Guatemala 5000

This week many, many adoptive families will be calling, writing, emailing their senators, congressmen, Unicef and the Joint counsel on behalf of the 5000 Guatemalan babies who have been referred to forever families here in the States. At the end of this year, President Berger is shutting down all adoptions from Guatemala until the US ratifys the Hague Convention.

Families may just have received a referral or they may almost be complete with their process and regardless, these families would go on hold for an undetermined amount of time. The US is supposed to ratify late spring so on the surface, it appears it would add an additional 4-5 months to the waiting process. There are approximately 5000 children that would be impacted by this...either staying in foster care or hogars.

Apparently this is only the tip of the iceberg... I've spent as much time as possible over the last week researching what I could on-line, especially after the Anderson Cooper show on CNN. Without going into a huge rant, that was some of the poorest reporting I have seen in a very long time. Research would have gone a long way but then accurate does not always sell.

http://www.adaguatemala.org/English/news/

taken directly from the website - please follow the link and read the timeline...

LAST NEWS
The dreadful Ortega law was approved by Congress in its third reading today, Wednesday October 3rd. 2007. The final reading and actual approval will be next Tuesday. ADA is meeting with all lawyers and adoption agencies representatives this Saturday to present the emergency plan. Constitutional challenges are being prepared and we are ready do to everything that is necessary to get the transition cases home and adoptions open for the children of Guatemala. The law could take thirty days to become effective, but it could take more time. It is still undecided.
There is no question that there is a way to make millions of dollars with adoptions. Simply by making them impossible, UNICEF is rewarding our president with a 28 million donation for this accomplishment, with the complicity of the congressmen. UNICEF is using the money of the taxpayers of the First World to eliminate poverty in our Third World country, by eliminating the children of the poor, because as the UNICEF delegate said: the underdevelopment of a country begins in the uterus of a poor woman. Genocide is not a crime of war. UNICEF is showing us how it can be done, without any risk for the perpetrator. We will not remain silent while they do it. That is a promise.
ADA asks of those of you who would want to help adoptions in Guatemala to join your efforts to ours. Contact your adoption agency and they will let you know what can be done.

The concept that adoptions could be forever stopped in Guatemala is gut-wrenching. I look at my little guy and cannot fathom the privilege it is to have him in my life. He is amazing and his birthmother is one of the most courageous people I know. The Guatemala 5000 could lose a second family as a result of what is happening. The countless others whose mothers only want the best will no longer have adoption as an option.

Please, please pray tomorrow that this law will not pass. There will be thousands of children (not just the 5000) who will be caught in the crossfire of this law.