TILL HE COMES Blog

Yes, there are problems with the Guatemala adoption process, so it is a good thing that the government is fixing and updating the adoption laws.

But, there are 370,000 orphans in Guatemala. An estimated 30,000 die every year. Of those who do not, many go into crime or prostitution. Hopefully, the new adoption laws will fix the corruption, but also make it easier for legal adoptions to continue.

See a previous post about this if you want to learn more about what Wendy and I are doing.

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2007 is behind us, and 2008 is here. I trust it will be wonderful year for all of us, even if we do have to endure the final months of the presidential race…ha ha. At least we have the Summer Olympics to look forward to.

I generally do not make New Year’s Resolutions, but I do make a small list of big things I want to accomplish in the year ahead. Here are a few of them:

• Graduate from Seminary. If all goes well, this shouldn’t be a problem. The biggest hurdle right now is finishing my thesis. I am writing on the concept of honor and shame in the New Testament. It is very fascinating and has incredible ramifications for how we read the New Testament, and how we understand eternal reward. I will post more about this eventually. I have 14 days to write about 20 more pages. The challenge isn’t the 20 pages, but keeping myself to only 20 more pages. In those 20 pages, I have to explain about 14 passages. That’s going to be a trick.
• Adopt Arianna from Guatemala. As I’ve posted previously, we are in the process of adopting a baby girl from Guatemala. We have so many prayer requests and needs for this process that it is hard to get my mind around them all. The US and Guatemalan governments needs to change their adoption laws, paperwork needs to be completed, funds need to be raised, and a million little details all need to come together. It is one of the biggest faith-growing adventures we have ever embarked upon. We are hoping to have Arianna in our home by Christmas of 2008, but this will only happen through much divine intervention.
• Figure out if now is the time to go into church planting. I know that somehow, church planting is in my future. I am not sure yet if I will be planting a church myself, or taking a church that plants churches, or just helping others plant churches. This year, I hope to gain some direction on all of that. If I am going to plant a church or pastor an established church that wants to plant churches, I am not sure this will happen in 2008. But I need to plan and prepare and stay ready for the time when God says “Go.” It may be this year!

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Below is a support letter I sent out to people on our mailing list.  

Dear Friends and Family,

We are writing to let you know of our latest joy—we are expecting our fourth little girl! No, Wendy is not pregnant. We are adopting from Guatemala. Due to the current process of adopting from Guatemala, we are hoping to bring Arianna home in mid to late 2008. Since we will get her when she is between six to nine months old, she will probably be born this spring, which means her biological mother has only recently discovered that she is pregnant.

You may be wondering why we are adopting from Guatemala at this time with all the upheaval going on in their government and since we already have three girls. The simple answer is that we are following God’s leading in our lives. Wendy and I have always wanted to adopt, and about three years ago, we started looking around for options. Through a series of circumstances (“tiny miracles”), it became clear that we should adopt from Guatemala. Factors such as the duration of the required trips, our annual income, the desperate needs of the children there, and our love for Guatemalan culture were factors in our decision.

The children of Guatemala are living in desperate despair and a nightmare of devastating poverty. Many are simply surviving off of other people’s trash, while some turn to crime. Girls especially are vulnerable to the sex trade and abusive situations. As in many countries in the world, girls are considered by family members to be less worthy of life and respect than are boys.

To make matters worse, Guatemala’s economic and health care system leaves mothers with no option but to give up their babies. Many children are abandoned in the garbage dumps or jungles while others are simply left on the streets to die.

God has put it on our hearts to make a difference in the life of one of these Guatemalan children, and we are thrilled about this call. Our conviction is that adoption is one way we can live out our call as Christians to “look after orphans and widows in their distress” (James 1:27). Jesus said that he who “receives a little child in my name receives me” (Matthew 18:5). This doesn’t mean all are called to adopt a child into their homes. There are so many ways to respond to these callings of God. But at this time, we feel God is calling us to respond in this tangible way. We all know that children are a gift from God (Psalm 127:3), and we cannot wait to receive our fourth gift from the Lord.

We began the process about four months ago by looking for an adoption agency. All God’s Children International stood out above the rest because they have an orphanage in Guatemala that is not your typical orphanage. They care for each child as it were their own (see www.hannahshopeguatemala.org)

Once we had an agency, we began the paperwork and have now completed our dossier and home study. As hard as this process has been, we still feel the hardest thing has been to realize that we can only bring home one child…for now. But great joy was found in the fact that $5000 of the cost goes to help all the children in the orphanage.

