And the Good News Continues...

I made my daily (okay, maybe more than daily) trip to guatadopt.com and what I saw still has me smiling! Remember that law, the Ortega law that was waiting to be passed in Guatemala to bring it into Hague compliance? But the one that would render adoption from Guatemala nearly impossible? The one that was due to become active January 1st, and has had many adoptive parents waiting in fear not knowing whether their adoptions will be completed? My impression has been that this law has many amendments that were planned on being voted on this month (November 14th I had heard). One of the amendments is a grandfather clause which we are all praying gets included in this law. I open this page every day hoping there will be good news regarding this. Well, this is even better than a grandfather clause!

This is from www.guatadopt.com:

"Guatemalan papers are reporting that committees of Congress met yesterday on the adoption law. This was NOT the vote on the ammendments. But based on these reports, Guatemala will postpone implementing the Hague until April 1, 2008 in order to better coincide with the US's likely ratification date. Interestingly, one paper quotes US Consul General John Lowell as saying this is unnecessary.

In addition, one paper is reporting that the Ortega Law's effective date will be bumped back to April 1 as well. One story also mentions that one ammendment to be voted on is to permit singles to adopt."

By moving the date of implementation, it would put them in line with the US's plan to be Hague compliant and would therefore leave no time where adoptions are halted because of one country being Hague and the other not. It sounds as though some real thought about the Ortega law itself is being done as well according to the articles. All in all, a really good way to start the day!