Most of you know, we have recently adopted our son from Guatemala. It was an amazing experience. We are excited to have our son home. Unless you have adopted, you can’t even imagine what its like.
While we were down in Guatemala we met many families who were still in the process and were only visiting their children. They were still waiting for the process to finish so they bring them home. I can’t imagine how hard it is to hold your child in your arms and know that you still have to wait and come back another time before they can officially be part of your family.
We chose not to visit Mason for our adoption which means that the first time we met him was three days before we brought him home. Visiting has its advantages for sure. It gives some amazing time to bond with your child. Of course, it also has its emotional challenges due to the fact that you get to hold your baby and get to know him or her but then have to wait again. Its not hard to imagine that the waiting after the visit even harder.
The reason I am writing all of this is because some of those families we got to know in Guatemala have a potential heartbreak waiting for them. This is a heartbreak the size of, well, you can’t even measure it. Drew Moser (a friend and now one of those families I am speaking of) wrote on his blog today that there are some major issues with Guatemala adoptions as of Jan 2008. You can read the details on his blog but the basic story is this:
Families like Drew’s, who’s adoptions aren’t completed yet, may have their adoptions canceled. As I sit here and think of Drew’s family and those we met in Guatemala, I am heartbroken at the possibility. Can you imagine meeting your child and then having it taken away? Our miscarriage was hard, real hard… but this, this is unthinkable.
As Drew says, the injustice in all of this are hard to count. He writes,
- The prospect of thousands of orphans suddenly becoming un-adoptable is unjust. These babies deserve loving families.
- The prospect of thousands of American families being barred from adopting the orphans they’ve paid tens of thousands of dollars and waited months and months for is unjust.
- The prospect of NOT being grandfathered in under current adoption law is unjust.
- The fact that the U.S. DOS is doing nothing right now to help families in limbo is unjust. They are taking no steps presently to ensure that our case will be processed and completed.
What can you do? Drew offers some ideas near the end of his blog post here. If encourage you to go over to his site and help in one of the ways he presents.