Kevin, your words ring true. I would like to share more great work of adoptive families with a special emphasis on our efforts to Give Back to the people of Guatemala. Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption (www.ftga.net) in Cincinnati is comprised of more than 80 families who have adopted from Guatemala.

In the past five years, we have committed to giving back to the people of a country we all love as part of our own family. We have taken two Moms on a Mission and one Teens on a Mission trip back to Guatemala to work for a week. We have raised well more than $150,000 and sent countless suitcases of donations with traveling families over the years.

Most recently, our Holiday Giving Back Project through Behrhorst Partners for Development (www.behrhorst.org) provided more than $16,000 to give almost 300 rural Guatemalan families the opportunity to participate in micro-credit programs in their villages. Amazingly, adoptive families from more than 22 states participated in this effort.

Many families in the group have made personal contact with their child's biological family in Guatemala and watched amazing relationships grow out of these efforts. Personally, we not only connected but have spent time going back to Guatemala and meeting our son's birth family. To know is story firsthand is not only priceless, but seeing the sheer poverty facing the family pushes me ever harded to connect with adoptive families on a quest to give back.

Not only is our focus to give back, but it is to educate families of adoptive children from Guatemala on how to forever connect to the people of Guatemala. As our children grow into young adults, connections will exist to their birth country because of our work now. This is our committment.

Our love for one Guatemalan child grew into a love for the people of Guatemala. For that, I will be forever grateful and adoption made that happen.

Sonya, Donations coordinator for FTGA

Thanks Kevin, well-articulated.
Liz

Kevin, thank you for your honest & ethical way of communicating how thousands of adoptive parents feel about Guatemalan adoption.

Kudos to you & Troy!

Thank you to Troy for what you said. I hated watching the show until Troy's interview and I thank Dateline for ending with his comments. I think he did some real damage control.

And I am very sorry to the families that have suffered through Guatemalan adoptions.

Kelly and Kevin, thanks again for all the great work you've done. I hope that everyone who watched Dateline does realize that the scandal and heartbreak is not the norm.
To all who are still in process, I hope you realize your dreams and have your children home with you soon.
Karen, mother to Emily 7 and Maya 1 year

Oh, well.....Here we go again... It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It made me feel physically ill to see the children that were abducted....I just hope the public will realize that this is a tiny percentage of adoptions from Guatemala. I hate the thought of everyone assuming my daughter was bought or stolen. When will we get a report that tells the wonderful side of Guatemalan adoptions??? I guess that's not interesting enough for the news.....

I am glad Dateline did this report.
No, not all Guatemalan adoptions are corrupt but for those of us who have experienced heartbreak due to the corruption, we deserve to have our stories told. For our lives will never be the same....for our "forever in our hearts" children will haunt our memories for the rest of our lives. There is no forgetting that smile, giggle, or first words spoken by our lost Guatemalan angels.
I applaud your efforts!

GREAT JOB ON DATELINE!!!!! I find this website my bible during this past year with our adoption. Thank you so much for your insights!

Thanks Kevin for trying to represent the succesful Guatemalan adoptions that have occurred and trying to add a plug to not discriminate against our families

My heart bleeds for the familiies that lost their Guata-Tots. Wishing you peace- Rose

I think Dateline was very fair in their story. Kudos to Troy for standing up for the children who will have to grow up hearing/seeing/reading all the stories of corruptions and be left to wonder about their own stories. We all know how wonderful adoption can be. What aggravates me is how the US still does almost nothing to hold agencies accountable for their involvement with the corrupt facilitators or their own corruption within the agency itself. I think if the US side did more here, we wouldn't have had to "urge" Guatemala to push for this new law. When will agencies here ever have to answer for their part???

Thankyou Troy, for your comments. I too am feeling somewhat relieved with what was on NBC. I am so happy that not all adoptions were bashed. Though their expose was sometimes so harsh to hear, it bought to light things that can and do happen there, but with Troy's comments at the end of the show, hopefully many will realize not all families formed through international adoption became a family this way. Thankyou Guatadopt for letting us have a more knowledgeable approach to all this!

My son was adopted from Guatamala. He is now 16. He is so proud of his Guatamalan heritage.
I wish that an independent national sponser would oversee all adoptions locally and internationally so that the best interest of the children would really be at the center. There are so many families that would like to adopt but cannot get through the process or afford the money. It seems that countries would be interested in forming some sort of adoption alliance.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone at guatadopt for all of your work on this piece. Special thanks to Troy for putting yourself and your family out there. You did a great job. I am glad they closed the segment with you.

Great job and thanks to the entire crew of guatadopt for donating much of your time and lives to this site. This site has been my refuge during two adoptions (one very long and difficult). Now that my kids are home, I am just an addict :-)

Your work is valued and appreciated!

Thank you NBC for this story, for ending with Troy, and for bringing me a sense that this journey is not a solo one. Guatadopt has been a refuge for me in this past year of insanity, trying to bring my son home. (He turns eight in 2 days.) While I have confidence in the legality of his adoption (having met/visited with his birthmother during the first DNA test etc.), the process has been maddening. My heart breaks for those who have gone before me with fruitless or even more difficult cases, and I pray that the best interest of these children is soon made the primary focus of the Guatemalan and American authorities involved. Thanks to Guatadopt for such wonderful, helpful work here!

I was shocked that the show focussed so much on Teo. I used an agency that uses Teo and our adoptions went fine. Teo not only facilitated our adoptions for 1/2 of his normal fees he also covered substantial medical fees for our son. He never asked for more money although I would have sent it in a heartbeat. My children received excellent medical care and were in wonderful foster homes. I am sorry that people lost money and were hurt. I would place a lot of that blame on my agency. Ours does not send any money until the adoption is complete.