Because of the long paperwork process, and the way things can quickly go haywire, we ask you to pray with us and for us during these next few months. With your prayers, we can all be involved in bringing Arianna home. This is one way you can make a difference in a child’s life that might otherwise have been left in the jungle to die.

To help you pray for us, we have enclosed a prayer card to put on your fridge, in your Bible, or tape to your bathroom mirror so that you can remember us and join with us in this journey God has blessed us with. Once you’ve finished this letter and found the prayer card, we ask that you read and pray through the prayer card right away. We believe your prayers will be heard and honored by a loving God who is the strong defender of the fatherless and will take up their case (Proverbs 23:11).

As you have probably guessed, the process is not free. It will cost us somewhere in the vicinity of $35,000 to adopt from Guatemala. Yes, we cringed too. But then God allowed us to see it from His perspective. First, He owns everything, and makes what He owns available to us for our use when we do what He asks. Second, how can we put a price on the life of a child? Third, it is when we are weakest that God steps in to show His strength so that He might be glorified (1 Corinthians 1:26-29).

When we began the process, we did not know where the money would come from, for we definitely didn’t have it! What we were doing seemed foolish, especially on a Seminary budget. But in that first month after we stepped out in faith, God gave us peace about using all of the money we were saving to help pay for a move after Jeremy’s graduation. Then Jeremy got an unexpected bonus at work and we were also able to obtain an interest free loan. All of this added up to the $16,000 we needed to keep the adoption process going. Where God guides, He provides. He is so good! We now need $7,000 in the next two weeks to continue in the process.

God has also allowed us to be accepted into a tax-deductible program called Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries which will allow our friends and family to join with us in this grand adventure of saving a life. See the instructions at the end of this letter to learn how you can help.

We ask you to prayerfully consider being part of bringing our sweet Arianna home. If God leads you to give in this direction, you can make a tax-deductible donation to Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries. This money will be used toward Adoption expenses, and you will receive a tax receipt for your gift. The Kingdom Kids staff is available to you Mon-Fri, 9:30-4:00 (Pacific) at (509) 465-3520 to answer questions if you have them. You may also e-mail them at ministry@kingdomkidsadoption.org. Their website is www.kingdomkidsadoption.org

If you do feel led to help in this way, we wish to deeply thank you, and let you know that your reward is in heaven and your memory is in our hearts. Whether you can help financially, prayerfully, or both, we ask that you do so expectantly and expediently.

Please call or e-mail us with any questions you may have regarding our situation. We’d love to share more with you about this adventure we find ourselves in.

Perhaps upon reading this, you want to learn more about adopting a child yourself. Praise God! Let us know, because we have some DVD’s from our adoption Agency, All God’s Children International, we would love to send to you. This DVD shows the dire plight of children worldwide and introduces some of the various ways we can help these orphans. This video will challenge and change you forever.

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20).

Eagerly Awaiting Arianna,

Jeremy and Wendy Myers
(972) 659-9302
jmyers@tillhecomes.org

TO GIVE:
If you decide to assist us in our fundraising and wish to make a credit card donation, call Kingdom Kids at 877-465-3520. Let them know that this is for the fundraising efforts of Jeremy and Wendy Myers.

To make a donation by check, please DO NOT include our names anywhere on the check. IRS regulations do not allow for a tax-deductible donation to have any name other than the tax-exempt organization written on the check. PLEASE ENCLOSE a note with your check indicating your desire that your donation be used toward the adoption expenses of Jeremy and Wendy Myers.

Send checks with notes to:

Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministry
1417 North Lincoln Street
Spokane, WA 99201

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I want to thank all of you who helped out with the adoption process in Guatemala and made calls to your State Senators and Representative.

As of Monday, 70 members of the House of Representatives, and 28 members of the Senate had signed the Guatemala 5000 Initiative, asking Guatemala to allow in process adoptions to continue. This is wonderful! Thank you and Praise the Lord!

Also, in response to all the calls and e-mails sent to govenment officials in Guatemala, President Berger announced his intention to allow all adoptions that are “in process” by December 31 to continue through to completion. While we are currently not sure what “in process” means, at least all the 4000+ Guatemalan children who have already been referred will be able to be adopted rather than be abandoned.

At this point, Wendy and I are going to continue forward with adopting from Guatemala, but will probably not have a referral by December 31 (unless there is a miracle, which we are praying for!). So we will probably have to adopt under the new procedures which will be enforced sometime in early 2008. We don’t yet know what these will be.

