GUATADOPT.COM
News about Guatemalan Adoptions: for parents, professionals and adoption advocates.
"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." ~Anonymous
The following is a press release from Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption. It’s a great idea they have and hopefully other local groups will do the same! For more inforamtion on this project, you can e-mail Sonya at szumbiel@cinci.rr.com.
Adoptive Families Give Back to Their Children’s Birth Country on Make A Difference Day
Families from around the Cincinnati area connected through adoption from Guatemala will come together to give back to their children’s birth country on National Make A Difference Day on October 23rd. The group – Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption - will package dental kits for distribution in rural areas of Guatemala where medical and dental health care is scarce at best. The group is also planning to make fleece tie blankets to be distributed to families living in the Highlands of Guatemala where the nights can be very cold. Two mothers in the group plan to travel to Guatemala in November to distribute the items. The dental kits and fleece blankets will be put together at Church of the Savior United Methodist Church, 8005 Pfeiffer Road, in Montgomery from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm on October 23rd.
The over 30 families involved in Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption are dedicated to “giving back” to the birth country of their children. In addition to their participation in Make A Difference Day, they also collect donations and supplies at their monthly meetings to benefit various organizations in Guatemala – they have raised over $2900 so far this year. Three of the fathers in the group traveled to Guatemala to distribute textbooks and school supplies which had been donated by Cooperative for Education, a Cincinnati-based non-profit organization. And 15 or so members are planning a mission trip to Guatemala for July 2005 where they will work in a medical clinic and an orphanage for a week and take down donated supplies.
Here’s a picture of William Shelby Prewitt, clearly hamming it up for the camera at 18 months old. I have to admit, I’m really impressed at how much this looks like real sand. Well why not have an indoor day at the beach? We wouldn’t want to see William’s wonderful smile disappear because of a nasty sunburn…
For the record, William’s parents did get the permission of the studio to use this shot for this purpose
One of the greatest critics and foes of intercountry adoption from Guatemala has fallen prey to some of the atrocities which he fought against for years. He has been accused of paying a 19 year old boy for sex, and apparently has admitted to the misconduct.
Even though many of us in the adoption community have for a long time been angered at his often inaccurate and sensationalized propaganda, this is not a time to rejoice. There is at least one victim in this, the young male who had been sheltered by Casa Alianza, and we must not look beyond the harsh realities that children face through the world and the real tragedy in this.
While I am happy to see Bruce Harris gone and hope that his departure will help lead the way for organizations like Covenant House and Unicef to lobby for pragmatic adoption reform that is not detrimental to children, it would be wrong to celebrate something that hurt an innocent young adult. While I hope that this will end the barrage of inaccurate NGO reports and the media pundits that repeat them, I can’t help to wonder if this is just the beginning of finding out exactly what all had been going on and how many more victims will come forward.
When Larry Flynt, in an attempt to defend Pres. Clinton during the Lewinsky affair, began to expose the extramarital activities of conservative members of Congress, he said he did not do it because of any morality. Quite to the contrary, he said he certainly couldn’t preach morality. It was the hypocrisy that he wanted to expose. So in that regard, I am glad to see this story uncovered. Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. Mr. Harris has certainly thrown his share of stones.
It is such a shame that in today’s world there seems to be no such thing as a true hero. While I haven’t agreed with Bruce Harris on matters of adoption, I have always admired his passion and the help he worked to provide children facing homelessness, drug addiction, and prostitution.
It is truly sad to see that good scarred now with uncertainty.
This Pic of the Week is one of amazing coincidence or destiny. Pictured here are adopted siblings Lauren (2 yrs old) and Trevor (3 yrs old) who both share the same birthday in July. We’re about six weeks late but on behalf of Guatadopt.com, Felíz Cumpleaños!
September 15 is Independence Day in Guatemala, celebrating the independence of the countries of Central America from Spain! I’d like to thank my friend Traci K for writing the caption below about how the holiday is celebrated. Because she had such a difficult time finding information on how the holiday came to be, I asked a friend and comrade in Guatemala to explain it to me. He said that it came to be more through political means than through a war. Imagine that, political changes can happen without violence!!!! While there had been some uprisings and strikes against Spanish rule, they mostly only impacted the indigenous people. The real independence apparently came because the sons of the colonial Spaniards, the Españoles, born in Central America did not have the same legal rights as the people born in Spain. As a result, they opted to declare their independence from Spain. Spain did not pay much attention to their growing movement and basically let the small countries go on their merry way. At that time, Mexico annexed most of the Central American countries and a Civil War did ensue for fifteen years. Guatemala ultimately gained its sovereignty, though it did not gain all of its traditional territorial space in areas like Chiapas. If anyone can add to this or correct it, please do.