A much better report than I expected and one that I would say does not cast a shadow over all Guatemalan adoptions. What I took away from it is how lax our own government is -- how "Teo" could continue to operate and handle adoptions despite being banned by the US Embassy is just a scandal. Too bad Dateline didn't try to interview someone at the US Embassy. Indeed, Dateline could do a darn good story on our own government's lax enforcement efforts at the same time it tut-tuts over other countries' corruption and tries to force through "adoption reform" that only hurts kids.

THANK YOU for your comments on dateline, wish you had more of a chance & had been given more time to speak but you did a great job, thank you!!!

I must admit, I wasn't sure I was going to watch. I am glad I did. How can Dateline expose these vultures so easily but neither gov't can do a thing to thing to actually stop them? I finished watching feeling that a black cloud did not shroud all Guatemalan adoptions but that there are some very corrupt people who blacken the eyes of adoption. Troy, thank you. To the families featured and to those effected by such people as those exposed, my heart goes out to you. Most of all, my heart breaks for the countless number of children that are and will be effected by greediness of a few.

I am so sad for all the heartache some families have been through with their Guatemalan adoption processes. My husband and I are in the process of adopting our 4th child (first Guatemalan baby). There are so many things that the agency cannot control. I can assure you that the agency used to place the stolen little girl could not have known this. Unfortunately, the families, babies, and agencies are at the mercy of the facilitators who are handling the cases. This could have happened to any agency and has happened to others. It is very, very sad for everyone involved. We are using one of the agencies mentioned tonight and have had no problems. In fact, I met the director on one of my visit trips in November. She spent over a month there trying
to get our cases moving. She is there right now, in fact, trying to ensure that all of the children are registered with the new Central Authority. I don't know of too many agencies that would have their director living in that country just to ensure that things get done as soon as possible. Her heart is in this for the kids. If it wasn't, she would only have her 3 biological sons, instead of all 19 kids. She has adopted 16, yes, 16 children from all over the world and is in the process of adopting another. I do not know a more compassionate person. Guatemala is not the only country with problems, in fact, we have a son from India who almost never came home due to the government process at the time. International adoption is a very unpredictable process. It is the most rewarding thing I've ever done, but also the most stressful and upsetting process to endure. Right now, I'm waiting for my baby to make it through PGN. We have a positive DNA match, so I know she wasn't stolen. I do pray every day that her birthmom does not change her mind. I've visited my little girl twice now and cannot imagine not bringing her home. It is a reality though and it is possible that the birthmom can still change her mind. I pray that all in process children are united with their forever families and that the new system will prevent this corruption.
An Adoptive Mom to 3, soon to be 4.

I am so sad for all the heartache some families have been through with their Guatemalan adoption processes. My husband and I are in the process of adopting our 4th child (first Guatemalan baby). There are so many things that the agency cannot control. I can assure you that the agency used to place the stolen little girl could not have known this. Unfortunately, the families, babies, and agencies are at the mercy of the facilitators who are handling the cases. This could have happened to any agency and has happened to others. It is very, very sad for everyone involved. We are using one of the agencies mentioned tonight and have had no problems. In fact, I met the director on one of my visit trips in November. She spent over a month there trying
to get our cases moving. She is there right now, in fact, trying to ensure that all of the children are registered with the new Central Authority. I don't know of too many agencies that would have their director living in that country just to ensure that things get done as soon as possible. Her heart is in this for the kids. If it wasn't, she would only have her 3 biological sons, instead of all 19 kids. She has adopted 16, yes, 16 children from all over the world and is in the process of adopting another. I do not know a more compassionate person. Guatemala is not the only country with problems, in fact, we have a son from India who almost never came home due to the government process at the time. International adoption is a very unpredictable process. It is the most rewarding thing I've ever done, but also the most stressful and upsetting process to endure. Right now, I'm waiting for my baby to make it through PGN. We have a positive DNA match, so I know she wasn't stolen. I do pray every day that her birthmom does not change her mind. I've visited my little girl twice now and cannot imagine not bringing her home. It is a reality though and it is possible that the birthmom can still change her mind. I pray that all in process children are united with their forever families and that the new system will prevent this corruption.
An Adoptive Mom to 3, soon to be 4.

Frankly, the Dateline piece was only about 20% of what I expected. Really, at the end of the day, many issues were not addressed. I mean, the 'fly-by-night' small US agencies that have nothing more than a website as a storefront was barely touched upon--for example there were no real details of the Michigan WAITING ANGELS scandal with $500,000 dollars in cash found in the home of the agency owner/adult dancer evidency is clear and illustrates poor/unethical practice and broken hearts. Also, while they touched upon the birth mother payments, they didn't really go into any detail about how that works and issues about birth mothers changing their minds and then being charged interest on the money and costs (i.e. milk and medical bills) to a point that there is essentially no way for an impoverished woman to repay the jaladora by returning the money and reuniting with their child--if that is no a trap, I don't know what is! (Can you imagine the grief and pain?) They didn't touch on the systemic issues of (in many cases) one attorney representing everyone in the adoption triad--obviously a dual relationship that is biased given the fact that the US family pays for that process. There was no mention of a lack of unbiased birth mother counseling. There is absolutely no mention of the cases of bogus social worker's reports of birth parent histories--i.e. bogus addresses & falsified information to craft the child's story in a manner that meets the criteria for "orphan" status for US immigration. There was no discussion of how bribery is culturally engrained in Guatemala and is recognized by the US government as one of the most corrupt countries in this hemisphere. At the end of the day, the Dateline piece exposed a slimy facilitator who is NOT a professional and encouraged an agency to place a child with a sexual offender. Yes, that is troubling and an important story. However, the piece did not really shine the light how all of these issues collide in a tragedy for all involved. Of course, I'll get shoot the messenger for saying these things and I acknowledge that not all cases have any OR all of the aforementioned elements. However, until we get real there will be no REAL reform. Without reform, Guatemala will not re-open after 1 April 08. While the above posters have shown a certain amount of relief about Dateline, I'm personally disapointed, but it is a start. Now...I want the "rest of the story".

