What a well rounded article that highlights the downfalls of everyone involved. As I hopefully finish my second adoption, I struggle with how to explain all the ins and outs of it to my daughters. Elizabeth Larsen makes the point that everyone, adoptive parents included, is at fault.

Thanks Guatadopt for continuing to push the for ethical reforms and helping adoptive parents be more ethically informed.

Both of these articles were great. Thank you so much for sharing them! The first one was slightly hard to swallow at first but I think that has to do with my circumstances more than it does the article. We have been in PGN for seven weeks now and seem to have no end in sight.

The second article was comforting beyond words! I was so encouraged to hear that someone else had gone through what I was going through. I am a Christian and there has been much prayer and still many tears. God is building our faith and patience through all of this.

Thanks again for sharing them!

Jordan,
Don't know if it will help to hear this or not, but . . .
it is a good thing that you are IN pgn right now.

Be thankful for that. This means that your case has the posibility of progressing right now.

For many, many, many of us out here, we either can't be submitted to pgn for the first time, or can't be re-submitted after a kick-out. Some of us after numerous kick-outs and re-submits and many months previously in pgn, and now can't get back in to finish it! and no word about when pgn will be accepting files again. Right now, we are at a complete standstill. Your cases at least has some hope of movement right now.

Lizzie

Not sure if this will help any of you. My wife and are supposedly ready to go into PGN like many of us but can't. I spoke with the adoption-supervisors.com(Servicios Juridicos Integrados)...not to be confused with the other .com people that are very similar. They told me in an email today that the "National Adoption Committee" will hopefully be up and running by Jan 15th. I asked them if they were the same as the new Central Authority and was told that the central authority would be an office out of their main office and the National Committee would be handling the registration of in-process cases!!

Hope this may help some!!

Thanks Jimmy for your glimmer of hope for those of us who are ready to go into PGN(after FC). I really needed this information, so thank you! Angie

This is in reference to Jimmy's post regarding the "National Adoption Committee."

That sounds like very hopeful news, and I would like to take it and run with it, but I am just wondering why we haven't heard this type of news from our adoption agencies? You would think that their attorneys who are in-country would be hearing this news and our agencies would be reporting it to us. Right now, ours is telling us there is nothing to report.

I think as hard as it is for all of us, and I am one of the in-process parents, it is probably best to wait and see what happens over the next few weeks and wait for some formal announcement. You can make yourself crazy with all this speculation. I think it's safe to say that right now, no one has any answers.

Let's hope for some announcements in the near future. I'm going to use this time to brush up on my Spanish!

Excellent articles. I appreciate the honesty of the LA Times article. I think it's long over due for adoptive parents to consider how we have even unknowingly contributed to the "demand" for young infants and a "quick" process. Mostly though, I blame selfish people in both countries who see dollar signs and take advantage of women and children. We were caught in the attempt to implement the Hague in 2003. If attorneys hadn't fought to keep their lucrative incomes then, things would have already been changed. I'm sorry for those of you now going through the same fears we had, and then some. The sad thing is that anyone had to be caught in it this time. It would have been wonderful, though not at all probable, if referrals had stopped long enough for things to be changed without adoptive families having to wait in agony while Guatemala figures out how to fix things. I do believe it's time for adoptive parents to accept that international adoptions shouldn't be "quick", time to accept older babies, toddlers, and waiting children who need families. It might not be every parents dream, to miss out on much of a child's infancy, but the drive to have a very young child come home has also unknowingly played into the corruption, in my opinion. I believe it's when the focus becomes finding children for famiies, rather than families for waiting children that corruption sees it's opportunity. Though I'm very sorry for those caught in this mess with a referral, I have to say I am very, very thankful that the corruption may finally be addressed. My concern is how they will avoid it happening again, because for too long, it's been "who you know" and "how much" to get cases to the next step. For the sake of the answers we will give all of our children from Guatemala and others yet to come, we as adoptive parents need to absolutely do all we can to encourage ethical adoptions and pray that those involved will do what is right for children, those caught in the middle of this and all who find themselves at the mercy of the adults who will make life changing decisions for them.

Thank you for the update Jimmy - that is really great news. I was kicked out on 12/19, and I am so anxious to get back in!!

How will we explain it to our children? We will tell the truth fo course. But I don't see myself at being at fault for bringing my child into our lives and out of the nightmare that would have been her life, even during the times when not all adoptions were ethical. I don't agree with so much that Elizabeth Larsen says.