The exciting news is that Hannah’s Hope Guatemala, which is the orphanage of All God’s Children International (our Adoption Agency), is currently going through the process of becoming accredited by the social service division of Guatemala. This is a new regulation for all homes that wish to be involved in the adoption process once the new law is final. The staff in Guatemala is doing everything necessary to be compliant with Hague and the new adoption law. If and when we begin to see changes with the adoption laws, they will be ready.

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This is the week for taking action on allowing Guatemala adoptions to continue.

Please read the post below for more information, but you can start by signing this online petition.

Keep updated on this through AdoptionBlogs. Also, here are two people who have blogs about their Guatemala Adoption process. Bringing Gabriel Home and Our Little Pea.

CNN has also published an online article about the disaster waiting to happen in Guatemala if these current laws are passed. The article is here for you to read online, but I have posted it below for you to read here as well.

ANTIGUA, Guatemala (CNN) — For many years, Guatemala has been a place of relatively uncomplicated adoptions for American parents. The small country’s government estimates as many as 17 babies leave each day for adoptive parents in the United States.

Carolina, a 3-month-old Guatemalan girl, was bound for the U.S. until Guatemalan authorities intervened.

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But that number could soon drop to zero because of concerns over alleged improprieties in the Guatemalan adoption process. Guatemalan President Oscar Berger announced recently that adoptions to the United States will be suspended on January 1, 2008, a decision that could leave nearly 3,000 babies currently in the adoption pipeline in legal limbo.

“This is our heritage, our future,” said Carmen Wennier, head of Guatemala’s Social Welfare bureau, who has criticized the adoption system.

Guatemala has the highest per capita rate of adoption in the world and the United States represents the largest number of adoptions, with an estimated one of every 100 Guatemalan babies sent to the United States, according to the U.S. consulate in Guatemala. U.S. officials estimate more than 5,000 adoptions from Guatemala will be processed this year, an annual high which would make Guatemala the second biggest origin of adoptive babies to the United States, behind China. Adoption on hold after agency raided »

Adoption has been a hotly contested issue in Guatemala for years. While adoptive parents in the United States undergo rigorous screening, adoptions in Guatemala are processed under a notary system that allows lawyers and judges to place children for adoption. Both Guatemalan and U.S. officials fear the system leads to practices such as paying birth mothers for children, or, some instances, using coercion.

“We have thousands of cases of Guatemalan children who have been adopted to the United States and have had terrific experiences as adoptive children there, and frankly, have probably experienced a life more full of opportunity and support than they would have if they had been abandoned in Guatemala,” U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala James Derham said. “What we want to do is make sure that all adoptions are consistent with these kinds of ideas.”

Both U.S. and Guatemalan officials say gaps in the regulation and the high sums of money at play – adoptions can cost up to $30,000 to complete — may have created unintended incentives in a country where the U.S. State Department estimates 80 percent of the population lives in poverty.

For prospective adoptive parents awaiting children in the United States, the recent developments are wrenching. But despite the State Department warnings, dozens of Americans still fill major hotels in Guatemala City meeting babies they expect will soon be theirs.

Several hotels in the city offer adoption packages and baby-friendly amenities to prospective adoptive parents. The couples stay there when they come to first see the babies while waiting for paperwork to be processed or to pick them up at the end of the adoption process.

Many of those couples say the charges of coercion of birth mothers are overblown and that thousands of abandoned children will be condemned to a life of poverty if greater restrictions on adoptions are imposed.

“Nobody reports on what will happen to these children if the adoptions are stopped,” said one American parent who asked not to be identified. “The city will be filled with street kids.”

The increasing scrutiny of adoptions from Guatemala already has thrown some adoptions into flux. Carolina, a 3-month-old Guatemalan girl, was just months away from joining her adoptive parents, Ellen and Sean Darcy, in their Boston, Massachusetts, home, when she and 45 other babies were seized from Casa Quivira, an adoption agency, by the Guatemalan government.

Don’t Miss

• Guatemala adoptive families information
• U.S. State Department warning
• Guatemala and Hague Adoption Convention
• Time.com on Casa Quivira case

“Casa Quivira was the last stop on an assembly line,” Wennier told CNN. “They had the final product and they had to sell it at the best price.”

Guatemala police arrested Casa Quivira’s lawyers and charged them with child abduction. No plea has yet been entered, but the agency’s owners, American Cliff Phillips and his Guatemalan wife, Sandra Gonzalez, deny doing anything illegal.

“We can respond for the work of Casa Quivira and we will make all the efforts to clear our name, to get these kids home,” Gonzalez said through tears. She adamantly denies Casa Quivira wanted to do anything more than help save children from poverty and make American families whole.