Traci's piece to the puzzle:
I have been thinking about how to celebrate Guatemalan Independence Day with our kids. We were hoping to go to the Independence Day celebration being sponsored by the Guatemalan Consulate, but unfortunately it was canceled. So I decided to search the web to see what I could find about Independence Day and was surprised at how little I found on either English or Spanish websites. I did find a little about the history of why the celebration is on September 15th and about how it is celebrated in Guatemala.
Someday I hope to experience Independence Day in Guatemala with our niños. In the mean time I will share with them what I have learned, I hope you find this information interesting as well. On September 15, 1821 Guatemala gained its Independence from Spain. This Independence Day is shared with all the other Central American countries except for Panama and Belize. Following this, Guatemala was briefly part of Mexico and then later became a part of the United Provinces of Central America. This confederation fell apart due to a war between the members that occurred from 1838 to 1840. At the end of the war Guatemala became an independent nation.
Independence Day is not a tourism draw and is not celebrated much outside of the country (like Cinco de Mayo) but is a local Guatemalan celebration. Since it is a national holiday many Guatemalans take the opportunity to travel to the more traditional tourist areas to watch celebrations. On the day preceding Independence Day the national anthem is sung with gusto in schools. The Schools, and even the school buses, are decorated with patriotic motifs in celebration. Traditionally the army of Guatemala celebrates with a protocol act and air acrobatics, usually for the audience of the President. As the day comes to a close children and adults can be seen waving small plastic Guatemalan flags in the streets and the stores are decked out in Blue and White decorations.
While Guatemala is celebrating so are the other countries of Central America. Since they all achieved independence together they also have ways of celebrating together, though many celebrate on both the 14th and the 15th. A torch, which begins in Guatemala on the 14th, travels by relay race down the Pan American Highway to Costa Rica where it arrives on the 15th. Along the route people decorate homes and schools. Children dress up in their finest school uniforms and cheer along with the adults as the runners and the torch goes by. It is a great honor to be chosen to be a runner of the Independence Day torch. As runners cross between countries borders there are cultural ceremonies with dignitaries of all the Central American countries there to honor Independence Day.
It's been an extremely busy day in the office but I didn't want it to pass without acknowledging that today, Sept. 13, is the first anniversary of the official end of the Hague Treaty in Guatemala when the decision of the Constitutional Court was published in the national newspaper.
For a few months I have been working on a book about our adoption and adoption in general. So for those of you with a few minutes to spare, here is the section I wrote for the book describing what it was that happened. As I read this just now, I couldn't help but to think of the stereotypical Grateful Dead lyric from the song Truckin: What a long, strange trip it's been....
That Pesky Hague Convention
There was something else going on with Guatemalan adoptions in general that merits a book on its own rites. After much deliberation on how to integrate this into the story, it seemed most viable to describe it on its own and then just allow the emotional agony it caused to naturally make its way into the story itself.
This “something else going on” was Guatemala’s attempted accession to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. The topic of international human rights type agreements as they relate to intercountry adoption will be focused on later, for the time being let it be enough said that these things can raise holy terror on the poor folks that get caught in the middle of a country trying to comply with one. The Hague Convention in Guatemala was no exception.
The Hague in Guatemala will be described as how it came to us as we went through it. To step back in time, unbeknownst to us, in November while we were in the middle of our homestudy, Guatemala essentially agreed to join this Convention. This in itself was not a major cause for alarm. Most countries take years to develop a system of compliance and formally accede to the Convention. Our adoption should have long since completed by the time this would happen. Then on March 13, 2003, the Guatemalan Congress made a surprise announcement that as of March 5, 2003, it had formally acceded to the Convention.
What this meant to families like ours was uncertain. Quickly, the in-process families were divided into two groups, “pre 3/5” and “post 3/5”. Determining which category you fell into was not clear for many families because of the official criteria needed to be “pre 3/5”. If the birthmother’s relinquishment, called the “first acta”, and the power of attorney were both formally registered before March 5, then you were considered “pre 3/5” and your case would be able to proceed according to the old rules. Because these two criteria were not normal milestones to parents in the process, they were generally not noted by the adoption agencies or communicated to the parents. As a result, it took many people quite some time to find out which group they were a part of.
We were clearly in the “post 3/5” group, which appeared a more precarious situation. For a few months, everything pretty much proceeded normally except for the fact that no one could ultimately get out of PGN, because there was no legal system in place for adoptions covered under the Hague Convention. The Convention itself is a bunch of principles. It is up to the country to work out the details of how to implement those principles. Guatemala had not worked out the details. So for the time being, until they enacted the new system, we were caught in limbo.
