OUR GUARDIAN ANGELS IN GUATEMALA

Everyone needs someone, and when times are rough, we look for those “guardian angels” who can help us get through the red tape and confusion that life sometimes brings our way. So is the case with Dave, Miranda, and me during this incredibly bumpy adoption journey.

Having lost Lucinda’s referral because Lucinda’s birthmother disappeared, then accepting Andrea’s referral but not being able to have her case move forward because Guatemala’s adoption laws were abruptly changing, we really considered throwing in the towel. So much hope and money had been invested in this dream of ours. So much time and energy and heartache resulted. But hope did still remain. And that was mainly because we found this tiny but effective law firm in Guatemala.

Servicios Juridicos Integrados, or Adoption Supervisors as their American clients know them, is a Guatemalan law firm that specializes in adoption supervision. Their “specialty” is rather new, though it is quickly illuminating the problems of adoption in Guatemala. American clients are flocking to them to help them get through the maze. But we are lucky in that we found them in their “early stage” of work. Writing on the Guatemalan Adoptions computer listserv about our heartache regarding Lucinda’s biological mother’s disappearance, an American woman in Antigua who successfully adopted a child a year ago wrote me an email, providing me with the name of a law firm composed of “kind, generous” men and women whom she believed could help us.

At that point we were desperate, so what did we have to lose?

One evening after Dave came home from work, we sent Miranda upstairs to do her homework. Then Dave grabbed a phone and I grabbed another phone and we called Adoption Supervisors in Guatemala City, our first international call. Though the attorney with whom we spoke had a heavy accent, his English was impeccable, and he gave us the facts about corruption and adoption in Guatemala. Could they locate Lucinda’s missing birthmother? No. But what they could do was look at our file in Family Court and check dates and other important filing information that would shed light on our case. They could talk to the attorneys, social workers, and judges involved. He said that sometimes the lawyers get nervous when Adoption Supervisors starts poking around cases; that is when “miraculously” birthmothers who are missing are found or an indefinitely stalled case starts moving again.
Dave and I looked at each other. We liked what we heard. So we hired Adoption Supervisors the next day.
Our adoption agency wasn’t happy we did this. This put pressure on them when their lawyers called to complain about SJI involvement. But did it put our case in the spotlight? Yes! And for once we were getting solid information, sometimes before the agency even got information about our case.

Every day Adoption Supervisors sends me emails. They are faithful and loyal and incredibly driven. They told me that in the past they saw too many heartbroken families trying to adopt who kept bumping into walls when they would travel to Guatemala to bring home their children; these attorneys wanted to do something about that. They wanted to save the children relinquished or abandoned, get them into homes with families where they would be loved and cared for, protected and nurtured. They also wanted to expose along the way the corruption in the adoption system in order to eradicate or “scare straight” the persons who give Guatemala a bad name.

The SJI attorneys all have a wonderful sense of humor. They like to use smiley faces in correspondence and once reminded me that “my favorite Guatemalans” (as I affectionately call them) were still living in a Third World nation where sometimes the electricity goes out, explaining why I didn’t hear from them the day before, a real rarity. When they have to tell me difficult news, they usually start the letter with, “My dear Amy…”, softening the blow. And when there is good news to tell, they freely use exclamation marks and bold font! These are not your typical, stodgy counselors of law.

As they started digging into court files, they were able to tell us a lot of details about our case. They even uncovered some lies that we had been told. It was their sad duty to tell us when we needed to step away from Lucinda’s case; they said that we could hire a detective, but other than giving out large sums of money, we would not be successful. According to them, no one but the contact or the lawyer would be able to find the biological mother if she didn’t want to be found. Because we trusted them, we made the difficult decision to move on.

Six months and a few weeks later after starting our adoption quest, we received Andrea’s referral. Adoption Supervisors was filled with joy when we told them our news! They were ready to help us in any way that they could. We had to get into the court system, though, for them to begin their work.

And then, when all of our documents were ready to be entered into court, Guatemala issued new adoption laws to conform to the Hague Treaty that Guatemala signed on March 5, 2003. Frustrated and disgusted with what they learned in court, they ruefully told us one Friday evening that it might be time to look at adopting a child from another country. It would be anyone’s guess what would happen in Guatemala, they said, and we could be setting ourselves up for much more heartache.

Then on Monday we got the incredible news from our adoption agency about Lucinda’s birthmother’s return! I immediately wrote to Adoption Supervisors asking their advice.

“GO FOR IT!!!!” they emailed back, thrilled that we had another shot at adopting Lucinda, since her case would fall under the “old” pre-March 5th adoption laws.

They called the attorney handling Lucinda’s case over and over and over again, leaving messages when she refused to take their calls. They contacted the social worker in Family Court and made interview appointments for the birthmother and the foster mother. We didn’t celebrate until Adoption Supervisors confirmed that, indeed, the birthmother and the foster mother successfully had their interviews in Family Court, that it was “looking good” that we were going to be successful this time.

Without the men and women at Adoption Supervisors, I don’t know how we would have been able to get through all of this. God surely sent this wonderful team our way, and we are forever indebted to them for their kindness and tenacity. They truly are our guardian angels, people I will always call ‘friends.’