the whole story. But I feel I do need to address a few things so that you who do not know the process intimately like I do can feel more at ease about how my children came to be part of our family. Guatemala has a private adoption system, much like the US. This does NOT mean that the government plays no role nor that adoptions aren’t done legally. What it does mean is that the government does not care for the children while the adoption is being completed, their care is the responsibility of the lawyer to whom the birth mother relinquished her child. In the US, a woman can choose when and where to make an adoption plan, and currently in Guatemala that is also true. The media likes to play up certain words, like saying that adoptions are completed by “notaries.” A notary in Guat is a specialized attorney and under the Guat Constitution they have the power to oversee an adoption. The adoption process itself is complicated and many hands have to sign off on the case before the child can come home. This article would have you believe that the Guat govn’t has no part in approving an adoption which is incredibly untrue. There are many steps to an adoption and I won’t get into all of them for sake of space, but I’ll highlight a couple here. The Guat govn’t requires adoptive parents to submit a stack of 20+ papers proving everything from our medical & financial status, to our emotional health and character, we need to provide witness and name affidavits, photographs, police clearance letters, tax forms, and a home study report, to name a few. (This is on top of all the forms, fees, and FBI fingerprints that the US govn’t requires in order to approve us to be allowed to adopt internationally). All this paperwork is submitted to Family Court where a social worker is assigned to review everything, interviews the birth mother where her reasons for placement are examined, and the foster mother, before she writes up a report giving her approval for the adoption to continue. The US Embassy is also very involved and before anything else happens, they also interview the birth mother, look over all the paperwork and more, take DNA samples from the mother and child to ensure that the woman placing the child for adoption is indeed the mother, then they give their visa preapproval. After Family Court and preapproval, the case is submitted to the Procuraduría General de la Nación (PGN) which is roughly the equivalent to the US Attorney General office. The PGN reviews everything with a fine-tooth comb, sometimes requiring additional paperwork, before it approves the adoption. In all, the birth mother has to sign her consent 4 separate times during the months it takes to process an adoption, and at any point up until the final adoption deed is signed, she has the right to change her mind--and that does happen. After the adoption deed is signed it is still weeks before the child can come home due to other legal hoops we parents must jump through for the US and Guatemalan governments (new birth certificate, visa interviews, passports, a 2nd DNA test, etc.). To say that there is little or no government oversight in this process is not just an exaggeration, it is a downright lie and it is anything but quick and easy as this article claims. I am not naïve enough to believe that there has never been abuse of the system; anything that has been touched by humans is flawed, but that does not mean that the system is evil or that everyone involved has ulterior motives. According to the WHO, Approximately 49% of children in Guatemala under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition (68% among indigenous children). 48 out of 1000 will die before their 5th birthday. The same government who is patting themselves on the back for passing a law to essentially stop adoptions has NOTHING in place for those children who will be left to fend for themselves on the street, shining shoes in the city park all day to possibly earn enough for a meal, or living in the city dump. I will not share details of how my children came to need a home, but I am forever grateful that their birth mothers made the difficult choice to place them for adoption and that they had the freedom to ensure their children had a chance at living. My soul cries for those children who will not have that chance. Those of you who have held a malnourished child in your arms know what it is to have your soul cry. Stopping adoptions does nothing to help the thousands of children living in poverty, what it does stop is giving them a chance.
2 comments:
evil!!!
imagine what you do to chickens if you do that to babies!!
Where do I begin? In a comment section of a personal blog is not the place to type up a long rebuttal to an article like this. But here I am. The social and political issues and agendas are so deep and much more complicated than I can begin to explain here. The media comes out with a story like this, touches on a few things, overemphasizes some and underemphasizes others until the story accomplishes its purpose. I am a busy mom and business owner and don’t have the time I wish I did to hash it all out, but I hope that those who read articles like this are intelligent enough to know that the media does not tell the whole story. But I feel I do need to address a few things so that you who do not know the process intimately like I do can feel more at ease about how my children came to be part of our family. Guatemala has a private adoption system, much like the US. This does NOT mean that the government plays no role nor that adoptions aren’t done legally. What it does mean is that the government does not care for the children while the adoption is being completed, their care is the responsibility of the lawyer to whom the birth mother relinquished her child. In the US, a woman can choose when and where to make an adoption plan, and currently in Guatemala that is also true. The media likes to play up certain words, like saying that adoptions are completed by “notaries.” A notary in Guat is a specialized attorney and under the Guat Constitution they have the power to oversee an adoption. The adoption process itself is complicated and many hands have to sign off on the case before the child can come home. This article would have you believe that the Guat govn’t has no part in approving an adoption which is incredibly untrue. There are many steps to an adoption and I won’t get into all of them for sake of space, but I’ll highlight a couple here. The Guat govn’t requires adoptive parents to submit a stack of 20+ papers proving everything from our medical & financial status, to our emotional health and character, we need to provide witness and name affidavits, photographs, police clearance letters, tax forms, and a home study report, to name a few. (This is on top of all the forms, fees, and FBI fingerprints that the US govn’t requires in order to approve us to be allowed to adopt internationally). All this paperwork is submitted to Family Court where a social worker is assigned to review everything, interviews the birth mother where her reasons for placement are examined, and the foster mother, before she writes up a report giving her approval for the adoption to continue. The US Embassy is also very involved and before anything else happens, they also interview the birth mother, look over all the paperwork and more, take DNA samples from the mother and child to ensure that the woman placing the child for adoption is indeed the mother, then they give their visa preapproval. After Family Court and preapproval, the case is submitted to the Procuraduría General de la Nación (PGN) which is roughly the equivalent to the US Attorney General office. The PGN reviews everything with a fine-tooth comb, sometimes requiring additional paperwork, before it approves the adoption. In all, the birth mother has to sign her consent 4 separate times during the months it takes to process an adoption, and at any point up until the final adoption deed is signed, she has the right to change her mind--and that does happen. After the adoption deed is signed it is still weeks before the child can come home due to other legal hoops we parents must jump through for the US and Guatemalan governments (new birth certificate, visa interviews, passports, a 2nd DNA test, etc.). To say that there is little or no government oversight in this process is not just an exaggeration, it is a downright lie and it is anything but quick and easy as this article claims. I am not naïve enough to believe that there has never been abuse of the system; anything that has been touched by humans is flawed, but that does not mean that the system is evil or that everyone involved has ulterior motives. According to the WHO, Approximately 49% of children in Guatemala under 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition (68% among indigenous children). 48 out of 1000 will die before their 5th birthday. The same government who is patting themselves on the back for passing a law to essentially stop adoptions has NOTHING in place for those children who will be left to fend for themselves on the street, shining shoes in the city park all day to possibly earn enough for a meal, or living in the city dump. I will not share details of how my children came to need a home, but I am forever grateful that their birth mothers made the difficult choice to place them for adoption and that they had the freedom to ensure their children had a chance at living. My soul cries for those children who will not have that chance. Those of you who have held a malnourished child in your arms know what it is to have your soul cry. Stopping adoptions does nothing to help the thousands of children living in poverty, what it does stop is giving them a chance.
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