The whole Guatemalan mess

Our case is truly a mess. It is a very long story, but at this point no one knows if the case will ever complete. We put our daughter, Alisson Violeta Garcia Ordonez, on hold on January 26, 2006 and had all of our paperwork in Guatemala by late March 2006. The first few steps seemed to go surprisingly smoothly: DNA done in April 2006, PA (pre-approval from the US Embassy) in May 2006, into PGN (Procuraduria General de la Nacion, aka the adoption court) sometime the last week of May/first week of June 2006. I visited in May 2006 with Jason sister Heather. Then we heard NOTHING until the last week of August 2006 when we first found out that things we not going to go smoothly anymore. PGN requested another interview of the birth mother. She had already been interviewed twice for the Family Court piece.

Our potential daughter's birth mother is deaf and mute and does not know any standard form of sign language either. She was interviewed in PGN in September 2006. That interview left the PGN interviewer/interpreter with the impression that this birth mother wanted her baby back. The birth grandmother (who is the primary caregiver for this now 24 year old daughter) made it VERY clear that they cannot keep the baby. PGN sent two people to the birth family's home a few days later to re-do the interview. This interview went very well and it was supposedly made clear that the birth mother did indeed want to place the child for adoption. We were hoping the first interview report would not stay in our file, but it did.

After the two interviews in September 2006, our file went into the investigation department within PGN. It exited that department without being completely rejected which was good. Then I guess back to regular PGN it went only to be kicked out again at the end of November with the requirement of sending the birth mother to the "doctor of the supreme court" for a mental evaluation to determine whether or not she is capable of making this adoption decision. It took from the end of November 2006 until March 2007 for our attorney to get the court order to even schedule this evaluation with the court psychiatrist (or psychologist?). The "make it or break it" doctor appointment finally occurred on March 27, 2007.

We heard that the doctor's evaluation went exactly as we had hoped it would. He received answers from the birth mother that showed she is mentally competent and knows that she is intentionally giving her baby up for adoption because she cannot raise her. We thought the report would be written, we'd go back into PGN, and hopefully someday get out approved. All five of us went to visit Ali since things seemed to be looking up in this adoption. She was seventeen months old and experienced MAJOR separation anxiety to be away from her foster mom. That was April 2007.

While we were in Guatemala on that visit we received news that the doctor's report for which we'd waited all those months did not state directly that he found the birth mother to be mentally competent to make this adoption decision. Then "they" (I don't know who "they" are) requested that the original social worker who wrote her report on this birth family, etc. a year earlier write another report or letter stating that this birth mother cannot raise this child and is knowingly giving her up for adoption. That was completed and we re-entered PGN in May 2007 with that social worker's letter. We were hopeful once again. After just a few weeks, PGN permanently rejected the case stating that it needed to be resolved by a Family Court judge. The case went into Family Court #6 on June 19, 2007. The judge requested a new report by an "expert doctor" and asked that the doctor evaluate the birth mother in the courtroom. Our attorney could not locate an expert doctor who was willing to appear in court. Our attorney convinced the judge to allow that the expert doctor evaluate the birth mother outside of her courtroom and submit the report for her consideration instead. All the report from the expert doctor states is that yes, the birth mother is indeed deaf and does not speak. The judge has had our file complete with the report she requested from the expert doctor since July 2007, and we again heard nothing for months. The case was once again going nowhere.

At this point we decided to jump ship. Ali didn't know us, and if she did happen to remember us, she might remember that she didn't like us very much. We really wanted to adopt a baby and felt like at some point we had to say enough is enough and try another avenue to bring home a baby sister. Decolores was very understanding about our decision and said they'd send along some official paperwork to end the never-ending process. We signed on with Homeland Adoption Services to adopt a waiting child from China through their new Xingfu pilot prgram with the CCAA (China Center of Adoptive Affairs). We received a referral right away for a baby girl and proceeded to send her info to two pediatricians who specialize in international adoptions and offer evaluations of referral information. We got busy paperchasing for a China dossier. (Much harder BTW than a Guatemalan dossier!)

Then when we were wrapping up our China dossier, we found out from DeColores that actually our Guatemalan attorney could not remove us from the process. The file was stuck in Family Court #6 and our attorney could not take our names off the case because of where it was in the process. Plus, Guatemalan adoptions had shut down by this point so if we had removed ourselves from the case at that time, Ali would no longer be grandfathered in under the old system and would most likely never be adopted, or at least not for a very long time. So...what the heck were we supposed to do?!?!?

The adoptions supervisor at our homestudy agency was very supportive. She said she'd help us try to get both girls home if that is what we wanted to do. We let it all sink in for awhile. But we didn't think we really could adopt both girls because of China's policies. We thought we'd lose the referral for our daughter in China when we told her agency we were still in process in Guatemala. It took some build up to get ready to make that phone call. Turned out that they too were very supportive about not letting either child go. They also let us know that China had changed their policy of only allowing one adoption per family at a time. Families are now able to pursue another adoption from another country while they are in process with an adoption in China. I think the timing of how close together these two could be might still be a problem for the CCAA, but we'll figure that out if it becomes an issue. We still don't know if Ali will ever come home or who might come home first.

Once we realized that we really are trying to bring both Ali and Chloe home we started working toward getting Ali home again. We found out what had been happening in Guatemala in the meantime. In December 2007, the judge requested that another doctor evaluate the birth mother and submit a report because the doctor who completed this step in July was educated in the United States rather than in Guatemala. Vidian (birth mom) was evaluated, the report was written and submitted, and then the doctor was required to appear before the judge to answer any questions about his report. He was then required to return to the court two weeks later to sign something. This was all completed in January 2008.

Our case was registered with the new Central Authority (CNA) on adoptions in Guatemala on February 11, 2008 despite the fact that this is perhaps not legally necessary since the case is no longer a notarial case but rather a judicial case. However, just to be safe, the case was registered, albeit with an incorrect start date on the form, so it should be legally grandfathered under the old adoption system. Then we heard that there was a typo on the most recent doctor's paperwork which caused another delay, but we think it was fixed in February. Also, supposedly the judge did not know how to proceed because she did not know how the CNA was handling adoptions now. The officer (?) of the court explained to her that this case would be processed under the old laws because it was from last year (actually from two years ago!).

Another very interesting fact about our case is that our daughter's now almost 5 year old biological sister was also relinquished but 5 months AFTER our daughter was. We considered adopting her as well back then in April of 2006 when the agency found out about her. We decided it was better that good friends of ours, who had also hoped to adopt from Latin America someday, bring her into their family instead. Their case had NO problems whatsoever and she's been home in the states since April 2007. So, the daughter who was given up at birth, never known by the birth mother, is hung up in process because our reviewer thought she wanted her back while the daughter she knew, cared for, and hopefully loved for 3 years was never thought to be wanted back?! This birth mother so clearly does not want our daughter back nor can she care for her. It has been over two years and she has made no attempt to get this child back. She knows where the child is since she is being fostered by her former employer's friend, so she would know where to go if she wanted to take the child back.

So we continue to wait for some forward movement from the judge in Guatemala while we wait for our dossier to be officially logged in and approved in China. We are certain that we will bring home our baby sister from China and perhaps we will be able to bring Ali home from Guatemala as well. FIVE kids! Then we are done. I promise. Despite rumblings from our other three about needing a baby brother too.

My apologies for the length of this explanation. Like I said, it is a long story.