Posts Tagged ‘Guatemala900’

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November is National Adoption Awareness Month

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Happy National Adoption Awareness Month! When Seal Press decided to publish my book, Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir, in November, I was thrilled. While writing the book, my hope was that our experience could contribute in some small way to the dialogue surrounding adoption. What better time to publish than in the month dedicated to the subject? As it turns out, the book was released in mid-October… Close enough!  

On November 1, the U.S. State Department held a briefing on international adoption-related issues with Special Advisor for Children’s Issues Ambassador Susan Jacobs. Ambassador Jacobs answered questions regarding the implementation of the Hague Treaty; adoptions from Ethiopia, Haiti, Nepal, and other countries; as well as the currrent situation in Guatemala. 

The entire briefing is worth reading and watching.  Ambassador Jacobs’ comments regarding Guatemala, quoted below, reiterate the State Department’s commitment to resolving the unfinished cases (the “Guatemala900”) that date from the Hague Treaty shutdown, in December 2007. I join the many Americans who are still hoping for resolution for those families soon.

Regarding adoptions in Guatemala, Ambassador Susan Jacobs said:

“In terms of the [Guatemalan] pilot project, every time we asked for details about it, there weren’t any. So it turned out there really wasn’t a pilot project to which – in which we could participate. And in looking at the procedures and regulations that had been put in place, not very much had changed since adoptions had been shut down. So we are trying to work with the Guatemalan Government to help them set in place proper regulations and procedures, and at the same time, close the cases that are in the pipeline. There are hundreds of cases that need to be resolved, so we’ve asked them to focus on that.”

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“Mamalita” now in a bookstore near you

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Yesterday morning I heard from my friend Paula that my book, Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir, was in stock and on the shelf at our favorite local indie bookstore, Book Passage in Corte Madera, California. As soon as I got the kids off to school and did everything else that needed to get done before I could do anything as self-indulgent as go look, I grabbed my car keys and drove over.

The bookseller at the store was very nice and pointed me to the table in front where the appealing cover of Mamalita might catch the eye of someone standing in line on the way to the cash register. (Thank you, Book Passage!) After that, he directed me to the “Parenting” section, where my book was shelved with other books about adoption: Susan Caughman’s You Can Adopt, Janis Cooke Newman’s The Russian Word for Snow, and Scott Simon’s recent Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other. Very good company, I’d say.

One of my goals in writing Mamalita was to tell a real story about adoption, and in doing so, to contribute something lasting to the conversation about the subject. The thought was subconscious, but strong:  “This is what happened to us. What does our experience tell us about the experience of international adoption?” My book existing on the shelf is the first step to our story, and the story of others like us, being heard.

Please forgive me if I’m a little too excited to see Mamalita, finally, out in the world. It’s my first book, and I’m not a young writer bursting onto the scene. As the Book Passage bookseller said, when he saw me tearing up, “Publishing your first book is like giving birth.”

So I’ve heard. Or, for many of us, adopting your first baby.

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Massachusetts woman stuck in Nepal, trying to adopt

Friday, October 8th, 2010

My sister Deanna, who lives in Boston, directed me to this story about a 45-year-old, single, Massachusetts woman named Dee Dee Martin who is trying to adopt a 4-year-old girl from Nepal. The story was reported on October 8 by WBUR-FM, an NPR affiliate. It’s the kind of situation I dreaded as an adoptive parent: midway through the process, the laws change, and suddenly you’re trapped at square one.  Sadly, the scenario is one painfully familiar to the Guatemala900, families waiting since for their children since Guatemala closed adoptions in December 2007.

Read the entire article here. Excerpts are below.

A woman from Revere is caught in an international adoption nightmare. Dee Dee Martin has been in Kathmandu, Nepal for more than two months, unable to bring her newly adopted daughter back to Massachusetts with her. The U.S. closed adoptions from Nepal because they fear some of the children are being stolen and sold.

…They can’t come back here because the U.S. won’t recognize the adoption.