Carolina’s adoptive mom in the United States, Ellen Darcy, is worried about Carolina’s future, but she wants the investigation to go forward so she’ll know if the adoption was legitimate.

“We want to know. We don’t want to complete an adoption that is anything but completely legal and where this little girl has been relinquished willingly,” she said. The Darcy’s already have one child they adopted from Guatemala, a boy named Dylan, and they were excited for Carolina’s arrival.

In Guatemala, birth mothers are required to sign a document in court in which they state they are relinquishing their child, but they are not interviewed by a judge as to their reasons. To stem corruption, the U.S. Embassy has added its own requirement that birth mothers appear with the baby when proceedings to request a Visa for the baby begin. In August, they also began requiring two DNA tests to confirm the identities of mother and child.

But proponents of stricter adoption guidelines in Guatemala said that even those tests are not sufficient. The Guatemalan Office of the Attorney General said it has 80 confirmed cases so far this year of adoption irregularities, including baby stealing and false DNA tests.

The Guatemalan Chief Prosecutor’s Office recently launched a criminal investigation into the two laboratories contracted to take DNA samples from birth mothers and the children.

The U.S. Consulate and adoptive parents said those allegations do not taint the more than 4,000 adoptions that were processed legitimately last year. But due to the uncertainty expected from then anticipated changes in process, the State Department has recently issued a warning advising American citizens not to initiate any new adoptions from Guatemala.

Like other parents and prospective parents, Ellen Darcy, as she waits in her Boston home for baby Carolina, is concerned about the children.

“I’m not worried about the American couples. That’s a non-issue. I’m worried about the kids,” she said. “If they aren’t given an option to be raised abroad, that they will perish and spend their entire childhood in an orphanage in state custody with nobody to encourage them or be a parent or take a vested interest in them. The American parents will be fine. It’s the kids.”

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My wife and I have been in the process of adopting a little girl from Guatemala. Most of the orphans in Guatemala live in the streets, and get their food and clothing from city dumps. There are currently about 5000 such children who were slated to be adopted between now and December 31, 2007. 

But this week, the US Department of State has encouraged the Guatemalan congress to pass the Ortega Law which would effectively put an end to all adoptions from Guatemala. This bill, as it now stands, has no funding plan, no child care plan for the children currently in the process of getting adopted, and no plan for future children to even enter the process. Private orphanages will no longer be allowed to accept donations for taking care of children, and so many of them will have to shut their doors. This means that within six months, thousands of children waiting to be adopted could instead be turned out onto the streets. This is truly a human rights and child welfare nightmare waiting to happen.

Why is the US and Guatemala doing this? Guatemala seeks to become “Hague Compliant” which is well intended inter-country treaty to stop illegal adoptions. Babies were getting stolen and then put up for adoption. The kidnappers received money from the many adoption fees charged to adoptive parents. So the Hague Treaty is intended to stop this, which is good. But what has happened in Hague Compliant countries is that adoptions have ceased almost completely.

Countries like Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Bolivia have become Hague compliant. These countries used to allow inter-country adoptions just as much as Guatemala. But in the past decade, all these countries enacted similar laws as the one we now see Guatemala taking steps to pass. The result in Guatemala will be similar to what we now have in these other countries: the streets are overflowing with orphans, the orphanages are underfunded and overcrowded. Over the last 14 years, hundreds of thousands of children who might have benefited from the opportunity of adoption have instead become statistics, adding to the numbers of children who die on the streets, or are forced into slavery or prostitution.

You can read about all of this at the following links:

http://guatemala.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/bill-3217-the-ortega-law-and-bill-3635

http://guatemala.adoptionblogs.com/index.php/weblogs/cnn-talks-adoption-and-the-ortega-law-ge

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?id=20004&letter_id=1437344301

http://www.jcics.org/Guatemala5000.htm

Please don’t let this happen! Use your finger tips to make a few calls and send a few e-mails. Below is what our adoption agency, All God’s Children International, is asking people to do.

Dear Friends,

Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to suspend all intercountry adoption with American families on January 1 2008.  The Joint Council on International Children’s Services strongly opposes such a suspension and asks for your support in their efforts to ensure that all children retain the right to permanency through Intercountry Adoption.

President Berger’s plans also call for the suspension of adoptions currently in-process.  Such a suspension would be extremely detrimental to the children referred to adoptive parents.  If President Berger’s plan is actually implemented, up to 5,000 will unnecessarily remain in foster care or orphanages indefinitely. 