Thank to you, Troy and all the Guatadopt team for everything you do.....I too thought the Dateline piece had alot more balance than we've been hearing lately from the media. Then when I got on Guatadopt, there was your well thought out piece, Kevin and an invitation to the Dateline viewers to learn more. Well done!! You guys are wonderful!

Closeup footage of our son appeared in this story. On the one hand it was very surprising to say the least to see him when we least expected to on national TV. On the other hand it was quite disturbing, given that it was shown in between talking from this corrupt lawyer in Antigua, a lawyer who has absolutely nothing to do with our son (being cared for in Guatemala City).

The Dateline report showed just the tip of the iceberg. While corruption may not be the norm, it is far more widespread than anyone here seems willing to acknowledge. Myself and others have advocated for reforms, effective enforcement and the adoption industry taking a stand against corrupt, unethical practices for years, but our calls went unheeded and now we have the Ortega Law and the virtual shutdown of Guatemalan adoptions.

Why am I not surprised that Tedi Hedstrom, who once breached client confidentiality to me, was involved in the attempted placement of a kidnapped child? When she had TediBear Adoptions she worked with the infamous deported Vietnam facilitator, Mai-Ly LaTrace, lost her FL license, went bankrupt in GA, only to resurface in no time as Adoption Blessings Worldwide. Now she worked with Mayra, a kidnapper. Seems like she still can't pick an ethical facilitator. I can't belive the family shown in Dateline is still working with her.

I disagree with Troy. We should not be adopting more of Guatemala's children, We should be advocating for family preservation efforts ahead of adoption. Isn't it better to keep families together rather than split them apart with adoption?

I thought the piece was fair for the most part but I was disturbed by the whole bit about scratching a history of child molestation from a home study. I though this was highly irresponsible on teh part of Dateline.
First of all, any convicted child molester would have a police record, which as far as I know can't easily be doctored. Anyone else who was trying to adopt a baby would of course never volunteer anything about suspected child molestation to a social worker --- maybe they ought to, but they wouldn't. So, the convicted child molester is out of luck, regardless of what the corrupt facilitator says.

Dear Troy, Kevin, Kelly, Meredith, and Marie and anyone else at Guatadopt, Thank you so much for your hard work. Troy, God bless you and your family. You represented the adoptive families so well. My husband and I can't thank you and your family enough. I am also thankful to the brave folks who discussed their adoption nightmares with that corrupt facilitator. I'll pray for all the families whose adoption dreams have been destroyed by the small minority of rogue facilitators and agencies. I also hope those corrupt facilitators and agency directors will be sent to jail for life. I won't hold my breath, however. Thank you!

Honestly I thought the whole dateline peice was a bunch of crap. it was poorly done and focused mainly on this facilitator who was banned by the US Embassy. Sorry I am not buying that you can forge a homestudy when fingerprints/criminal background checks are done for two sometimes 3 different legal entities. INS, FBI, state police clearances. I blame the agenct for this crap not the facilitator. We all know the system is flawed and there is room for corruption - heck there is corruption in all adoption systems if you really look. this story was one sided and sesationalism at its best. I lump it in with all the other stories out there that have been portrayed Guatemala adoptions as this deep dark place. downright makes me mad - what about all the ehtical adoptions which are the higher percentage and all those wonderful children who now have better lives and parents who love them.

Although I thought the dateline piece was well done, doesn't it make you wonder just a little bit about our kids. Yes a majority of us had ethical adoptions, but as someone pointed out in a previous post, sometimes agencies do not really no the truth. It breaks my heart to wonder if my DD's birth mother did this for the right reasons. I can't imagine other's are not wondering the same thing.

My husband and I have a daughter adopted from Guatemala in 2004 and are in process for a baby boy from Guatemala and it is heart-wrenching to say the least. I have mixed emotions about the Dateline story. The sheer fact that 3 children were kidnapped, abused, malnourished in an effort to capitalize on a family wanting nothing more than to have a family is just beyond me. It is a hard pill to swallow but I know it happens and not just in Guatemala-right here in the USA.

I believe that Dateline did an ok job representing the story and that was there were families that had been taken advantage of and children that were stolen. It is sad and disgusting that a few bad people abuse the system for profit. We know that the majority of children adopted from Gautemala are not stolen but like in the peice their are a few that ruin it for the rest of us. I am truly sorry to the families and the children that have been abused by a corrupt few.

We as adoptive parents need to be voice for the children an advocate for reform for the good. Allow these children a chance at a forever home if that is what their first families so desire. We also need to be an advocate for change in the infrastructure of the social welfare system in Guatemala. I believe there is nothing more heartbreaking than a mother having to make an adoption plan for her child due to poverty. However, that is the reason that our daughter's birthmother did so and most likely our sons too. It is a bittersweet reality and like so many that have been touched by adoption, try to give back to the great country that we have come to love and is a part of our everyday life, Guatemala.

TO DAVID K.

Adopting parents don't split families.Adopting parents give a loving family to human beings which very probably would die in their first years of life.Family preservation can not work all the time in countries like Guatemala.

