The Story Thus Far
Many of you are aware that we've encountered delays in our adoption. Some of you have some details, others fewer. It's been a confusing fall and winter. So here's our attempt at updating the story. Things are moving more rapidly these days, and we'll try to keep the blog updated. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers.
The most concise synopsis of what's been going on is that apparently the agency reviewing the records in Guatemala has some concerns about the state of mind of the birth mother.
To date they (PGN, the Solicitor General's office in Guatemala and the Minor Birth Mother's Division in PGN ) has interviewed the birth mother on at least 3 separate occasions (without appropriate translation), and has opened (and presumably) closed an "investigation" into the birth mother's paperwork. Because of the alleged concerns that the birth mother might not have wanted to give up the baby, our facilitator offered the baby back to the family. The birth mother's father, who has the parental rights in Guatemala, apparently said that they do not want/can not have the baby in their house.
Because of the allegedly contradictory information between the birth mother and her father, the Minor Birth Mother's Division had actually recommended sending the case to the Court of Minor's. There, instead of the Birth Mother signing something to rescind her parental rights, they would go through an abandonment procedure. This would mean that Guatemala would be the parent in charge, and more likely Maria's care would be transferred to a Public Ministry orphanage, where we might never hear from her again. This seems like a horrible lose-lose situation for everyone, most certainly for Maria.
Then we found out that (almost) all of the psychologists in the Minor Birth Mother's Division were laid off, allegedly for corruption charges. This is good news because it may be that the "concerns" about the birth mother's intentions were fabricated. With this news there was now a possibility that PGN would drop the abandonment procedures and instead re-process our paperwork, potentially re-interviewing the birth mother. It would be nice to know what is in her heart when she is properly translated, so that everyone will know.
So our facilitator met with the head of PGN on Friday Jan 19th. He told her that he wouldn't make the decision, but he would pass that decision to the head of the Minor Birth Mother's Division (who apparently didn't lose her job).
So that's the current status. Our facilitator and her team of lawyers have an appointment with the head of the Minor Birth Mother's Division on Tuesday. One lawyer will argue for what is best for the baby, for the birth mom and family, and another lawyer will argue what is best for us. We'll find out then what direction we're heading and that the steps are after all this is taken into consideration and a decision is made.
We think that this is all good news, and are hopeful that the roadblocks will continue to be cleared so that we can pick Maria up soon. We want her to be home with us very badly. She is with her foster parents, and as you can see by the pictures, she is growing up and doing well.
Many of you are aware that we've encountered delays in our adoption. Some of you have some details, others fewer. It's been a confusing fall and winter. So here's our attempt at updating the story. Things are moving more rapidly these days, and we'll try to keep the blog updated. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers.
The most concise synopsis of what's been going on is that apparently the agency reviewing the records in Guatemala has some concerns about the state of mind of the birth mother.
To date they (PGN, the Solicitor General's office in Guatemala and the Minor Birth Mother's Division in PGN ) has interviewed the birth mother on at least 3 separate occasions (without appropriate translation), and has opened (and presumably) closed an "investigation" into the birth mother's paperwork. Because of the alleged concerns that the birth mother might not have wanted to give up the baby, our facilitator offered the baby back to the family. The birth mother's father, who has the parental rights in Guatemala, apparently said that they do not want/can not have the baby in their house.
Because of the allegedly contradictory information between the birth mother and her father, the Minor Birth Mother's Division had actually recommended sending the case to the Court of Minor's. There, instead of the Birth Mother signing something to rescind her parental rights, they would go through an abandonment procedure. This would mean that Guatemala would be the parent in charge, and more likely Maria's care would be transferred to a Public Ministry orphanage, where we might never hear from her again. This seems like a horrible lose-lose situation for everyone, most certainly for Maria.
Then we found out that (almost) all of the psychologists in the Minor Birth Mother's Division were laid off, allegedly for corruption charges. This is good news because it may be that the "concerns" about the birth mother's intentions were fabricated. With this news there was now a possibility that PGN would drop the abandonment procedures and instead re-process our paperwork, potentially re-interviewing the birth mother. It would be nice to know what is in her heart when she is properly translated, so that everyone will know.
So our facilitator met with the head of PGN on Friday Jan 19th. He told her that he wouldn't make the decision, but he would pass that decision to the head of the Minor Birth Mother's Division (who apparently didn't lose her job).
So that's the current status. Our facilitator and her team of lawyers have an appointment with the head of the Minor Birth Mother's Division on Tuesday. One lawyer will argue for what is best for the baby, for the birth mom and family, and another lawyer will argue what is best for us. We'll find out then what direction we're heading and that the steps are after all this is taken into consideration and a decision is made.
We think that this is all good news, and are hopeful that the roadblocks will continue to be cleared so that we can pick Maria up soon. We want her to be home with us very badly. She is with her foster parents, and as you can see by the pictures, she is growing up and doing well.
posted by Maria Anne at 11:32 AM
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