Early on in Isabel’s adoption, I wasn’t very concerned about this. The rumor in the adoption community was that a few new documents would be required and that it would all be put to rest within a couple of months. Since we were early on in the process, it would already be a few months before we got to the point of being stuck in PGN with no way out.
In June, UNICEF brought the head of the PGN (the PGN had been declared the official “Central Authority” for adoptions as is required when one accedes) to the Hague. Because of UNICEF’s public and covert attacks on adoption, we knew this could not be a good thing. When the head of the PGN returned, it became clear that he now had changes far greater than just a few documents in mind.
On July 1, a new adoption system was announced. Sort of. It was very clear on a few things. First of all, the notaries and lawyers were now out of the equation. Private foster care was to be ended and only four hogares in the country were authorized for housing children being adopted. In addition, all future referrals had to come directly from the government. All referrals for cases that were “official” (same standards as “Pre 3/5”) before 7/1 would be recognized.
Now the community was split into three groups. Even though months had passed since March, very few of the “pre 3/5” cases were being completed. Then there were the people like us who were no longer “post 3/5”. We were now “pre 7/1”. The new “post 7/1” group, while fewer in numbers, were in the worst situation. Because of what had been announced, they did not know if they would be allowed to adopt the child whose picture and vision they undoubtedly already loved.
What was not clear was how someone was supposed to receive a referral from the government, what would physically happen to the children currently in foster care, or how parents were supposed to complete the cases. We were told that all cases needed to be presented to the Central Authority, a new office located within the PGN. But since they were claiming that our lawyers and notaries no longer had any involvement and they had not made it clear what would happen next, parents realized that trying to have the files moved to this Central Authority could very well mean they were losing their only representation in Guatemala. Some lawyers did comply and turned over the files. But because of efforts underway to try to turn back the Hague altogether, most lawyers and parents waited to see what would happen to those cases that were given to the Central Authority before doing so ourselves.
A legal battle challenging the constitutionality of the Hague Convention in Guatemala now rose to new levels. There were a number of different fronts to this battle. As I understand it, one challenge had to do with the fact that the Guatemalan Constitution prevents the government from becoming party to international agreements that it was not involved in drafting. Another focused on Congress having overstepped its legal authority in acceding to the treaty. Yet another involved the fact that by naming PGN, which is part of the executive branch, as the Central Authority and leaving the implementation up to them, Congress had effectively granted legislative powers to the executive branch – an understandable no-no (except for in the United States where Congress seems happy to see the executive branch usurp its sole authority to wage war!). Finally, the Guatemalan Constitution, to its credit, is very specific in the rights of the woman to decide the course for her child. And the function of the notarial system is deep rooted in its function and purpose. What was happening here went beyond just the adoption laws, it was setting precedent. I’m still not sure how these issues combined into different formal legal challenges. The bottom line was that there were a few different challenges being brought before the Guatemalan Constitutional Court that could overturn all this Hague nonsense.
There was another front to be waged in this battle. This had to do with the nature of the Convention and I apologize for the disgustingly technical details. By definition, the Hague Convention is only valid between countries that have implemented it. The United States had not implemented the Convention. The United States had signed on to it, agreeing to implement some day. But it had not implemented it and thus adoptions between the United States and Guatemala were not covered under the Convention even if none of the constitutional challenges worked. There was hope that if the United States officially declared its “Third Party” status, everything could go back to normal until the United States eventually implemented it.
A group of lawyers banded together in an organization known as the Associación Defensores de la Adopción (Association in Defense of Adoption) and sought out the help of a reluctant Guatemalan Bar Association. One notorious and brave attorney took the gutsy and unprecedented move of keeping the parents abreast of what was happening. I venture to say it was gutsy because by doing so she was to a certain degree laying the legal battle’s strategy out for all to see. Secondly, much of what she said was her best and honest opinion. But people desperate to get their children home took this as the gospel and were quick to jump to conclusions if things didn’t go as they should. In addition, for a time these updates were done on an e-mail list known as “The Big List” with over two thousand members. Inevitably, her voluntary updates led to some uncomfortable debate and endless questions being asked of her. I’m sure that she also got infinite e-mails from parents looking for help because of some intricacy involving their case. Lastly, it created an awkward situation where many parents knew more about what was going on than did the adoption agencies they paid to represent them. For many agencies, Guatemala was a very small portion of their operations and they weren’t deeply involved in the details. This I am sure led to some of sort of schism for her openness in an unfortunately secretive industry. Nonetheless, “Thursday Updates” became a ritual for many and about the only thing they had to lust for in the week. These updates, when copied and pasted into a word file, make up anywhere from seventy-five to one hundred twenty-five pages depending on the font size.