I know the situation very well: my wife is from that country and seveal times we were there to visit her family. Last time we spent two months traveling around. Nobody wants to adopt more children than the ones that are up for adoption anyway. Our son is in an orphanage. He was abondoned in 2005 and was declared adoptable in 2007 after his picture was shown on TV and newspapers ( during a period of time of two years ) and no one came forward to claim him as son or as a relative.We got the referral when he was already declared adoptable by a Guatemalan Court of Law;I am wondering which family we are splitting. I have a question for guys like you: Beside talking, what have you done so far to really help the people in need of that Country.

Vince 2008

Kevin,

Is Teo still banned from the Embassy? Do you know what charges were brought back in 2005 and if they were proven? I've tried to resesarch and found nothing except your post back in 2005.

I am curious as we are one of the families whose agency used Teo. Our problems were with our agency (one of those shown on Dateline). It was Teo who got our precoius baby home ths past fall. In our case, the lies, deceit, withholding of funds and extortion, were on the part of our US agency.

Trying to see through my extreme gratitude to Teo, it sure seems he was set up. The whole world now thinks Teo would place a child with a molester and that seems rediculous. Teo was told by a lady posing to be an agency, about a person who was accused, not convicted. It would be nice to see all that was edited out.

As always, my prayers are with all those still waiting to bring their babies home. Kevin, thank you for your dedication to Guatemalan adoption.

Kim Wilhelmson

The segmaet producer of Dateline contacted us months ago to discuss our experience with our adopion. Personally, I am a little upset that Dateline did not focus more on the US players....Reaching Arms International stole thousands of dollars from us and told us nothing but lies from the jump. Nila & Tom Hilton knew full well what was going on and Blanca Martienez was just a pawn in their game. I'm glad to see that Dateline featured a small bit of RAI, but not nearly enough. they should have also told more on Waiting Angles and how that agency ruined so many families dreams.

I pray that someday Tom & Nila Hilton get everything that is coming to them. I hope that everyone that has been effected by corrupt Guatemalan adoptions fined peace and healing. And I hope that Dateline continues to expose those dirty, nasty, scam artists for what they are. Peace to all in the fight.

The segmaet producer of Dateline contacted us months ago to discuss our experience with our adopion. Personally, I am a little upset that Dateline did not focus more on the US players....Reaching Arms International stole thousands of dollars from us and told us nothing but lies from the jump. Nila & Tom Hilton knew full well what was going on and Blanca Martienez was just a pawn in their game. I'm glad to see that Dateline featured a small bit of RAI, but not nearly enough. they should have also told more on Waiting Angles and how that agency ruined so many families dreams.

I pray that someday Tom & Nila Hilton get everything that is coming to them. I hope that everyone that has been effected by corrupt Guatemalan adoptions fined peace and healing. And I hope that Dateline continues to expose those dirty, nasty, scam artists for what they are. Peace to all in the fight.

You did an AWESOME job Troy. I think dateline did a better report than many others have by showing you and adding a bit of the whole picture at the end. They still need to do more though... very frustrating, I don't know how many times after each of these reports that come out like this people I know who should know better ask questions about the people involved in our daughters adoption.

I watched the Dateline Program because while I have only adopted from China I wanted to watch to see how the media spotlight on international adoption would be done. For no matter what Country somone choses to adopt from, no matter how different the process may be, we are all parents of these children from a far who are the blessings in our home.
I was of course concerned watching it at first as it is the public who has never been touched by adoption will assume the worst of international adoption because they watched 1 hour of TV.
I know that when any of these shows come on usually the worst is shown which is never the norm in adoption. But I was comforted by you being on the show last night what you said is what we all feel in the adoption community. My only hope is that "the Public" remembers it. So thank you.

Please note: We will NOT post personal attacks on families. You are welcome to disagree RESPECTFULLY. If you have a question about our commenting rules, click the questionmark to the side of the comments.

My opinion: The Dateline piece took a few stories & their hidden camera expose of one facilitator and generalized it across all Guatemalan adoptions to some extent (in spite of closing with Troy & Guatadopt)...the impression they would have left with a viewer not experieced with Guatemalan adoptions is that majority of the facilitators & US agencies are corrupt, most of the children are stolen or kidnapped....Guatemala, not a good place to adopt. To that end, I think Dateline did the story a disservice.

Regarding the faciliatator they focused on, they did a good job of tearing him apart..it was well deserved.
Many questions still remain unanswered:
1) what is the accountability of US agencies?
2) How involved should US Embassy/US authorities be in policing the US agencies...
3) How are the new regulations going to prevent kidnapping/baby for sale mentality...they did not spell it out..

Teo was an easy story to sell/sensationalize. I am disappointed in Victoria that she took the easy road....there definitely was a much more poignant story to be told here...about the 30K children dying in Guatemala each year & how the new rules will impact the 4000+ adoptions that were happening each year...the thousands of children who are the result of legal/above board adoptions that have found happy families....

the story definitely lacked depth & balance...sorry, did not make the cut in my opinion..

Sri

Dear "Close to Home", if your referred child was pictured on TV with a "corrupt lawyer in Antigua" (I am sorry, I do not recall this from the show - I wonder if you are referring to the facilitator Dateline highlighted), you might want to at least consider the possibility that this person is indeed involved in your adoption. Because he is a facilitator rather than an attorney, his name will not appear on your official paperwork. just a thought, Lisa T.

