Guatemalan President stopped by Guatemalan Congress

A really good friend of mine from St. Rose found this yesterday on the guadaopt page. I thought I would make it readable for all of you. Again I thank you all for the support through this process. Without your support I, Heather, wouldn't have made it through the week. Susana, the author of the article, really watches out for our children and makes us feel like they have an angel in Guatemala watching over them. It is definitely reassuring.

Sent by Toeknee:
Hey, I was just searching the web and found this article:
September 29, 2006
THE EXECUTIVE ORDERS ARE NO LONGER A THREAT
{Posted on behalf of Susana Luarca, Asociacion Defensores de la Adopcion}
President Oscar Berger withdraw the executive orders that he planned to approve this weekend "to celebrate the Children’s Day" , October 1st. The abuse of power that he intended to do by-passing the Congress to pass the Protocol of Good Practices , which is the same UNICEF law of adoptions, and reinstate the Hague Convention, was halted by the same Congress, who warned him of the consequences of usurping the legislative power.That Berger denied to the DOS that his intentions were to suspend adoptions and take them over by his wife who directs the Secretary of Social Welfare, was expected. He also lied when he said to the press, that Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the United Nations “told him that if Venezuela gets a seat in the Security Council, there will be trouble”. Annan denies having said that to Berger.The positive part of this experience is to see that the legal system works and that we are working under the protection of the law. The rights granted by the Constitution to the mothers to relinquish their children, to the children to be adopted and to the lawyers to work on adoptions cannot be taken away, by any law or international treaty, not even by the President of Guatemala.
The next step will be to set the record straight with the people at the PGN. We have waited too long to hold them accountable for all their delays, their rejections without legal grounds and their abuses of power. The thorough review of the adoption files is their duty, to verify the legality of the process. But when the files are rejected for no reason or when the review takes not the three days that they should take, but more than a month if they are rejected and much more if they are approved , it is time to make use of the legal actions that the law supplies for cases like these and file criminal charges against them. The worst enemy of an abandoned child is time. The time that a child spends without the love of a family, hurts the child in more ways that we can think of. If the PGN does not care for the children, we have to make them to care. If we don’t do it, we will be as guilty as them.
Best regards,
Susana LuarcaAsociacion Defensores de la Adopcion
Article at http://www.guatadopt.com/archives/000501.html#000501

Guatemalan President may stop adoptions

This is an email that was sent from our agency today:
"No cases came out today. I just called Guatemala and in my phone call I learned that yes the President is trying to stop adoptions. There was another meeting today with attorneys. They are trying to stop this. The Guatemala office is stating it should not effect the cases already in PGN. The law the President put forward is to take affect on Sunday. (October 1st) However the office believes this should not stop the cases from coming out of PGN or new cases being submitted now."

I have been reading daily on the website www.guatadopt.com. It has been very helpful. The last post on their page talks about this issue in more detail. It brings UNICEF into the equation. They are not helping the situation at all from what I read. They are donating money to the country but asking Guatemala to stop adoption in return. I think it would be helpful for others to read it as well. It can be hard to under stand. Many things I do not understand but by reading the posts and adoptive parent comments it may bring some light into the subject and someone can explain it better to me/us. They say there isn't much we can do right now. Boy is it hard to sit back and watch them take our babies away. Our case is uncertain right now until we hear more. I will definitely post more news as is comes to us.

Another speed bump in PGN

I emailed Milena Tuesday and ask her if she heard anything on our case. She replied by saying 200 cases came out of PGN Tuesday. When the orphanage/attorney went to pick them up they were asked to come back Wednesday because the people in PGN were not able to enter them all into the computer. They went back Wednesday afternoon and picked up the cases that came out. Our case came out with what they call a previo or mistake for the third time. The reason for the previo was that one of the pages was numbered incorrectly. What that means is the Orphanage and/or the attorney has to correct it and resubmit it onThursday. Remember what I said about being picky? It was not what I was expecting to hear from Milena today. We were both hoping for, "your case has been signed off on and get ready to travel." I know you all are as disappointed as we are. We have no idea of how long it will take for it to come back out again. The last time it came out with a previo was at the end of August, so it took them a month. I know we can't take a whole month of waiting. With all of the prayers being said I can't believe we didn't have him months ago. Don't give up yet. Keep those prayers coming.

Signed-
A completely devastated "again" mommy and daddy

Reed got a hair cut.

We received some photos today. It looks like he had a few chickenpox on his face but not too many. Someone gave him a hair cut as well. I hardly recognized him without his long curly hair. And now teeth... We are missing so many things.

We still haven't heard anything about our case. Milena still says we are waiting for the final sign off. I have been reading a lot about this on the web and everyone's case is so different. The system is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Some cases are in and out within weeks and some have been in longer than ours. If you can believe that. We are contacting our agency every week and talking to Milena as much as possible. It is getting much tougher than I ever thought it would be. The closer his birthday gets the more anxious we become. We will update with any news as it comes to us.

September Medical Report

We haven't received any photos this month but the medical report came today. He is 16.3 pounds, 27.2 inches tall and his head circumference is 17.24 inches. It also said he either has or had varicela en resolocion, which from looking it up on the internet means the chickenpox. I didn't get an explanation of what it was so I am just going off of my own research. I wish I could have been there while he was sick. I want to be the one taking care of him when he needs a mommy. I never expected it to be so hard. There is still hope for some pictures but I don't know when. Please keep praying for us. We need them all.