From July through the beginning of August, the adoption system for the most part came to a screeching halt. The US Embassy stopped processing cases, refusing even to grant requests to initiate DNA tests. The cases presented to the Central Authority weren’t going anywhere and the children were still in foster care. Cases were receiving Previos from PGN for not being Hague compliant and there was no known way to be Hague compliant. Even the “pre 3/5” cases weren’t being completed. An abyss for certain! The most difficult part for most people was the fact that there was no guarantee of any end in site. Something had to break sooner or later, but which it would be was unknown.
At one point of group of ninety-seven notaries filed a legal proceeding called an “amparo” (appeal), accusing the PGN of breaking the law by not allowing the notaries to perform their duties as defined by the Constitution. The courts agreed with the notaries and if everything proceeded according to law, cases should start moving again even if the Hague challenges were still up in the air. In a symbolic way, this was also the courts agreeing that the Hague was unconstitutional in Guatemala. The only problem was enforcing the amparo. In order to do this, criminal legal charges had to be brought against those not abiding by the amparo. This took more time, money, and resources. It is worth noting that by and large the notaries did not solicit money from in-process families in order to fund these challenges, although some families did have to pay for the foster care as cases were taking much longer than expected.
On August 13, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala sided with the notaries that Guatemala’s acceding to the Hague was unconstitutional. The battle had been won, although it didn’t seem like it for quite a while. For starters, the decision would not be official until the day after it was printed in the national newspaper, El Diario de Centro América. Exactly one very long month of skeptical unease later, the decision became official. Because of the stand still that had occurred, even then it took quite a while to get past the backlog of cases that had been stockpiled.
In total, it’s estimated that 1500 – 2000 families were caught in the middle of what is now known as the Hague Fiasco. While it was a trying time, it was also a time of great solidarity in the adoption community. Lawyers, agencies, and parents were working together and much of the secrecy disappeared. Grassroots efforts of various sorts were organized. Elected officials were lobbied. Groups opposing intercountry adoption and supporting the end of adoptions in Guatemala were targeted with information campaigns and petitions. While all these efforts ultimately did not impact the outcome since the lawyers had really taken care of it unilaterally, it brought together many people, enlightened some on the politics of children, and gave others a new direction and outlook in their lives.
While the whole Hague Fiasco may only have been five months from start to finish, it seemed like an eternity to those in the eye of the storm.
As many of you know, rural areas of Guatemala have been hit with a devastating drought. A story on it can be found on Reuters.
After receiving e-mails from members of the Guatemala Adoption Community wanting to know how to directly help I did some asking around. Gregory of Hands of Hope put me in touch with a couple called the “Flames of Fire Ministry” that is doing excellent work helping those in need. According to Gregory “They feed hundreds of children in several centers. These are kids so poor that they wouldn’t be able to eat without these feeding centers. Some walk a long way barefoot just to get a hot meal...They are 100% trustworthy and it’s just the two of them with some local helpers – no overhead type of thing.”
The website for the ministry is http://www.guatemalamission.org/ and there you can find information on the organization and its feeding centers.
To donate (tax deductible), you can send a check to:
Grace Christian Fellowship Church
405 Rayford Rd.
Spring,Texas 77386
Your check should also be noted for where you want the money to go. If you wish to support the Ministry’s overall mission, the check should be noted “Larry Johnson”. If you prefer your donation to be used only for the feeding centers and not for their missionary work, it should be noted “Guatemala Feeding Centers”.
Let’s all see what we can do collectively to relieve the suffering….
Here's one of two gorgeous adopted siblings, Alondra and Mateo, showing off their farm-hand skills and down home nature. They must live in Kansas or something....
Guatemala Adoption Information and News
GUATADOPT.COM News about Guatemalan Adoptions: for parents, professionals and adoption advocates. "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." ~Anonymous
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September 28, 2004
Giving Back
The following is a press release from Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption. It’s a great idea they have and hopefully other local groups will do the same! For more inforamtion on this project, you can e-mail Sonya at szumbiel@cinci.rr.com.
