Uncle Santa?

Last night was Jayden's daycare Christmas party. It's a wonderful party - lots of amazing Colombian food, singing, and of course Santa! When Santa arrived, Jayden went for the classroom...not too keen on the man in the red suit. After gifts were handed out, Mommy took the opportunity to get Jay's picture with Santa. I thought enough time had elapsed to warm up to the guy in the red suit. Well, you see the result.

Later Uncle Santa came in his street clothes and we were so excited to see him and spent much of the rest of the evening hanging with him.

Someone just woke up...gotta run!

Family Day - 2 Years!

Saturday was our 2 year Family Day celebration. We went to a new kids museum and it was wonderful. I think I have found our new annual trip for the next couple years - I am not sure how this will show up, but the floor is a map of the world and he is standing near Guatemala.

He was good for one picture and then ran out of the shot where I had him standing near NC.

Jayden is such a joy! Happy Family Day kiddo!

Concern from those in Guatemala

The last several months, I've been following the new adoption law and it's implications from several sources. I think this article sums up the concern well.

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

Some nights I don't sleep so well...

but they always seem to...

Who is really losing out

Why must we keep repeating misinformation? Why? Over the last several months Guatemala adoptions have been in the news. Most of the reporting has been poor at best and exploitive at worst.

The AP and other news organizations have reported that under the current notorial system, the notories (lawyers) are paid $30,000. That is insane. First let me explain that there is definitely an international fee...what it includes: lawyer to represent you, lawyer to represent the child, all family court fees, PGN (Guatemalan court system) fees, foster care, formula, clothes, doctors’ appointments, all documentation fees, translation fees, transportation for doctor's appointments, etc. The international fee is a flat fee regardless of how long your process takes...5 months or 1 year, it's the same. Formula, it's what we have here except there is no generic version so it's $20 per can. The lawyers are legally responsible for the children until they are adopted. They find them foster care. In Jay's case, he was in foster care, six weeks prior to my referral so that would mean the lawyer was covering the all his expenses up to that point. Let's also remember there is no insurance there so it's not like my co-pay covered his vaccines, etc. He also had a lot of additional testing, i.e. HIV, Hepatitis screenings, etc. Money is always a sensitive topic to be sure, but I think the fees I paid were more than fair. I paid for someone to take excellent care of my son. I paid for someone to see my case through the process. I paid for my documents to be translated. I paid for many services in order to bring my son home and the media seems to lose sight of that. Let’s be clear $30K does NOT go to the lawyers in Guatemala. The international is no where near $30K.

A law was voted on yesterday in a special session of Guatemalan congress. There is a sigh of relief for the most part from the families that are in the middle of their adoptions. The law is all in the name of stopping corruption and becoming Hague Compliant. I am thrilled for them, but petrified for the children who hadn't received a referral or those whose mother is starring poverty in the face and now may not have adoption as a choice. I am scared because Guatemala has no social service mechanism to handle or care for these children. The prospect of children going to an orphanage is horribly sad, but there are no state orphanages so that really isn’t an option. Remove the lawyers in favor of a central authority and in effect, you are removing the foster system as well. If they push out the private orphanages and there is no foster system where exactly will these children go?

The articles I have read how “easy” it is to adopt from Guatemala that last year alone over 4,000 children were adopted by Americans. They speak of how high that number is. I want to yell and scream at them. Do you know how many years of adoptions at that rate it would take to get to the current number of Guatemalans who have been backed into a corner to immigrate to the US illegally? Do you realize that there is a horrific trend of mothers leaving their children behind to ride the Train of Death through Mexico in hopes of making to the US so they can send money for food, clothes and school back to their children? If you haven’t read Enrique’s Journey, go get it, read it. 48,000 unaccompanied minors are making the trip each year in an attempt to find their mothers here in the US.

This new law has the potential to stop adoptions altogether from Guatemala. Most likely the best case scenario is it is going to greatly reduce them. It really is not about adoption, it’s about what is going to happen in a country that is so impoverish and has no structure to handle it. The families that were considering Guatemala as an option for adoption can choose another country. The children and their birthmothers in Guatemala won’t have that choice. Please don’t lose sight of them and that is the real tragedy being missed in the media and in the passage of this new law.

He took a bad picture

Last night I was trying to get a picture of Jayden actually looking into the camera. He's always hated the flash and so when he sees the camera, he usually tries to avoid it.

Here's Mister Photogenic...

Caught between the moon and Guatemala City

So two years ago on this date, Pop Pop, as he is now known, and I got up at 3am to begin our journey to Guatemala City.

We flew Continental Airlines through Houston. I had miles on US Airways and he had them on Continental so we both researched who could get tickets in two days and hopefully in first class. Long story short, Pop Pop won this one. Being the complete travel snot that I had become over the previous two years, I did a lot of ""your" first class doesn't have this" - it became somewhat of a joke.

Contintental still has a lot of the old school first class amenities. Real glasses and plates, table clothes, etc. It was decadent to be sure. I was shocked that they served first class even during pretty rough turbulence. They asked to wait to give us coffee so we wouldn't get burned, but yet the flight attendents were still serving...shocking. And for those that know me, this was not a fun experience here. Turbulence and I are not friends.

Houston to Guatemala City is 3 hours. We landed, gathered our things, and got on the hotel shuttle bus. We arrived at the hotel and got in line to check in. We weren't in line more than 2 minutes, when Jayden, Carmen and her family arrived.

We took over a side room in one of the hotel restaurants, ordered food, shared gifts, instructions on Jayden's schedule and went over the remaining paperwork for the embassy. It was so surreal in many ways. We said our goodbyes, lots of hugs and tears and then checked in and went up to our room.

He was mine.

2 Whole Years!

Two years ago on December 8, I got "the call". It was a Thursday morning and the caller id was from my adoption agency. I was sort of confused as to why they would be calling. I started off by asking if it was "the call" and if we had pink slip. She said yes, so I got up to walk out of the building to finish the call.

Pink slip is literally a pink piece of paper with your US Embassy appointment. I got a call on a Thursday that I had to be there on Tuesday. Our appointment was at 7:30 in the morning. At this point, I kick into PD mode - there are a lot of logistics to be nailed down... travel, work has to be covered, what to bring, etc, etc. It is also the "dawning of what is about to happen".

Grandpa and I board the 6am flight on Sunday morning to fly to Guatemala City. We got to the hotel, got in line to check in and Jayden was there with his foster family waiting for us. The two hours we spent with them flew by.

Two days later was the embassy appointment and then we were on our way home.

This is just before going to the US Embassy...