Helping Someone Else Gives Me Hope

One of the blogs I enjoy most in blogland is for a family adopting a second daughter from Guatemala. I think I first read their blog just after they picked up their first daughter (okay, I actually don't remember when I first read their blog, but I was quite taken with all the beautiful pictures & family stories). Easily, it's the first blog I check each day in my round of blogging buddies.

Earlier this week she posted about wanting to be in Guatemala for her daughter's birthday. I don't have a lot of money these days, but I have plenty of airline miles. I have MUCHO LOTS of airline miles with Continental. Well, it seemed pretty easy to me to give her the miles so I did.

It is such a blessing to help someone else. Helping her gives me hope that maybe someday I'll have a chance to adopt from Guatemala also.

I keep thinking back to last fall. If my original agency had told me earlier they wouldn't help me, could I have found another agency willing to work with me? Would I have gotten mixed up with some of the scammers? We're beginning to hear some of the tales of adoption scammer heartbreak & thousands of dollars vanishing into unscrupulous pockets.

I still believe everything happens for a reason. I still believe I will be able to adopt. I still prefer Guatemala to any other country.

And now.... helping her be with her daughter next month.... I have a little more hope, too

Received Estelita's update

I cry every time they send me an update on Estelita. Happy tears because she's absolutely adorable to me. Bittersweet tears because Guatemala still doesn't have a new process & I still wait.

The home that is caring for Estelita posted disturbing information on Sunday night. Here is a portion of what the home's director said....

"....Our lawyer told us that there are more sad cases showing up in the news. Just the past month there were 4 different cases of babies in dumpsters, and babies found dead, and some mothers are going to the border and giving or selling babies to Mexico. If babies are unwanted, the court makes that mother feel bad, therefore, she looks for others ways to take care of her problem, rather than taking the child to the PGN and declaring that she just can’t care for the child, she just takes matter in her own hands.

We have been with girls when they have been so brave to take the child to a court and declare only to have the social workers will say things like : “Dogs don’t even give up their puppies.” or “You look healthy, why can’t you take care of this baby?” or They just embarrass the girls with bad comments about their life style. Young mother’s don’t want to be subjected to that treatment, they have said to me, they would rather, “See the baby dead, than far away.” Or, “do I have to tell everything about my life?”

We have living in Guatemala nearly 30 yrs. We know the culture. This change is not going to make orphans disappear. There will be just more left alone and abandoned.

Our hearts are heavy about this, and we know that we must keep on loving these little ones."

I have to figure out a way to help. It is really difficult not to love Estelita as if she is mine already. But she isn't mine. She can represent the daughter I desire, and I can continue to identify what I can do to help her and the other babies who have been caught in this horrible ugly mess that UNICEF assisted in creating. And, now that UNICEF and our DOS succeeded in stopping adoptions from Guatemala, where are they? Are they helping take care of the abandoned babies? Are they helping the mothers? No, they are back in their ivory towers in their big cushioned offices. They are patting themselves on their backs & it is disgusting!