Let's be sure to remember to write letters to these publications and journalists who have written well-balanced articles - to thank them profusely - they are in the minority.

Boni

Nancy - very well said. As adults we need to focus on finding families for children in need. We may need to rethink our dreams and "step up to the plate" as responsible adults.

My agency did not tell me this either. This company, Adoption-Supervisors, is "in-country". They are right in the middle of all of this. I have checked their references and they seem to be a very reputable company. Most(references)that I have emailed said they had informative communication daily from them and that the information was always days ahead of their own agency. I am not a sales person of them and have not even hired them(YET). I am just a PAP trying to get my daughter home as quickly and painless for her as possible!!! If they can help me do that then so be it.

I also don't think Elizabeth Larson's op-ed is that great. PAPs want kids. Adoption agencies are in the business of facilitating adoptions. If there has been corruption that has gone unchecked, that rests on the shoulders of the agencies - not the parents. After infertility treatments and the like, most PAPs do not start an adoption with an eye towards international law and policy. That is absurd.

My wife and I have completed two adoptions from Guatemala.Although we are no longer directly involved, I remained interested in the Guatemalan program and have hope it will continue.
In our adoptions we committed no illegal or unethical acts and to my knowledge did not come into contact with anyone who did.I have no doubt that there are unethical people in Guatemala and improper adoptions have occured.I also suspect however that the accusations of illegality have been exagerated by the opponents of the current system.The tactic has been to point to isolated examples of illegaity and ignore the benefits of thousands of successful and proper adoptions.
The claim is frequently made that if adoptions move from the private to the government sector they will be free of corruption.We will see.I am also skeptical that because adoptions take longer that will mean they are being done better.
I have a family member who was adopting here in the U.S.and backed off the adoption because of illegal or unethical activity.I also know two couples who completed adoptions in two Asian countries and were required to bring $10,000 in cash when they traved to Asia.Any financial transactions in any country has the potential for wrong doing.
What is the prospect of a Guatemalan child being adopted in his own country? Will Guatemala ever develop the infrastructure to care for its orphans? I believe that early adoption was in the best interest of the vast majority of the adopted children.
If corruption was the problem additional safeguards could have been implemented without terminating the sysytem.The goal however was to stop intercountry adoption not to reform it.
I pray for all children and parents struggling through the current situation.

I appreciate the LA-Times article and their inclusion of many points that many other journalists do not. I agree only slightly on her giving part of the responsibility for the corruption to the PAPs.

I asked a LOT of ethical questions in researching agencies. I discovered two families also required to take many thousands of dollars in cash to China and the "hand-off" was made in an alley. I read the entire Hague convention on international adoption. I asked about payments to birthmothers. I was told "under no circumstances does this agency work with lawyers who do so". I went to hear Susanna in person. I am the kind of person that gives the PR people at agencies headaches from demanding so many answers to the ethical questions. That was my responsibility in entering into this business relationship with an agency.

However, I do not feel guilty for taking a hard look at my career calling, my desire to parent more than one child, and my lack of in-town family support and concluding that we are not called to parent a child with known special needs.

I also do not feel guilty for desiring to parent an infant. We researched transitions with older children. We researched the rates of abuse many of these children have endured. We didn't feel equipped to handle it. We prayed about our situation and firmly believed (then and still now) that there was a baby that needed a mom and a dad.

I'm happy that there are people who are called to parent older children, sibling sets, and children with special needs. Honest. I truly am. But I also know that's not me and it would be a diservice to the children for me to pretend that it was.

Respectfully, this is one parent that feels I fulfilled my responsibilities as a PAP.
Jennifer

Adoptive parents aren't in a position to make a huge difference in the amount of corruption because adoptive aprents don't have access to very much information. I think that we have to do what we can do but we certainly aren't in a position to make much of a dent.

The agencies and the guatemalan attorneys were in a much better position to make a difference. The agencies could have wielded a tremendous amount of power if they had banded together and demanded certain changes. The guatemalan attorneys could have formed groups to police the situation.

It looks like it is too late to see what could have been done.

Thank you to the person that put out the number for PGN. I also reached Lara who spoke excellent english was so helpful. The news was not good though as she said we were in the minor dept for an investigation. Could not tell me why but said it might be due to some type of fraud by our attorney. I asked if there was anything I could do and she said to contact my agency as no one in the minor dept speaks english. I did and we await their answer. Does anyone know how the minor dept works? Is there still hope?