A Call To Action!!!!

We need your help!

***NOT asking for $$ and
kind of long, but PLEASE READ***

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know, Matt and I have been pursuing adoption of a little boy from Guatemala. His name is John Clayton and he is 7 months old now. We started this process In February 2007, going through considerable hoops, such as an extensive homestudy, police and FBI background checks and fingerprints, much, much paperwork, lots of documents that had to be notarized, certified at the State level and authenticated at the Guatemalan consulate in Chicago and Atlanta. I don't want to make this too long, because even if I did, it wouldn't convey in writing how long and how many requirements on our part it took to even qualify as adopting parents. The whole process has been long, very stressful and right now is very painful.

We got a referral for a 4 month old baby boy on June 27, 2007. We fell in love instantly, and from that day he was "our son".

We sent a Power of Attorney to Guatemala for an attorney to work on our behalf. Because Guatemala has NO INFRASTRUCTURE to take care of unwanted children, the mothers who chose an adoption relinquish their children to the attorney, who places the child in a private foster care (in most cases excellent care) or private orphanages (also very well run). The attorney then refers the child to an agency in the U.S. who works with prospective adoptive parents (PAPs), like us, and refers the child to them. From then on the foster or orphanage care for the child is paid by the PAPs who accepted their referral until the adoption is finalized.

The process takes many steps: U.S. Embassy issues DNA authorization - the birthmother (birthmom) and the baby have to meet at the Dr's office for a DNA test. A picture of the two of them is taken at that time (remember, this is several months after the birthmom relinquished the baby). The mother is also interviewed at that time by a Guatemalan Family Court social worker who then writes and submits a report concerning whether her relinquishment of her baby is voluntary and not coerced. The test sample is sent to a lab in the U.S. Results are sent back to the Embassy. If DNA testing shows a match, the U.S. Embassy issues a Pre-approval (PA). They took 43 days to issue it for us. Then the case goes to the Guatemala Attorney General's Office (PGN) for their approval of the case. According to Guatemala law, this is supposed to take 3 days. No case has been out of PGN in less than 2 months, some have been stuck there for 6-12 months. They scrutinize everything, and if there is a typo, they kick the file out, it has to get fixed and run through their mill again. Another 2, 3, or 4 months. Right now we are waiting on the social workers report and to enter into PGN and praying we don't get a kick out.




After out of PGN, a new birth certificate with our names as parents has to be issued by the Civil Registry in the place the child was born. Recently, the wait in "our" municipality ranges from 1 week to 4 weeks. Then the baby's passport is issued. U.S. Embassy authorizes a 2nd DNA test on the baby alone (ensuring no baby switching took place), and if the match is positive, visa appointment is scheduled and PAPs can bring their child to the U.S.
Throughout the process, the birthmom has to sign-off the adoption 4 times (the final time is after out of PGN). Some birthmom have changed their mind during that time and taken their children back.



Actually, NOW it gets WORSE.
The situation is very complicated for me to explain in detail here, but you can gain insight by reading the links below.
There are huge political battles within Guatemala. To boil it down - Guatemala wants to shut down Intercountry adoptions. UNICEF is dangling several millions of $$ in front of the lame duck President Berger. He gets the money, if Guatemala gets "Hague compliant", which will effectively shut down adoptions. The President said few days ago, that not even cases in process (like ours) would be grandfathered in after January 1st 2008. So, if we don't get out of PGN very, very soon, we won't make it! Remember, there is NO WELFARE SYSTEM, NO INFRASTRUCTURE in Guatemala today. So what is going to happen to these children? The President didn't say. (More explanation is in the included links below)

We have visited our baby once and will be going for another visit Oct 14-18. The thought of not being able to bring Clay home is more than devastating. It is absolutely unbearable.
I am including a few pictures, so that you can "put his beautiful face to this".

So here is how you can help. Please sign the online petitions and follow the instruction of the Guatemala5000 initiative (http://jcics.org/Guatemala5000.htm )
We need to put pressure on the politicians. The Guatemala government is always asking U.S. for money, and the U.S. government should be able to put some pressure on them at least to let in-process cases finish! There is strength in numbers.
I understand, you might feel you don't know enough to put your name on this. I am including links, where you can read more to understand it better.
Also, please don't let the bad media reports influence you. All they do is put out sensationalistic stories that will give them good ratings. Last week's NPR story had a UNICEF rep say that there are no requirements to adopt a baby from Guatemala other than having $25K-$40K. As you can tell from our experience above, he is LYING!!!!!


here are the links to the petitions:

http://www.petitiononline.com/41203gm/petition.html

http://www.petitiononline.com/foafoa1/petition.html


Link to the Joint Council on International Children Services with "how you can help" THIS IS THE IMPORTANT ONE TO DO!!!!!!
http://jcics.org/Guatemala5000.htm


LInks to "Families without borders" with explanation of UNICEF's stance (very good, especially the second link to the sponsor letter, where it is very well explained why UNICEF is being so harmful):

http://www.familieswithoutborders.com/

http://www.familieswithoutborders.com/FinalCampaignLetter.htm

READ THIS ONE, EXCELLENT INFO!!!!!!!!
Please help us and thousands of others in the same boat to bring our children home! Our children have nowhere else to go, but get stuck in a non-existing welfare system by a dysfunctional and corrupt government!


Thank you for your help. This is the only thing we can do.



Matt and Carolyn













This is not to scare anyone. We are going by faith that we will bring our child home and the actions that President Berger is saying has not been acted on. This is something that can happen and by responding to our call for help you can help us keep this from happening. These are only a few things being put into action. Our agency has asked us to take special consideration of responding to the Guatemala 5000 project if no other. Please help us bring our child home. If for any reason you do not feel comfortable helping us in this manner please pray (even if you do help in this manner) continuously on the days of the Guatemala 5000 and October 1st and January 1st as not everyone and that could be us will have their adoption completed. Thank you for your prayers and support of our journey to bring our son home.