Good Rumors...
The below comments were posted on guatadopt.com, a site we check a lot for news, rumors and comments from other people in our situation. We need some good news, but we're taking it as it is...something posted on the Internet that is not entirely official.
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Grandfathering in cases....the intent is "official"
President Berger publicly confirmed the intent to grandfather current cases (I assume this means the 3700 cases that are REGISTERED). The Guatemalan press reported this with a statement by Berger:
"I have never said that I want to stop adoptions. What my government wants is full respect for the legislation that is about to be approved and full compliance with the Hague (Convention)" . The Guatemalan Press also reported the following:
Congressman Rolando Morales, one of the proponents of the new legislation, said that the intention with the pending adoptions is a full review to verify the identity of the woman that is relinquishing the rights on the child, that she is the natural mother, and that the child is given for adoption without coercion, and verify that the child was not abducted (stolen babies). Morales also mentioned that the final version of the new Adoption Law which will be published in the following weeks will not affect the almost 3,700 processes in the pipeline.
These changes (even if they delay the process a few days) are in the best interest of everyone in the process, specifically our main concern, the children.
From Guatadopt: As we have said before, we believe that the instability of the situation and the new law (where the ammendments are still unclear), prompted the Department of State (US) to issue strong warnings.
From our discussions with Guatemalan officials, we are reassured that they are supporting the good faith agreements made with adoptive families.
While legally this is good news, we hold fast that starting the process at this time is risky. In our opinion, there is an increase in unethical practices in order to get an adoption started and "grandfathered". Obviously, these are limited to the unscrupulous providers that have soured adoptions worldwide. We do not know to what extent that further investigations will impact the timelines. While we support the need for these investigations, we hope that the implementation will be appropriate and reasonable.
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So, we were pretty happy when we read that. Hopefully soon the Guatemalan congress will come up with definite official language in the amendment, that we can count on. We talked to our agency last night and it looks like we will be going down there first part of December, hopefully they will give us some dates tonight so we can buy our tickets.
Link to Herald Tribune article
--------------------
Grandfathering in cases....the intent is "official"
President Berger publicly confirmed the intent to grandfather current cases (I assume this means the 3700 cases that are REGISTERED). The Guatemalan press reported this with a statement by Berger:
"I have never said that I want to stop adoptions. What my government wants is full respect for the legislation that is about to be approved and full compliance with the Hague (Convention)" . The Guatemalan Press also reported the following:
Congressman Rolando Morales, one of the proponents of the new legislation, said that the intention with the pending adoptions is a full review to verify the identity of the woman that is relinquishing the rights on the child, that she is the natural mother, and that the child is given for adoption without coercion, and verify that the child was not abducted (stolen babies). Morales also mentioned that the final version of the new Adoption Law which will be published in the following weeks will not affect the almost 3,700 processes in the pipeline.
These changes (even if they delay the process a few days) are in the best interest of everyone in the process, specifically our main concern, the children.
From Guatadopt: As we have said before, we believe that the instability of the situation and the new law (where the ammendments are still unclear), prompted the Department of State (US) to issue strong warnings.
From our discussions with Guatemalan officials, we are reassured that they are supporting the good faith agreements made with adoptive families.
While legally this is good news, we hold fast that starting the process at this time is risky. In our opinion, there is an increase in unethical practices in order to get an adoption started and "grandfathered". Obviously, these are limited to the unscrupulous providers that have soured adoptions worldwide. We do not know to what extent that further investigations will impact the timelines. While we support the need for these investigations, we hope that the implementation will be appropriate and reasonable.
-------------------------------------
So, we were pretty happy when we read that. Hopefully soon the Guatemalan congress will come up with definite official language in the amendment, that we can count on. We talked to our agency last night and it looks like we will be going down there first part of December, hopefully they will give us some dates tonight so we can buy our tickets.
Link to Herald Tribune article
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Jennifer
Melissa