We do not feel the piece was well done overall. There are some obvious problems in Guatemala, and Guatemala as a country has decided to reform and only time will tell how adoptions and their country's children with fair through the process. I started out the adoption process three years ago in El Salvador when they finally re-opened after 7 years, shutting down 7 years ago similar to Guatemala now. Needless to say because of changing requirements and the system in El Salvador I switched to Guatemala. Dateline really did not spend anytime on the adoption process, or how the new laws will change the country and the need for services to care for their children.
I was very frustrated at Dateline, I saw my daughter and my heart was hurting for her. They did not explain all the safe guards in place for adoptions and the process. Using Teo for 2 adoptions in the past 2 1/2 years, my sister is using him for two adoptions and friends I have met, I felt that they found a well known figure and tryed to "corner him" for media gains. I too would like to see the unedited versions because I cannot believe he would allow a child molester to adopt. These types of TV news shows never air the positives, it never is fully honest and it hurts innocent families with their spinning stories.
Besides the being banned in 2005, which I have not been able to find any information on except the one posting on Guatadopt and knew about prior to last night. If there were illegal happenings, issues wouldn't there be reports or written proof? Where is the proof, where is the reason for the banning? Was it a one time thing? Could you find 4 clients from every adoption agency that were dissatified..what are both sides of the story? I don't know really, I just question everything on TV now, all I do know is that we had good experiences, we had wonderful foster moms (who we still email), DNA tests completed, I paid regular fees, we do not feel that we were lied too or anything dishonest happened, and we visited Guatemala 7 times and always had good meeting with Teo. And I even got to meet the birth mom when she was pregnant with Andrew because she requested that if possible her children were kept together. She was nice and thanked us for caring for her children. (She was 18/homless/dropped out of school). And during our second visit, Kate became ill (ended up being a virus), I called Teo about the throwing up, he picked me up at the hotel, took me to the private hospital for treatment for Kate, waited with me, paid the bill and brought me back to the hotel. I didn't even ask for the medical care, he offered it right away when I said she wasn't feeling well. It is so frustrating this piece and makes me worry for all adopted children and what the "uneducated" general public will say/think/do with our daughter and son because of their adoption.
Troy, thank you. You were very positive. And I love guatadopt, it is a wonderful site and I have learned so much reading it over the years.
I just felt like I needed to say something for myself, my family and our children.

Wow! Your closing commentary was as if it were right out of my mouth! I was reading this with my son asleep on my lap and a Pacha in my hand and got all choked up! My son is my life, I am a stay-home Dad and cherish every minute with him. I hope things get better for adoptions in Guatemala because we would love some brothers/sisters for Christian and those beautiful children deserve better than the life they will get with no adoptions. I am sad for the Foster Mothers that are now un-employed like ours is, for the reputable Para-Legals and Lawyers who cry when they see 'their baby' go home with us (like ours did) and especially for the children who may have a much more difficult life if any at all without families like ours to raise them.

I worked there for 6 months and saw the 8 year olds hanging off the side mirrors of buses going to Antigua, no shoes, tattered clothes dangling from mirrors of dilapidated buses risking their lives to get from their shanty to a place where they could beg or shine shoes... I look into my son's ojos and am happy there is one less child who who will live that life.

Thanks again for the support through our process and now esp. with the people who's only desire is to cast a dark shadow on an otherwise once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Joe

David K,

I applaud your efforts with the adoption agency checklist and your Yahoo group. I think both are worthwhile and unfortunately, necessary. I also agree that effective enforcement should have been used and could have avoided so many of the problems highlighted in the Dateline story.
However I strongly disagree with your implication that Guatemalan adoptions are needlessly splitting apart families. (If that's not what you meant, please explain because that is how I read it.) Adoption is a symptom of the epidemic of poverty in Guatemala. Focusing on family preservation won't do much good until more efforts are made to alleviate poverty. Many PAPs participate in charities (or have founded charities) that are educating children and providing employment. Efforts ARE being made to break the cycle of poverty/adoption, and I think they deserve more credit than you give.

KarenMS1,

You always seem to slant things as negatively as possible and engage in questionable assumptions.

No system is perfect. Here in the US, there are all sorts of problems in both the public and private systems of adoption, including inadequate counseling, corruption etc. So, do you think we should do away with foster care and adoption, since both systems arbitrarily and disproportionately affect poor people without much of a voice or influence in our society?

Again, there is no such thing as a perfect system. The best you can hope for is a system with decent oversight and enforcement mechanisms -- the Dateline piece actually showed how our own government, with all its power and money, is unable to police adoptions on this end, as well as in Guatemala (how is Teo still getting cases through the embassy if he was banned in the first place?)

You unfortunately have a strong ideological bias against international adoptions and buy into the UNICEF line of thinking, even while children languish in substandard state care all over the world to please anti-ICA zealots.

Lee

I dont believe the point about Teos suggestions regarding child molestation charges was to show the only check on us as parents is whats written in our homestudy [which we all know is untrue, I believe they mention on the show but could be mistaken, that theres more to the process]. The point was to show you behind the nice smile and assurances he is not a nice man. His comments not only showed no concern for whether PAPs are fit to be parents but he went as far as suggesting hiding evidence and bribing local, state, and federal authorities to alter criminal records [a great way to visit Leavenworth if anyone is interested]. I suppose he could have said "just kidding" at the end but that would be like Gotti saying "we ought to whack the guy.. just kidding".

I was shocked to see Teo on Dateline. Our son went into respiratory arrest at a month of age due to a virus. He ended up getting a blood clot in his left leg which had to be amputated. Teo made sure he was taken care of at the private hospital in Guatemala City. Teo took us to see him everyday on a 5 day trip to visit our son during this time. He paid for all the cost and dropped his fee. He also assisted us with the adoption of a female child with no fee paid to him. We visited our children 7 times over a period of 14 months. Teo took us to see our children's physician several times. The physician we used helped to get
our child into Shriner's Hospital so my child could receive the best of care. We have met several different foster parents that he uses. They seem to take great care of the children. I believe Dateline did an injustice to Teo. There was no documented reason on why he was banned from the Embassy presented. I do not believe that he would ever place a child into a convicted child molester's hands. Their are a lot more problems with the agencies that are used for adoption than with using Teo as a facilitator. He was very kind to us and we will always be thankful to him.