This situation represents a pending crisis for the adoptive families who have lovingly chosen to provide permanency, safety and love to a child in need and most importantly a crisis for 5,000 children of Guatemala.

What can you do?  Make six simple phone calls and one email.

1.       Call your U.S. Senator. 

·         You can find your Senators’ phone numbers at www.senate.gov

·         Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

2.   Call your second U.S. Senator.

3.   Call your representative to the U.S. House of Representative.

·         You can find your representative at www.house.gov

·         Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff

4.       Call or fax UNICEF Headquarter

·         Ask to speak with Ann Veneman, Executive Director

·         Their number is 212-326-7000

·         Their fax number is 212-326-7758

5.       Call or fax UNICEF Guatemala

·         Ask to speak with Manuel Manrique

·         Their number is 011-502-2327-6373

·         Their fax number is 011-502-2327.6366

Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

6.       Send and email supporting Intercountry Adoption to guatemala5000@jcics.org

·         Write briefly or at length

·         Joint Council will use the cumulative email petition in our advocacy for Intercountry Adoption

When should you call?  Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday (October 9th, 10th 11th)

·         For maximum affect, we are asking you to make these calls within a 72 hour window!

What should you say or write to member of the U.S. Congress? Speak from your heart and give them the following information.

·         Inform them that you are calling regarding Guatemala 5000

·         Ask them to sign the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) sponsored letter to President Oscar Berger

·         Ask them to sign the Joint Council on International Children’s Services sponsored letter to UNICEF

·         Inform them that the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008.

·         Inform them that President Berger’s announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process.

·         Inform them that if children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care.

·         Ask that their office get involved and sign the sponsored letters to the President of Guatemala and UNICEF.  These letters ask that all adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sample Statement:

Hello,

We are calling/writing on behalf of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.  We, as your constituents, are asking that the Senator/Congressperson add their signature to two letters.  First, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute sponsored letter to Guatemalan President Oscar Berger.  Second, the Joint Council on International Children’s Services sponsored letter to UNICEF.

As you may be aware, the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008. Their announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process. If children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care. Your office must get involved and sign the sponsored letters to the President of Guatemala and UNICEF.  These letters ask that all adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sincerely,

<your name and contact information>

What should you say or write to UNICEF? Speak from your heart and give them the following information.

·         Inform them that you are calling regarding the Guatemala 5000

·         Ask them to support the right’s of children and lend their considerable influence to ensuring that intercountry adoptions currently in-process be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

·         Inform them that the Guatemalan government has announced that all adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008.

·         Inform them that President Berger’s announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process.

·         Inform them that if children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care.

·         Ask them again for their support of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.

Sample Statement

Hello,

We are calling/writing on behalf of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative.  As financial supporters of UNICEF (through our tax dollars), we are asking that UNICEF lends its support and considerable influence to the Guatemala 5000 initiative.

As you may be know, the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008. Their announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process. If children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care. UNICEF must get involved and help ensure that all intercountry adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sincerely,

<your name and contact information>

Can you explain the problem behind the pending crisis?  Here is some additional information…

·         Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to effectively stop all adoptions into the United States including those children who have already been referred to adoptive parents

·         Over 5,000 children have been referred

·         The birthparents for these children have already relinquished their parental rights.  As a result, they currently have no family and the Berger suspension will result in these children having no prospect for a permanent, safe and loving family

·         The government of Guatemala currently does not have the finances or facilities to even provide housing for these 5,000 children

·         The Berger plan is a crisis waiting to happen
 
What else can you do?  In addition to your primary calls to U.S. Congress and UNICEF, you can call the following.

SOSEP (Guatemala)

·         Director Teresa Echeverría de Bastarrechea

Office Phone- 011-502-2383-8400 

·         Assistant Director- Edin Palma- Same office phone

Office Phone- 011-502-2383-8400 

·         Jaime Tecu

Office Phone – 011-502-2239-0000 ext 2766

 Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Guatemala Ministry of Foreign Affairs

·         Minister Gerth Rosenthal

Office Phone 011-502-2410-0000, 2410-0010

·         Vice Minister- Marta Altoaguirre

Office Phone  011-502-2410-0020

  Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

PGN (Guatemala)

·         Carlos Victor Hugo Barrios Barahona

Office Phone 011-502-2248-3200 Ext. 207/208

   Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Procuraduria of Human Rights

·         Dr. Sergio Morales

Office Phone 011-502-2424-1717

  Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls

Embassy of Guatemala in the U.S.
2220 R Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20008
Office Phone  1-202-745-4952
Office Fax 1-202-745-1908
Website: www.guatemala-embassy.org/

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