Around the time Martin arrived in early August, the U.S. closed all new adoptions from Nepal. But Martin had Nepalese government approval and had taken custody of a 4-year-old girl named Bina. Martin thought families in the middle of adoptions would still be processed, but that hasn’t happened. She says the U.S. Embassy won’t give her specific information about her case and what’s taking so long.

“They just say that you are deemed as ‘inconclusive,’ and then the Embassy, because you are inconclusive, their hands are tied to issue a visa at this time,” Martin said….

Sens. John Kerry and Scott Brown co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month, saying Martin and other families are “enduring extreme emotional and financial burdens while their childrens’ cases are investigated further.”

The letter urges the U.S. government to resolve the cases quickly. In Martin’s case, she’s on unpaid leave from her job selling skin care products to salons. Her company extended her leave, but she fears she’ll be fired if she doesn’t return by Oct. 25. Despite this, Martin says she’s not leaving Nepal without Bina.

“It is absolutely not an option to leave my child in this country. I could not put her in any kind of boarding school or pay to board her back in an orphanage,” Martin said.

“My daughter is 4-years-old. She is very aware of who I am. The orphanage when we first met let her know that ‘this is your mummy’ — it would destroy her psychologically if I ever did that.”

Martin says she has police reports showing Bina was abandoned at 6-months-old, starving and with a cleft palate.

Police posted ads but nobody claimed her. She has been in the same orphanage for more than three years. Martin says these circumstances prove to her Bina is in fact an orphan and deserves to come to Revere with her new mother.

http://www.wbur.org/2010/10/08/nepal-adoption

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U.S. withdraws its letter of interest in Guatemalan adoption program

Thursday, October 7th, 2010

By now most of you who are interested in adoption from Guatemala have probably heard the news that on Tuesday, October 5, 2010, the United States withdrew its letter of interest in participating in Guatemala’s pilot program of a new adoption system.

This is a sad day for the thousands of children currently living in orphanages in Guatemala. To my knowledge, since adoptions closed in December 2007, the number of relinquishments and abandonments of children has not decreased. In addition, the number of domestic adoptions of Guatemalan babies by Guatemalan families remains small. Please correct me and point me to your source if I’m wrong.

Nevertheless, as the announcement states, the United States “believes that more safeguards for children should be in place before the CNA (Consejo Nacional de Adopciones) could start processing new intercountry adoptions.  In addition, the Guatemalan Government has not yet provided specific details for how adoption cases under the pilot program would be processed under Guatemala’s new adoption law.”

In my opinion, the best short-term outcome of the U.S. decision is found in this sentence: “It is our hope that the U.S. withdrawal from consideration for the pilot adoption program will allow CNA to focus its attention on resolving all pending transition cases. ”

This seems to indicate a desire for the resolution of the pending cases known as the Guatemala900. Perhaps now, finally, those children can begin to live their lives in homes more settled and permanent than their current orphanages. 

Read the full statement here:

October 5, 2010

On October 5, 2010, the United States withdrew its letter of interest in participating in a pilot program to resume processing of intercountry adoption placements for a limited number of older children, groups of siblings, and children with special needs.  The letter of interest had been previously submitted to the Guatemalan Central Authority for Adoptions,  Consejo Nacional de Adopciones (CNA), in response to its November 2009 announcement of this limited pilot program.  

The U.S. decision to withdraw its letter of interest is based on concerns that adoptions under the pilot program would not meet the requirements of the Hague Intercountry Adoption Convention.  Specifically, the United States believes that more safeguards for children should be in place before the CNA could start processing new intercountry adoptions.  In addition, the Guatemalan Government has not yet provided specific details for how adoption cases under the pilot program would be processed under Guatemala’s new adoption law.

The United States remains open to resumption of intercountry adoption placements from Guatemala, but will consider such a resumption only when it is confident that a Hague-compliant system is in place, including strong safeguards against abuses and resolution of the issues that led to corrupt and fraudulent practices prior to the 2007 halt in new adoptions.

It is our hope that the U.S. withdrawal from consideration for the pilot adoption program will allow CNA to focus its attention on resolving all pending transition cases.  

http://adoption.state.gov/news/guatemala.html#

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