Lee:
Have you missed the fact that there is a post on this site as to a missing child? This is not the first time a missing child has been searched for with help of Guatadopt. For me, that is enough evidence to be negative about the situation in Guatemala. However, there is far more evidence that could be presented and unfortunately Dateline missed the mark. Now, I know that you will say that all of the well adjusted children who are happy and healthy with their families here in the US is evidence enough for something positive. Well, since you have followed my previous posts you know that I have never questioned that as a fact. That is not where my concern lies. I'm worried about fraud, deceit, and human tragedy. When the Dateline segment showed the mother of the missing child talking of being threated for speaking out (her child being chopped into pieces and thrown upon her home), I was so very disturbed. Unfortunately, this demonstrates the impact of organized crime on one family that is just trying to scratch out a life with their children. I am compelled to advocate for all of the families who have something to fear if they speak out. It is time for reform and denying the real issues is counter-productive to obviously needed reform. Again, those issues are (1) illegal payments to birth mothers, (2) dual attorney relationships paid for by US families, (3) jaladoras making $5,000 per child in a country without enough infants to quench our insatiable thirst for young children--thus coercion, (4) falsified documents to make the children "orphans" for visa purposes, (5) facilitators who educate agency directors how to 'get around homestudy requirements', etc. If you can live with those problems, then you and I clearly have different points of view and potentially a difference of values. Personally, I cannot stomach the fact that organized crime has such a strong hand in Guate adoptions and someone needs to speak out about that and I had hoped that Dateline would have done a better job. Of course, they would need to dedicate at least an hour to capture the corruption and network TV does put limitations on such a documentary. So, we saw a slice and we know about a slimy facilitator, a holding area in Zona 1, and the fact that jaladoras exist. Okay...and the "rest of the story" is...even more troubling.

Close to Home - close up footage of our son also appeared on the show. It has caused confusion, and I have already had 2 people ask me if that means that "that man" is handling my adoption, when in fact our adoption has nothing to do with the facl or any of the agencies named on the show. Dateline went to a couple of the nicer hogars in GC and took some footage. It is unfortunate that they chose to mingle it in with the stories of corruption.

Let me explain and clarify my earlier comment that has come under question here. I did not say adopters split families apart. I said adoption splits families apart. Just read David Smolin's work or ask the members of Origins USA or look at how many children are made adoptable through corrupt practices in many different countries. My comments on this were not necessarily Guatemala specific. Also, efforts at family preservation must be part of an overall plan that puts processes in place to do that, whether through NGO's, governments, or both. Certainly, efforts to alleviate poverty can only help efforts at family preservation.

Long ago, I proposed that a portion of adoption fees be set aside to help provide social services in impoverished sending countries. While a great many adoptive families admirably do give back to the sending country in one way or another, there are still a great many adoptive parents who show their sense of entitlement and only care about getting "their" children home. Once that goal is accomplished, their children's homeland often becomes little more than a vacation destination.

By the way, I don't have a Yahoo group. Adoption_Agency_Research is not mine and while I'm an original member of PEAR and a member of it's board, I'm just one of many contributors to PEAR.

Troy, I watched your video and you have a lovely family. I do have a question. How are you sure that with the child you lost through RAI and Blanca, that you were told the truth when you were told that the mother reclaimed the child?

Karen,

No one, least of all I, disputes that there were problems in the system. The problem I have with your approach is that the problems you cite are part of broader systemic problems in Guatemala -- organized crime, corruption, exploitation of women, etc. Shutting down adoptions may make you feel better but it will leave the broader problems unresolved -- and hurt lots of kids in the process.

One thing I disagree with you about is the jaladoras. There are a lot of people far more knowledgeable than me on the Big List -- people who believe that the system had problems and needed reform -- who nevertheless believe that, in many cases, they played a useful and important role in the process.

The solution to the problems in the system really was quite simple, in my opinion -- enforcement, enforcement, and enforcement. I for one had to laugh as I was watching the Dateline problem. The US embassy banned Teo and yet he was still sending tons of cases to the embassy, and getting them approved, two years later. That bodes really well for how well the State Department will be able to police agencies under the Hague.

The approach of "adoption reformers" baffles me on some level. I'm involved in regulation in my line of work. If we took your approach to problems in my line of work, I can tell you that we as a country would be faced with severe economic difficulties the likes of which you can't even imagine. When we uncover problems, we prosecute and enforce -- we don't go throwing out an entire system because of some bad apples.

David K.,
Although it is really none of your business, I'll entertain your skepticism with what took place in regards to our "switched" children.

You ask how I know she reclaimed. Well, whether it was a dispute over money, personalities, etc.. our first referral's mother requested her child be returned to her. As a result of this, Blanca Martinez placed the child in the custody of the Minor's Court. Once custody changed, the Minor's Court placed her in an unnamed orphanage. Upon uncovering this information, we were given documents directly from Blanca Martinez's office that indicated the little girl had been moved to Mi Hogar in Antigua. After trying to verify this through several sources, which we were able to do, we arranged to visit Mi Hogar to see for ourselves. We were fortunate enough to visit with her for a couple hours - it was very emotional to say the least.

As a result of this visit and an uncertainty on "why?" the biomom reclaimed, we tried various routes to get this child out of Mi Hogar and into the custody of an hogar that could or would handle the adoption if she was indeed adoptable. I'm sure you're well versed in the impossibilities of getting these children out of these homes, so I will not go into detail here.

To make a long story short, we completed the adoption of Amaya (the child brought to us on our visit) yet maintained a "tracer" on the first girl. We were able to verify that her biomom did indeed get her from Mi Hogar and took her to a city outside of GC. At that point, we lost track of her for a couple months until we were notified by the US Embassy that a "runner" had inquired about this particular child's adoption status. Knowing we would be notified ,due to not withdrawing our I600a from the U.S. Embassy, we had a gut feeling she would be placed for adoption again. Remember, we were dealing with people associated with Blanca Martinez.

