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Our two sons (now 10 and 8 yrs) came two yrs apart, both at age four from the same small, loving orphanage in Guatemala City. It was founded over 25 yrs ago by some women who believed they could do better for the children of Guatemala. They only work with a few agencies, and we'd used one such agency when we adopted our US newborn daughter 14 yrs ago. We were comfortable with the situation, knowing that our agency has worked with this director and founder of this orphanage for about 18 yrs. It is a clean, comfortable home-like facility. From photos, we can see that they paint often (different wall colors), adding colorful murals for the kids. The kids are taken to the zoo, pinata parties at Burger King, they put on a Christmas Nativity play each year for others, celebrate each child's birthday with cake and their favorite meal, and the older children attend private school, since the public school system seems lacking. A large portion of our adoption fees goes directly back into the daily expenses to run the facility, which has always made us feel better about the expense of foreign adoption. There are only ever 30-35 children there, and the ratio of children to caregiver is about 6-1...as good as US daycares and better than our public classrooms!

We are awaiting the anticipated call within the next wks to travel to bring home our 10yr old daughter from the same orphanage. She's been there since about 2yrs old, but only legally declared abandoned about 1yr ago. We are confident she has been receiving love and good care, which has always made the long wait more bearable.

Though every orphanage is different, I share the details of our situation, in the hopes of helping dispel myths seen on TV exposing the "horrors" of the adoption world. I even hate to use the word "orphanage" , because of the images it brings to people's minds.

Of course our kids did not have the benefit of living in a family from the start, but they were taught to love and respect others...and what a great start that was for them. They are beautiful, fun, loving boys..and we're so thankful for the love and care they received before they came home.

Best wishes. Ask God to lead in your adoption journey. He knows the plans He has for you (Jeremiah 29:11) and for any child He may bring into your family. We could never have "found" our children, but God brought us together from different places on the globe.