Adoptive Families Give Back to Their Children’s Birth Country on Make A Difference Day
Families from around the Cincinnati area connected through adoption from Guatemala will come together to give back to their children’s birth country on National Make A Difference Day on October 23rd. The group – Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption - will package dental kits for distribution in rural areas of Guatemala where medical and dental health care is scarce at best. The group is also planning to make fleece tie blankets to be distributed to families living in the Highlands of Guatemala where the nights can be very cold. Two mothers in the group plan to travel to Guatemala in November to distribute the items. The dental kits and fleece blankets will be put together at Church of the Savior United Methodist Church, 8005 Pfeiffer Road, in Montgomery from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm on October 23rd.
The over 30 families involved in Friends Through Guatemalan Adoption are dedicated to “giving back” to the birth country of their children. In addition to their participation in Make A Difference Day, they also collect donations and supplies at their monthly meetings to benefit various organizations in Guatemala – they have raised over $2900 so far this year. Three of the fathers in the group traveled to Guatemala to distribute textbooks and school supplies which had been donated by Cooperative for Education, a Cincinnati-based non-profit organization. And 15 or so members are planning a mission trip to Guatemala for July 2005 where they will work in a medical clinic and an orphanage for a week and take down donated supplies.
Posted by Kevin at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
September 21, 2004
Pic of the Week
Here’s a picture of William Shelby Prewitt, clearly hamming it up for the camera at 18 months old. I have to admit, I’m really impressed at how much this looks like real sand. Well why not have an indoor day at the beach? We wouldn’t want to see William’s wonderful smile disappear because of a nasty sunburn…
For the record, William’s parents did get the permission of the studio to use this shot for this purpose
Posted by Kevin at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
September 18, 2004
Casa Alianza Fires Bruce Harris
One of the greatest critics and foes of intercountry adoption from Guatemala has fallen prey to some of the atrocities which he fought against for years. He has been accused of paying a 19 year old boy for sex, and apparently has admitted to the misconduct.
The story can be found at http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-honduras-childrens-rights,0,4248937.story
Even though many of us in the adoption community have for a long time been angered at his often inaccurate and sensationalized propaganda, this is not a time to rejoice. There is at least one victim in this, the young male who had been sheltered by Casa Alianza, and we must not look beyond the harsh realities that children face through the world and the real tragedy in this.
While I am happy to see Bruce Harris gone and hope that his departure will help lead the way for organizations like Covenant House and Unicef to lobby for pragmatic adoption reform that is not detrimental to children, it would be wrong to celebrate something that hurt an innocent young adult. While I hope that this will end the barrage of inaccurate NGO reports and the media pundits that repeat them, I can’t help to wonder if this is just the beginning of finding out exactly what all had been going on and how many more victims will come forward.
When Larry Flynt, in an attempt to defend Pres. Clinton during the Lewinsky affair, began to expose the extramarital activities of conservative members of Congress, he said he did not do it because of any morality. Quite to the contrary, he said he certainly couldn’t preach morality. It was the hypocrisy that he wanted to expose. So in that regard, I am glad to see this story uncovered. Jesus said “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. Mr. Harris has certainly thrown his share of stones.
It is such a shame that in today’s world there seems to be no such thing as a true hero. While I haven’t agreed with Bruce Harris on matters of adoption, I have always admired his passion and the help he worked to provide children facing homelessness, drug addiction, and prostitution.
It is truly sad to see that good scarred now with uncertainty.
Posted by Kevin at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
September 15, 2004
Photo Contest - 2005 Celebration of Guatemalan Adoptions
We are now accepting photo submissions for the 2005 Celebration of Guatemalan Adoptions.
This year, the calendar is being co-sponsored by Focus on Adoption and the proceeds will fund much needed adoption advocacy projects.
We are really excited about these calendars! We are adding many new features (such as Feature photos, Guatemalan holidays, adoption events and more).
For more information on submitting a photo, visit our 2005 Celebration of Guatemalan Adoptions Photo page.
Posted by Kelly, webmaster and founder at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Pic of the Week
This Pic of the Week is one of amazing coincidence or destiny. Pictured here are adopted siblings Lauren (2 yrs old) and Trevor (3 yrs old) who both share the same birthday in July. We’re about six weeks late but on behalf of Guatadopt.com, Felíz Cumpleaños!
Posted by Kevin at 03:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
September 14, 2004
It's Independence Day!!!
