Where in the world is GW?
Guatemala, that's where. He was in Colombia yesterday, hopefully not messing things up there for potential adoptive parents. (Adoption wasn't on his agenda there. Singles who want to adopt from Colombia are given the choice of a special needs child or a child over the age of 7. Shame, because I have a HUGE love for that country. I've taught many, many students, beloved students from wonderful families, who escaped that country. My favorite author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is Colombian. My Masters thesis was about Colombian culture, especially the role of Colombia in pop culture in America. A few agencies have hosting programs for children from Colombia, too.)
This is what CNN is reporting as Bush's agenda for tomorrow.
Monday, March 12T
he president has events planned in rural areas outside of Guatemala City, including a visit to a school where the U.S. military provides medical aid and a trip to the Mayan ruins at Iximche.In the afternoon, Bush is scheduled to attend a welcoming ceremony, followed by a meeting and press conference with President Oscar Berger to discuss alternative energy, narco-trafficking, crime and immigration.
Immigration - I guess that's where they will discuss adoption. I don't really know what to make of that. Immigration, the US Embassy requirements, that's not what's keeping Ingrid from my family. PGN, that's where Ingrid's birth sister got stuck for over a year, supposedly because of the now-infamous two cedula issue. In and out and in minors investigation, the bmom isn't a minor. Full investigation or not (agency said it's not a "full" investigation, AS says there's no such thing as a "kind of" investigation), the case has been in and out of PGN for well over a year. You can't say that's normal, that it's a regular process, if it's been in and out for a year. And you can't say everything is fine with the two cedulas and it shouldn't be a problem, because it is a problem. And that's why the sister can't be adopted.
Ingrid, it has nothing to do with the cedula. Ingrid was never in process to be adopted. She was relinquished by her bmom, taken to the doctor on September 13, 2005, got a birth certificate on that same day, and that's all that has ever happened for her. She never dealt with immigration because she was never submitted for DNA authorization. I believe she was NEVER submitted, even though the agency told me for well over two months that there were problems with the Embassy. I contacted my Representative (now no longer a Representative but she is the grandma of one of my students), who told me exactly what I had been reading online. Yes, there were new delays, but these were not new requirements. And on March 17 last year, I got "tough" with the agency and suggested I hire AS to find out why my papers never even made it to the elusive window that supposedly everyone else got turned away from for these new requirements. (Yup, everyone else was told why their paperwork was rejected. I was told my paperwork never made it to the window.) I couldn't even imagine what the truth would be, that my paperwork was never even waiting in line for DNA, that the agency already knew about the two cedulas but didn't tell me! At any rate, as soon as I suggested AS, the agency told me that the Embassy asked for another copy of some bmom paperwork, I think it was a new medical report or something. I do have the record of what the excuse was, but I'm too lazy right now to look it up. Doesn't really matter, anyway. As we now know, whatever the excuse was, it was a LIE, since you need to have the POA on file before you get DNA authorization, and I have a document from Guatemala that shows my POA was never on file.
So it's not immigration that stopped my process. Ingrid can't be my daughter for nothing to do with US law, but beause of Guatemalan law. Fine. She's Guatemalan. I get that. The country can make their own laws as they see fit, even if it bothers me to no end. But please let's find some kind of solution for all of the other children in this country.
And all of the children around the world (including the US) who cannot be adopted because of the laws in their own country. Remember that baby from Paraguay I was offered? My cousin's nanny's sister. Paraguay doesn't permit international adoptions; I would have had to establish residency for one year in order to adopt that baby. I still don't even know if it was a boy or a girl, just that it was a healthy and beautiful baby who was mine if I wanted it, but I think about that baby every single day. What became of this baby? Did it go to an orphanage? Did the bfamily decide to parent? Do they have enough money to meet the baby's needs? Did I make another mistake by not trying to manipulate the system so I could try to adopt that baby? Again, that's not an "immigration" issue.
If it's the policy of the country people are coming into, it's called immigration. If it's the policy of the country people are leaving, it's called emmigration.
This is what CNN is reporting as Bush's agenda for tomorrow.
Monday, March 12T
he president has events planned in rural areas outside of Guatemala City, including a visit to a school where the U.S. military provides medical aid and a trip to the Mayan ruins at Iximche.In the afternoon, Bush is scheduled to attend a welcoming ceremony, followed by a meeting and press conference with President Oscar Berger to discuss alternative energy, narco-trafficking, crime and immigration.
Immigration - I guess that's where they will discuss adoption. I don't really know what to make of that. Immigration, the US Embassy requirements, that's not what's keeping Ingrid from my family. PGN, that's where Ingrid's birth sister got stuck for over a year, supposedly because of the now-infamous two cedula issue. In and out and in minors investigation, the bmom isn't a minor. Full investigation or not (agency said it's not a "full" investigation, AS says there's no such thing as a "kind of" investigation), the case has been in and out of PGN for well over a year. You can't say that's normal, that it's a regular process, if it's been in and out for a year. And you can't say everything is fine with the two cedulas and it shouldn't be a problem, because it is a problem. And that's why the sister can't be adopted.
Ingrid, it has nothing to do with the cedula. Ingrid was never in process to be adopted. She was relinquished by her bmom, taken to the doctor on September 13, 2005, got a birth certificate on that same day, and that's all that has ever happened for her. She never dealt with immigration because she was never submitted for DNA authorization. I believe she was NEVER submitted, even though the agency told me for well over two months that there were problems with the Embassy. I contacted my Representative (now no longer a Representative but she is the grandma of one of my students), who told me exactly what I had been reading online. Yes, there were new delays, but these were not new requirements. And on March 17 last year, I got "tough" with the agency and suggested I hire AS to find out why my papers never even made it to the elusive window that supposedly everyone else got turned away from for these new requirements. (Yup, everyone else was told why their paperwork was rejected. I was told my paperwork never made it to the window.) I couldn't even imagine what the truth would be, that my paperwork was never even waiting in line for DNA, that the agency already knew about the two cedulas but didn't tell me! At any rate, as soon as I suggested AS, the agency told me that the Embassy asked for another copy of some bmom paperwork, I think it was a new medical report or something. I do have the record of what the excuse was, but I'm too lazy right now to look it up. Doesn't really matter, anyway. As we now know, whatever the excuse was, it was a LIE, since you need to have the POA on file before you get DNA authorization, and I have a document from Guatemala that shows my POA was never on file.
So it's not immigration that stopped my process. Ingrid can't be my daughter for nothing to do with US law, but beause of Guatemalan law. Fine. She's Guatemalan. I get that. The country can make their own laws as they see fit, even if it bothers me to no end. But please let's find some kind of solution for all of the other children in this country.
And all of the children around the world (including the US) who cannot be adopted because of the laws in their own country. Remember that baby from Paraguay I was offered? My cousin's nanny's sister. Paraguay doesn't permit international adoptions; I would have had to establish residency for one year in order to adopt that baby. I still don't even know if it was a boy or a girl, just that it was a healthy and beautiful baby who was mine if I wanted it, but I think about that baby every single day. What became of this baby? Did it go to an orphanage? Did the bfamily decide to parent? Do they have enough money to meet the baby's needs? Did I make another mistake by not trying to manipulate the system so I could try to adopt that baby? Again, that's not an "immigration" issue.
If it's the policy of the country people are coming into, it's called immigration. If it's the policy of the country people are leaving, it's called emmigration.
posted by Stacy @ 7:44 PM
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