Unfortunately, we never heard another word. So, yes the biomom did indeed reclaim. As to the fate of the little girl we are still uncertain.

Anything else?

Troy

I’m very sad to hear any posts continuing to say that there are only a few rotten apples. There seem to be a growing number that we are aware of and sadly, likely many more.
--There was Mary Bonn, there was a December BBC report where the 16 year old birthmom explained that she was told that if she wanted her baby back she had to repay all her medical expenses and that her boyfriend would be arrested, Adoption Partners, Waiting Angels, Reaching Arms International, Blanca Martinez, Teo, Adoption Blessings Worldwide (Tedi Hedstrom), and now the most horrific situation - three kidnapped girls in the Dateline report…

Many of the posts say that most adoptions are ethical, but how many unethical adoptions are acceptable? Do we accept 10 or 20 percent that are unethical? How unethical? Is falsified paperwork (seems to be very common) OK? If there are 1000 ethical adoptions is it OK to have three girls kidnapped? I hope I hear a resounding NO!
I know I’ll get screamed at for this post but I think we need to do a little soul-searching.

Lance, I'm glad to hear that you had a good experience with Teo but that is not the case with many people. It is unfortunate that the Embassy has not disclosed why he has been banned but since he has indeed been banned, he should not be handling US adoptions. I'm sure you would feel differently about him if the Embassy had found out he was handling your case and then did not process your adoption. I know a lot of families who are in the process of adopting through Teo have now found out too late that he is banned from the Embassy and are now worried about whether or not the Embassy will stop their adoptions. Not to mention the worry of why he was banned and what kind of treatment your adoptive children are getting through him.

On a slightly different note, while I know that most people here disagree with UNICEF when it comes to intercountry adoptions, I must say that I see their point. If the US government and the Guatemalan government does not have the man power and follow through to see that these adoptions are legal and ethical, then should we really be throwing caution to the wind and continue to feed the need for more children to adopt? I agree that, ideally, there should be a complete overhaul in the system but PAPs even complain about that and the inconveniences and the time it takes to implement such reform. It seems to me that if these two governments cannot handle the number of adoptions taking place then there should be fewer adoptions taking place, not more. If that means cutting adoptions down 50% or more, isn't it worth it to make sure that children aren't kidnapped and that corrupt facilitators aren't handling these cases?

I thought the following news bulletin from the web was interesting because of our hope that stepped up enforcement would catch the adoption criminals.

“UN officials would offer support for investigations into organized criminal activities in Guatemala, a UN official said in an interview published Saturday, according to reports reaching here from Guatemala City. "This will be the first time that the United Nations participates in criminal investigations," Guatemalan daily El Periodico quoted Lynn Pascoe, UN undersecretary general for political affairs, as saying. “

If the UN is being called in to deal with organized crime in Guatemala, solving the adoption problems through enforcement is probably a long way off…

kl,

No fear, you are "preaching to the choir." With no governing body for any entity involved in Guatemalan adoption, we have allowed some to believe they are "untouchable" no matter what they do.

That time has come to an end for some, and there are a few more to "get."

No level of "illegal" activity in an adoption is acceptable. How we quantify it is very "gray," however

In regards to US Embassy "bans." They simply do NOT disclose the actual evidence supporting a ban. You can make an educated guess that it is far more than just "doctored" paperwork.

Since I feel no "threat" from anyone these days, I can tell you that "banned" individuals are "classified" in some form or fashion. In our case with Blanca Martinez, she was classified as a "smuggler" and her visa to the U.S. was revoked. Now, for David K. 8) I know this as 2nd hand information from someone very close to Blanca at the time.

Hi everyone:

I think it is important for everyone to take a step back and look at the holistic picture here. In my experience, the media usually does more good than bad with stories like this one. It is not fair to so harshly criticize intercountry adoptions. Poverty is no easy fix. Look at many other countries all over the world, and you will find the same problem. I spent a year in Iraq as a nurse in the ICU. I like to think of that experience as God's way of humbling me. It made me truly appreciate this country and the fact that I have a roof over my head, enough food to eat and shoes to walk on.

My husband is originally from Bolivia, and he described a common theme throughout Central and South America. He explained there is a small percent of the population, mostly of European decent, which control 80% of the country. The majority is poor.

Stopping adoption is not going to fix a World-wide problem. Mother's will still give up there children and children will still die of starvation. Anyone willing to take on AIDS in Africa? It is simply a more complex issue that will take generations to improve. Until then, you cannot morally leave these children to wait for political and economic stability. I do agree Guatemalan adoptions need reform, but not to the point where international adoption is not an option. For some of these children, this is the only chance they have at reaching adulthood. Think of the bigger picture before you say that adoptions break up families. Adoptions build families and in many cases, even in domestic adoptions, give children a chance at a life they would not have otherwise known.

SEL

I do have so much to say....but tonight I am just too tired just getting home from Guatemala...I will say that I REALLY would like to see the unedited version of the interviews with TEO...I can tell they cut it up. I think they picked a very easy target...who makes himself very available to the adoptive parents and foster families...out of his love for the kids in Guatemala. I agree more blame should be at the american agencies. I think it is so sad that they showed these foster mothers on national TV, when we all have heard that many foster moms are targets of police coruption in Guatemala. There are so many more things about Guatmalan adoptions they could have touched on instead of targeting one man. I do not know of a Faclitator or Attorney in Guatemala who have not had a few complicated cases. I am very glad they let Troy talk for like 2 minutes...I mean really why not give more time to the postive part of the story...why??? because it does not sale or get viewers. Why did they not read the responce Teo wrote them? Why did they not interview any familie happy with Teo? I am going to watch this one more time before I really get going on this. I am telling you I am going to have to get on BLOOD PRESSURE MEDS....if I have to see any more bad press on Guatemalan adoptions...especially when they don't address the REAL issues.