September 15 is Independence Day in Guatemala, celebrating the independence of the countries of Central America from Spain! I’d like to thank my friend Traci K for writing the caption below about how the holiday is celebrated. Because she had such a difficult time finding information on how the holiday came to be, I asked a friend and comrade in Guatemala to explain it to me. He said that it came to be more through political means than through a war. Imagine that, political changes can happen without violence!!!! While there had been some uprisings and strikes against Spanish rule, they mostly only impacted the indigenous people. The real independence apparently came because the sons of the colonial Spaniards, the Españoles, born in Central America did not have the same legal rights as the people born in Spain. As a result, they opted to declare their independence from Spain. Spain did not pay much attention to their growing movement and basically let the small countries go on their merry way. At that time, Mexico annexed most of the Central American countries and a Civil War did ensue for fifteen years. Guatemala ultimately gained its sovereignty, though it did not gain all of its traditional territorial space in areas like Chiapas. If anyone can add to this or correct it, please do.
Traci's piece to the puzzle:
I have been thinking about how to celebrate Guatemalan Independence Day with our kids. We were hoping to go to the Independence Day celebration being sponsored by the Guatemalan Consulate, but unfortunately it was canceled. So I decided to search the web to see what I could find about Independence Day and was surprised at how little I found on either English or Spanish websites. I did find a little about the history of why the celebration is on September 15th and about how it is celebrated in Guatemala.
Someday I hope to experience Independence Day in Guatemala with our niños. In the mean time I will share with them what I have learned, I hope you find this information interesting as well. On September 15, 1821 Guatemala gained its Independence from Spain. This Independence Day is shared with all the other Central American countries except for Panama and Belize. Following this, Guatemala was briefly part of Mexico and then later became a part of the United Provinces of Central America. This confederation fell apart due to a war between the members that occurred from 1838 to 1840. At the end of the war Guatemala became an independent nation.
Independence Day is not a tourism draw and is not celebrated much outside of the country (like Cinco de Mayo) but is a local Guatemalan celebration. Since it is a national holiday many Guatemalans take the opportunity to travel to the more traditional tourist areas to watch celebrations. On the day preceding Independence Day the national anthem is sung with gusto in schools. The Schools, and even the school buses, are decorated with patriotic motifs in celebration. Traditionally the army of Guatemala celebrates with a protocol act and air acrobatics, usually for the audience of the President. As the day comes to a close children and adults can be seen waving small plastic Guatemalan flags in the streets and the stores are decked out in Blue and White decorations.
While Guatemala is celebrating so are the other countries of Central America. Since they all achieved independence together they also have ways of celebrating together, though many celebrate on both the 14th and the 15th. A torch, which begins in Guatemala on the 14th, travels by relay race down the Pan American Highway to Costa Rica where it arrives on the 15th. Along the route people decorate homes and schools. Children dress up in their finest school uniforms and cheer along with the adults as the runners and the torch goes by. It is a great honor to be chosen to be a runner of the Independence Day torch. As runners cross between countries borders there are cultural ceremonies with dignitaries of all the Central American countries there to honor Independence Day.
Posted by Kevin at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
September 13, 2004
An Important Anniversary
It's been an extremely busy day in the office but I didn't want it to pass without acknowledging that today, Sept. 13, is the first anniversary of the official end of the Hague Treaty in Guatemala when the decision of the Constitutional Court was published in the national newspaper.
For a few months I have been working on a book about our adoption and adoption in general. So for those of you with a few minutes to spare, here is the section I wrote for the book describing what it was that happened. As I read this just now, I couldn't help but to think of the stereotypical Grateful Dead lyric from the song Truckin: What a long, strange trip it's been....
That Pesky Hague Convention
There was something else going on with Guatemalan adoptions in general that merits a book on its own rites. After much deliberation on how to integrate this into the story, it seemed most viable to describe it on its own and then just allow the emotional agony it caused to naturally make its way into the story itself.
This “something else going on” was Guatemala’s attempted accession to the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption. The topic of international human rights type agreements as they relate to intercountry adoption will be focused on later, for the time being let it be enough said that these things can raise holy terror on the poor folks that get caught in the middle of a country trying to comply with one. The Hague Convention in Guatemala was no exception.
The Hague in Guatemala will be described as how it came to us as we went through it. To step back in time, unbeknownst to us, in November while we were in the middle of our homestudy, Guatemala essentially agreed to join this Convention. This in itself was not a major cause for alarm. Most countries take years to develop a system of compliance and formally accede to the Convention. Our adoption should have long since completed by the time this would happen. Then on March 13, 2003, the Guatemalan Congress made a surprise announcement that as of March 5, 2003, it had formally acceded to the Convention.
What this meant to families like ours was uncertain. Quickly, the in-process families were divided into two groups, “pre 3/5” and “post 3/5”. Determining which category you fell into was not clear for many families because of the official criteria needed to be “pre 3/5”. If the birthmother’s relinquishment, called the “first acta”, and the power of attorney were both formally registered before March 5, then you were considered “pre 3/5” and your case would be able to proceed according to the old rules. Because these two criteria were not normal milestones to parents in the process, they were generally not noted by the adoption agencies or communicated to the parents. As a result, it took many people quite some time to find out which group they were a part of.
