Guatemalan Elections & Adoption Law Update

First of all, thank you to everyone who participated in the Guatemala 5000 Initiative! Last week, the United States Congress sent letters to the President of Guatemala and to UNICEF advocating for in process adoptions to be allowed to be completed. Our calls, letters, and e-mails worked, because 203 members of Congress joined this initiative and signed these letters!!! We are so grateful for their support and for their willingness to help us and all of the other in process families in any way that they can!!!

I am proud to say that 2 of the 3 members that we are represented by signed - Senator Jim Bunning and Congressman Ben Chandler DID sign the letters in support of the grandfather clause needed to complete our adoption of Gerson and Elviz. Thank you, Gentlemen!!!

Senator Mitch McConnell DID NOT sign the letters. He chose not to advocate for us. I assure you that I will be thinking of that next time I see his name on a ballot.

Here are the links to the letters to President Berger and UNICEF if you would like to see what was written (respectful and direct, just what we needed!) and which members of Congress signed the letters. I was pleased to see the 2008 US Presidential hopefuls who are currently in Congress supported us and the best interest of these children!

Tomorrow, the people of Guatemala will vote to elect their next President. This is a run off election between the candidates that received the highest number of votes, but no majority, in the Sept 9 elections. Needless to say, this election is not about Guatemalan adoptions, and in fact, we don't even know where either of the candidates stand on the issue. Guatemala has many issues that are more important and more urgent that international adoptions. I guess that is part of the reason that we have been so stunned that the current President seems to have spent quite a bit of time and energy on anti-adoption activities.

As Americans, we cannot possibly grasp what elections represents for the people of Guatemala. We are so far removed from the world that they live in, where violence, murder, and corruption have left deeps marks on this year's elections. We have no point of reference to understand a country that is still recovering from a 1960 - 1996 civil war. Our political commentary swarms around who raised the most millions in last quarter's campaign fundraising efforts; Guatemala's focuses on the child of a human rights activist being murdered, people distributing leaflets being killed, and a mayor's home being burned by angry protesters. Guatemala is the birth country -- the first country -- of my sons. It is a country that I love. I pray that tomorrow's election goes smoothly. I pray that the outcome is fair, clear cut, without question, and without any further violence. I pray for the next elected leader of Guatemala.

The Guatemalan Congress agreed to wait until after the Presidential election to further discus the adoption law and it's proposed amendments. The amendments are on the agenda for debate and possible vote on Tuesday, November 6, so we hope to find out that the grandfather amendment is official sometime very soon.