KL,

It's nice to say that if the two governments can't get their act together then the number of adoptions should be reduced -- but why should vulnerable children be the ones to pay the price? The Dateline report did a good job of showing the misery that is the lot of many children in Guatemala.

It's not a question of saying X amount of problems/corruption is acceptable. It's not acceptable. But it's also not acceptable to be pie in the sky about this and say that if there's even one problem case, then adoptions have to end. There is no human endeavor that it is without its problems and bad apples -- but you don't grind life to a halt because of that.

To all those folks who want ICA to cease from Guatemala I challenge you to take a look at the current status of orphans in Romania. Due in part to political pressure to "make the problem of orphans and ICA go away", those placements are no longer an option for many of those needy children. Apparently at a recent government seminar a leader of social programs in Romania was quoted as saying the problem of orphans has been resolved and there are currently none present in Romania. I can only pray God will make a way for those children who have now been reclassified as non-orphans.
I believe I need to continue to support reform in Guatemalan adoptions, while helping to shed a light into the dark places of those areas where any individual in the adoption triad is being taken advantage of. I wasn't thrilled with the Dateline representation but the slant could have been worse, more focus on the positive aspects would have brought better balance. I think to shut down adoptions totally until all problems are solved is completely unrealistic. I see it as a balance between doing everything possible to ensure ethical, clean placements and not allowing innocent children to languish in orphanges or worse yet starve on the streets, being easy prey for traffickers and others intent on harm. Guatadopt, thanks for all you do, please 'keep up the good work and do not grow weary of doing good'. I remain....

Thank you Gautadopt for providing some balance to the Dateline story.

I would like to suggest the producers of Dateline look at our own U.S. adoption policies and procedures in international adoption.

It has been our adoption experience that the USA adoption agencies and the USCIS are no more organized, efficient, or concerned than the PGN or the attorneys in Guatemala.

Dateline should investigate the lack of federal standardization in our own U.S.A. home study process. Each adoption agency and each individual state has a different process for the completion of home studies. These home studies are the precursor to most dossiers. This lack of standardization increases abuse and adds time and cost to the process.

Thank you for the chance to post. Hopefully Dateline can complement their programming with further stories on adoption.

I had very low hopes for the Dateline piece, and do think it did a disservice, though I admit there was an attempt to provide some balance (Troy you did a fabulous job--no mistake made with your participation!).

I acknowledge that there is corruption and even one case of kidnapping or bribery is too much. But where were the hard and fast statistics on the percentages of cases that are corrupt or suspicious? How many cases per year are challenged or disrupted due to suspicions of fraud? How many children have been found to have been kidnapped? How many birthmothers have been found to have been coerced? These questions (and many others) would be at the top of the list for any investigative reporter. Where were the answers?

On the other hand, I am also compelled to say that it is very hard to believe that anyone would defend Teo when he has clearly swindled several families and was obviously -- no matter how edited his segment may have been -- advocating for doctoring a home study so that a sexual predator could adopt a Guatemalan child. The man is not a puppet, no one could have controlled the words that came out of his mouth.

I understand that it must be a horrible realization for people who worked with the man, but denial will not help the situation only action and your demands for justice will.

What I found interesting is that many families (since Barrios has been the head of PGN) have reported that Teo has asked for a $1500 "PGN Expedite Fee" then he freely admitted that Barrios cannot be bribed - he even said that the last PGN director you paid $1500 and you were out in a week.

I'd be asking for my $1500 back from Teo since he's clearly pocketing that money.

Troy,

Thank you for answering my query. It's good to know that when dealing with people whose honesty often leaves something to be desired, like RAI and Blanca, you were able to ascertain the truth about what happened to that first referral. That's somehing we were never able to do with the first referral we lost. My wife still has her photos and still wonders, a dozen years later, what became of that little girl.

David,

We too have photos, and we often wonder as well. It was quite troublesome to realize that it appeared she would be placed for adoption again. Not that it was a "bad" thing, but it had only been a short time since the courts had placed her back in the care of her mother, and here she was being placed again.

David K,

I think that is perhaps one of the hardest parts....dealing with the unknown. We were very fortunate in the fact that we found two people that went above and beyond to help our family find closure in our case. In our case we traveled to bring our son home with pink slip and were denied his travel visa......it is a very long painful story but in the end we had to turn the child over at the police station. I will never ever forget how that felt, nor will i ever be able to forgive the people that put us into that position. This happened in August of 2004 and it was not until this past summer that the birthmother was reunited with her child. The closure was bittersweet for so many reasons, but we are so very grateful to those that made it possible for us.......we desperately needed it. Of course we will never know the whole truth of the matter, but knowing he was back where he belonged was a huge step in healing for us. ~Pam

Concerning doctored home studies: It was interesting to me to see how much of the material from my California home study wasn't in the so called "translation" that was given to PGN. It really wasn't a translation. Instead, excerpts were taken and translated. That was interesting to me.

I am in the process of our second adoption. We too are using TEO. He has been great. Our daugher had a rash and he immediately took care of getting her to the MD and she is now doing great. He is a kind and loving man. I would hate to see his career ruined due to Dateline. Someone needs to look at the corruption of the US Agencies. That is where we are having our problems. I can not even get our attorney in the US to call me back. I have TEO's cell number. I would like to get together with other families and show the US side of corruption. Believe me, it is there.