We were clearly in the “post 3/5” group, which appeared a more precarious situation. For a few months, everything pretty much proceeded normally except for the fact that no one could ultimately get out of PGN, because there was no legal system in place for adoptions covered under the Hague Convention. The Convention itself is a bunch of principles. It is up to the country to work out the details of how to implement those principles. Guatemala had not worked out the details. So for the time being, until they enacted the new system, we were caught in limbo.
Early on in Isabel’s adoption, I wasn’t very concerned about this. The rumor in the adoption community was that a few new documents would be required and that it would all be put to rest within a couple of months. Since we were early on in the process, it would already be a few months before we got to the point of being stuck in PGN with no way out.
In June, UNICEF brought the head of the PGN (the PGN had been declared the official “Central Authority” for adoptions as is required when one accedes) to the Hague. Because of UNICEF’s public and covert attacks on adoption, we knew this could not be a good thing. When the head of the PGN returned, it became clear that he now had changes far greater than just a few documents in mind.
On July 1, a new adoption system was announced. Sort of. It was very clear on a few things. First of all, the notaries and lawyers were now out of the equation. Private foster care was to be ended and only four hogares in the country were authorized for housing children being adopted. In addition, all future referrals had to come directly from the government. All referrals for cases that were “official” (same standards as “Pre 3/5”) before 7/1 would be recognized.
Now the community was split into three groups. Even though months had passed since March, very few of the “pre 3/5” cases were being completed. Then there were the people like us who were no longer “post 3/5”. We were now “pre 7/1”. The new “post 7/1” group, while fewer in numbers, were in the worst situation. Because of what had been announced, they did not know if they would be allowed to adopt the child whose picture and vision they undoubtedly already loved.
What was not clear was how someone was supposed to receive a referral from the government, what would physically happen to the children currently in foster care, or how parents were supposed to complete the cases. We were told that all cases needed to be presented to the Central Authority, a new office located within the PGN. But since they were claiming that our lawyers and notaries no longer had any involvement and they had not made it clear what would happen next, parents realized that trying to have the files moved to this Central Authority could very well mean they were losing their only representation in Guatemala. Some lawyers did comply and turned over the files. But because of efforts underway to try to turn back the Hague altogether, most lawyers and parents waited to see what would happen to those cases that were given to the Central Authority before doing so ourselves.
A legal battle challenging the constitutionality of the Hague Convention in Guatemala now rose to new levels. There were a number of different fronts to this battle. As I understand it, one challenge had to do with the fact that the Guatemalan Constitution prevents the government from becoming party to international agreements that it was not involved in drafting. Another focused on Congress having overstepped its legal authority in acceding to the treaty. Yet another involved the fact that by naming PGN, which is part of the executive branch, as the Central Authority and leaving the implementation up to them, Congress had effectively granted legislative powers to the executive branch – an understandable no-no (except for in the United States where Congress seems happy to see the executive branch usurp its sole authority to wage war!). Finally, the Guatemalan Constitution, to its credit, is very specific in the rights of the woman to decide the course for her child. And the function of the notarial system is deep rooted in its function and purpose. What was happening here went beyond just the adoption laws, it was setting precedent. I’m still not sure how these issues combined into different formal legal challenges. The bottom line was that there were a few different challenges being brought before the Guatemalan Constitutional Court that could overturn all this Hague nonsense.
There was another front to be waged in this battle. This had to do with the nature of the Convention and I apologize for the disgustingly technical details. By definition, the Hague Convention is only valid between countries that have implemented it. The United States had not implemented the Convention. The United States had signed on to it, agreeing to implement some day. But it had not implemented it and thus adoptions between the United States and Guatemala were not covered under the Convention even if none of the constitutional challenges worked. There was hope that if the United States officially declared its “Third Party” status, everything could go back to normal until the United States eventually implemented it.
