DOS Warns Adoptions End Jan 1st

posted by Cheri on Tue. Sep 25, 2007
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The U.S. Department of State issued a very serious warning today about Guatemalan adoptions. The warning indicates that when Guatemala becomes a Hague country on January 1st, adoption cases in-process (pending) WILL NOT BE GRANDFATHERED IN under the current adoption laws and MAY NOT BE ABLE TO BE COMPLETED.

The full report can be found here. One important portion states:

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Let me put this as plainly as possible -- because of the nearly nonexistent chance of Eliana's case being approved by PGN before January 1st, if things unfold as the DOS has warned, there is a HIGH RISK we will NEVER be able to finish her adoption.

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If we ever get to that point, we will have NO RECOURSE. So it is absolutely IMPERATIVE that we do everything within our power to NEVER get to that point!  

So far the U.S. DOS has simply reported the plan. They have taken no steps to resist this insanity to protect us families with cases already in-process!

Many of you have expressed a growing desire to do something to help our situation. Well there is something ENORMOUS YOU CAN DO NOW. And the time to act is TODAY, not in three months when a uniformed man is demanding we hand over Baby-Girl to him.

Every person reading this blog, and every person that you know, can make a stand to DEMAND THAT THE U.S. TAKES IMMEDIATE ACTION to protect us families with cases in-process. Our daughter's future, along with countless others, is at stake here.

Even if you've never exercised your political voice before, PLEASE take 15 minutes to:

• Sign the Online Petition here
• Call the DOS Guatemalan Adoption Desk at 202-736-9090 (Tina Leoni)
• Email the DOS person in charge of this situation, Gerry Fuller at fullergw@state.gov
  
• Call, email or write your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Congress person, You can find their contact information here.
• Call, email, or write the President of the United States
  Email: comments@whitehouse.gov
  Comments Line: 202-456-1111
  General Switchboard: 202-456-1414
  FAX: 202-456-2461
  Mailing address:
     The White House
     1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
     Washington, DC 20500

SAMPLE LETTERS
Below are six sample letters that I took from GuatAdopt.com. Of course, feel free to revise them to fit your needs.

• Letter to DOS-- in process family
• Letter to DOS -- friends, family, other interested persons
• Letter to DOS -- awaiting referral family
• Letter to senator or congressperson -- in process family
• Letter to senator or congressperson -- friends family other interested persons
• Letter to senator or congressperson -- awaiting referral family.htm
• Fax to UNICEF

TALKING POINTS
(from several sources including the JCICS, adoption.com, and Hannah Wallace):

1. The Guatemalan government has announced all adoptions with the US will be suspended on Jan 1, 2008 - including the over 5000 cases already in-process.
2. The US government has yet to step in to protect American Citizens who were issued a papers by our government to adopt from Guatemala and entered into a "good faith" agreement with this foreign country.
3. The US DOS is failing its mandate under the Hague Convention to ensure that adoptions proceed expeditiously under the terms of existing law.
4. Our politicians must understand these are children we are talking about…children that we have visited and in some cases fostered... children that we love as our own... children who have come to know us as mother and father.
5. The birthparents for these 5000 children have already relinquished their parental rights. If their adoptions are stopped in mid-process, these children that we love dearly will languish in institutions that the Guatemala government does not have the finances or facilities to support.
6. Ending adoptions that have been in-process for months, sometimes years, will accomplish nothing positive for anyone - most especially the children.
7. Our country must do something NOW to protect it's citizens and future citizens, our children, by ensuring that adoptions in-process be allowed to complete under the exisiting system.