Written by Chris Huber

We hope that the New Year is off to a great start for all of our adoptive families. It has been a very busy new year for the Guatemala program so far. The brightest news is for our families who are waiting for a referral or families considering a second (or third) adoption. The wait times for a referral are the shortest they have been for years. Currently the wait time for the referral of an infant boy is under 1 month. We actually have a couple of infant boys waiting for families to complete their dossiers. The wait for an infant girl has dramatically decreased as well. As recently as 6 months ago, the wait for an infant girl was about 12 months. We are very happy to tell you that currently the wait for an infant girl is under 3 months and may even decrease further. There are a number of factors contributing to this decrease in wait times including the addition of another attorney, an increase in the number of referrals from our existing attorneys, and finally working through the backlog of families from the delays in 2003 from the Hague Treaty. We hope that you will help us to continue get the word out about our short wait times to other families considering adopting from Guatemala.

Another exciting event is that FTIA just purchased a mini-van in Guatemala for transporting our families to and from the embassy. Over the years, our in-country coordinators had used their personal vehicles. The problem arose when they needed to transport multiple families on the same day. With the growth of our Guatemala program over the past years, this was becoming a more frequent occurrence. After receiving this suggestion from several of our traveling families, we were able to locate a mini-van that Andrea Chamorro will begin using very shortly for our families in Guatemala.

Finally, we receive many requests for information about the current status of any legal changes in Guatemala that could affect adoptions. At this time there are still three bills before the Guatemalan Congress. The first one is the Valladares bill that originated shortly after the Hague Treaty in 2003. This bill while officially still alive has stalled in multiple committees and will likely officially disappear at the end of the current legislative session. The second bill before the congress is a series of reforms to the current adoption laws. The majority of these reforms are positive steps that would be beneficial to the adoption process. In addition to make the DNA testing a legal requirement by the Guatemalan government (it is currently just required by the U.S. and British Governments) it would also establish post-placement requirements which to this time have been set by each individual attorney or adoption agency. This bill has already passed through committee and 2 public readings. Before it will come for a vote, it must be reviewed article by article by the congress and then voted upon. This could possibly happen later this year. The third bill was presented by the first lady of Guatemala. Much like the Valladares law, it contains sweeping reforms with little information on funding or organizing the vast bureaucracy that it would establish. It was introduced at the end of last year but has made little progress through the legislative process.

We hope that you will help us continue to spread the word about International Adoption and particularly our Guatemala program. With the process moving smoothly and the short waits for a referral, it is an excellent time to adopt from Guatemala.

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