A group of lawyers banded together in an organization known as the Associación Defensores de la Adopción (Association in Defense of Adoption) and sought out the help of a reluctant Guatemalan Bar Association. One notorious and brave attorney took the gutsy and unprecedented move of keeping the parents abreast of what was happening. I venture to say it was gutsy because by doing so she was to a certain degree laying the legal battle’s strategy out for all to see. Secondly, much of what she said was her best and honest opinion. But people desperate to get their children home took this as the gospel and were quick to jump to conclusions if things didn’t go as they should. In addition, for a time these updates were done on an e-mail list known as “The Big List” with over two thousand members. Inevitably, her voluntary updates led to some uncomfortable debate and endless questions being asked of her. I’m sure that she also got infinite e-mails from parents looking for help because of some intricacy involving their case. Lastly, it created an awkward situation where many parents knew more about what was going on than did the adoption agencies they paid to represent them. For many agencies, Guatemala was a very small portion of their operations and they weren’t deeply involved in the details. This I am sure led to some of sort of schism for her openness in an unfortunately secretive industry. Nonetheless, “Thursday Updates” became a ritual for many and about the only thing they had to lust for in the week. These updates, when copied and pasted into a word file, make up anywhere from seventy-five to one hundred twenty-five pages depending on the font size.
From July through the beginning of August, the adoption system for the most part came to a screeching halt. The US Embassy stopped processing cases, refusing even to grant requests to initiate DNA tests. The cases presented to the Central Authority weren’t going anywhere and the children were still in foster care. Cases were receiving Previos from PGN for not being Hague compliant and there was no known way to be Hague compliant. Even the “pre 3/5” cases weren’t being completed. An abyss for certain! The most difficult part for most people was the fact that there was no guarantee of any end in site. Something had to break sooner or later, but which it would be was unknown.
At one point of group of ninety-seven notaries filed a legal proceeding called an “amparo” (appeal), accusing the PGN of breaking the law by not allowing the notaries to perform their duties as defined by the Constitution. The courts agreed with the notaries and if everything proceeded according to law, cases should start moving again even if the Hague challenges were still up in the air. In a symbolic way, this was also the courts agreeing that the Hague was unconstitutional in Guatemala. The only problem was enforcing the amparo. In order to do this, criminal legal charges had to be brought against those not abiding by the amparo. This took more time, money, and resources. It is worth noting that by and large the notaries did not solicit money from in-process families in order to fund these challenges, although some families did have to pay for the foster care as cases were taking much longer than expected.
On August 13, the Constitutional Court of Guatemala sided with the notaries that Guatemala’s acceding to the Hague was unconstitutional. The battle had been won, although it didn’t seem like it for quite a while. For starters, the decision would not be official until the day after it was printed in the national newspaper, El Diario de Centro América. Exactly one very long month of skeptical unease later, the decision became official. Because of the stand still that had occurred, even then it took quite a while to get past the backlog of cases that had been stockpiled.
In total, it’s estimated that 1500 – 2000 families were caught in the middle of what is now known as the Hague Fiasco. While it was a trying time, it was also a time of great solidarity in the adoption community. Lawyers, agencies, and parents were working together and much of the secrecy disappeared. Grassroots efforts of various sorts were organized. Elected officials were lobbied. Groups opposing intercountry adoption and supporting the end of adoptions in Guatemala were targeted with information campaigns and petitions. While all these efforts ultimately did not impact the outcome since the lawyers had really taken care of it unilaterally, it brought together many people, enlightened some on the politics of children, and gave others a new direction and outlook in their lives.
While the whole Hague Fiasco may only have been five months from start to finish, it seemed like an eternity to those in the eye of the storm.
Posted by Kevin at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
September 10, 2004
Guatemala Drought Relief
As many of you know, rural areas of Guatemala have been hit with a devastating drought. A story on it can be found on Reuters.
After receiving e-mails from members of the Guatemala Adoption Community wanting to know how to directly help I did some asking around. Gregory of Hands of Hope put me in touch with a couple called the “Flames of Fire Ministry” that is doing excellent work helping those in need. According to Gregory “They feed hundreds of children in several centers. These are kids so poor that they wouldn’t be able to eat without these feeding centers. Some walk a long way barefoot just to get a hot meal...They are 100% trustworthy and it’s just the two of them with some local helpers – no overhead type of thing.”
The website for the ministry is http://www.guatemalamission.org/ and there you can find information on the organization and its feeding centers.
To donate (tax deductible), you can send a check to:
Grace Christian Fellowship Church
405 Rayford Rd.
Spring,Texas 77386
Your check should also be noted for where you want the money to go. If you wish to support the Ministry’s overall mission, the check should be noted “Larry Johnson”. If you prefer your donation to be used only for the feeding centers and not for their missionary work, it should be noted “Guatemala Feeding Centers”.
Let’s all see what we can do collectively to relieve the suffering….
Posted by Kevin at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
September 02, 2004
Pic of the Week
Here's one of two gorgeous adopted siblings, Alondra and Mateo, showing off their farm-hand skills and down home nature. They must live in Kansas or something....
Posted by Kevin at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)