The Roller Coaster Ride Continues...

Man, the ups and downs are absolutely insane. I was so relieved yesterday with the news of the shift to April for the Hague implementation. I hadn't yet posted the information that was available on www.jcics.org that was equally wonderful. This is what that site had:

We can now report that members of the Guatemalan Congress, including numerous party chiefs, have submitted a new legislative proposal which;
- Includes a strong 'grandfather' clause,
- Designates April 30, 2008 as the effective implementation date of the Convention,
- Allocates $5 million Quetzales ($650,000 USD) for the creation of the Central Authority
- Allocates a percentage of the total government budget for child welfare services
- Creates a new government entity to act as the Central Authority in Guatemala,
- Provides for private non-profit accredited entities to provide services to children,
- Allows single potential adoptive parents to apply for adoption,
- Creates a functional process by which children can find a permanent, safe and loving family.

The new legislation is scheduled to be introduced to Congress early next week. In line with our mission of advocating for the right of each child to a permanent family, Joint Council will continue to work with our colleagues in Guatemala towards a positive and child centric implementation of the Convention.

It really sounds like the members of Congress are really trying to work towards what is in the best interest of the children and should be commended for doing so. I really felt like a weight had been lifted from our shoulders. It was apparent that all the calls we had all made, and all the signatures on the letters that resulted from our calls had really caused the Guatemalan officials to kind of take a step back and think about how best to implement the new adoption law that would make them Hague compliant. The newest maddening news though is this, taken from www.guatadopt.com:

"US Consul General John Lowell is once again attempting to interfere with Guatemala's rights as a sovereign nation. He is apparently requesting a meeting with all the Guatemalan parties in Congress in an attempt to strong arm them into not delaying Ortega and the Hague."

What the heck is going on?! I'm thinking largely emotionally here, I'll admit it. I do want that January 1st date pushed back for personal reasons. But logically, the Guatemalan Congress has realized that it needs more time to pull it all together. Why institute a law, with many cases in process and no clear plan on how to deal with those cases, with a new President coming into office, and an unclear vision of how the whole thing will work? If implementation can be put off and done more smoothly, then kudos to them for realizing this ahead of time! The US Department of State seems to have been wanting adoptions to cease from Guatemala for some time. All the "warnings" about not starting an adoption dating months back, the September 25th grave warning about the possibility of in process adoptions being halted at the first of the year, and now trying to stop the Guatemalan congress from giving themselves time to execute their transition to Hague compliance smoothly. Are they afraid that given these extra few months people will try to pursue new referrals? It would seem to me that if they really wanted to slow things down that they would simply stop approving the I-600A's (you can't proceed without it in your dossier paperwork), yet they continue to approve them. Maybe they just don't want to be the "bad guys", yet that's exactly who they are coming off as. I am just so frustrated with all this. It really seems like this process is a constant one step forward and two steps back. I do plan on contacting our Congressional leaders once again to ask for their support regarding this new information. Guatadopt.com has a nice form letter that can be used if you are interested in doing the same.