Say no to....

UNICEF!!!! I never meant to use this blog as a sounding board for anything other than my adoption process and following Charli and I as we grow as a family. However, after today's news I had to say something. There is an organization called Guatemala900 that in all honesty should not even be in existance. Why? Because the 900 waiting children they are working so hard to help bring home should already be home. These children are the ones paying the price. You see back in the spring of 2008, I was a member of the Guatemala 5000. Charli was one of the 5000 kids who had waiting parents and was considered "in process". We were promised that if we had our referral by December 31, 2007 we would be allowed to complete our adoption process under their old rules. That did not happen as many of you know from following my blog during the process. Now there are still 900 children waiting. What saddens mean, is that some of these families were in process before me and some at the same time as me and they are still IN PROCESS!!! And now UNICEF has made a very large donation to Norma Cruz and her organization. Granted what Norma professes is that she is working on behalf of women's rights in Guatemala, but that does not seem to be the whole story. She is also promoting extended family in country adoptions. They are investigating and digging up supposed family members to bring them to the courts and claim they want custody of the children. I can NOT imagine the torture of being in process for 3 and a half years as one person I used to chat with on my forum has been only now to be waiting for a court hearing in August to see if these people really are the biological grandparents, if they are fit to be parents and if the judge will rule that they get to proceed to adopt my child or if I will be granted the right to proceed.

What can you do?? Keep these families in your prayers and well, pass the word that UNICEF is NOT an organization to support. You can also follow the progress of Guatemala 900 at: www.guatemala900.org