[WesieMom]

Printed here as well!

[lifessence]

We got calls from everyone who knows we are adopting from Guatemala that reads the Philadelphia Inquirer!

I stopped answering the phone - tired of explaining our process. I can't answer for all others but I know ours is legit and that most are. I know there is still a black market situation down there - but that is NOT the majority and it is sad they felt it necessary to paint such an ugly picture of the adoption process there. Good luck with writing back to the paper. Let me know how it goes!

[Kaceysmama]

When I read the article on Yahoo, I was ready to blow a gasket. Thankfully, our local story was edited substantially and included mostly "verifiable facts & numbers", leaving out his biased and just plain ignorant comments. There were some truths included in the article, but they were extremely clouded by his personal opinions. Hope he enjoys his moment of fame now, because this is not good journalism.

How can you not walk away from it without a negative tone? It's definitely a case where both sides aren't represented. As mad as I was to think that someone will read this and formulate a negative opinion about our situation, all I could think of as a reply was "do you believe EVERYTHING you read in the paper?" If someone wants to DARE approach me and make a comment about my son as a "commodity", they will not walk away very easily. "Mess with the bull and you'll get the horns!".

Unfortunately, I think this situation is political. The government down there sees this as a money maker, I'm sure. This article helps them. It's ABSOLUTELY pathetic, but there has to be some truth to that. To say that they're doing it for the children is the textbook response. They may feel this is the case, but they also see they're missing out on revenue. I doubt the fees will be lowered once this treaty passes. If anything, ridding the system of the notaries, facilitators, etc. nets more money for the govt. It would be incredibly sad if our children weren't able to have the foster care they have now, but I wouldn't be suprised if that went away and more government run orphanages were established. This situation will not change as a result of the impending changes. There will still be children born into extreme poverty and there will still be ** who want to provide a more secure future for them.

Ok...off my soapbox. People may agree or disagree with me, but wanted to vent a bit.

God Bless these very special children!!

[Kaceysmama]

The more fuss that's made, the more gratification this moron receives.

Unfortunately, I've been thinking about this quite often these past couple of days. Probably much more than this clown deserves.

[sassycindy]

Yes, this article in horrendous and does a disservice to all of us and Guatemalan adoptions in general. However, I do think that positive action can be taken. I do feel that we should be writing letters to our editors of the local papers where this article has been published. We should be telling our side of the story and doing something positive for adoptions. I don't know if this will give the article "more publicity" or not, but at least we can tell our stories, our perspectives in a more public format to counteract some of the effect of his letter.

[Guatemommi]

I was outraged at this article and have already e-mailed quite a long letter to the editor of our local paper. Oddly, after doing so I got on this forum and realized that our paper printed a shorter version of the article. There is no mention of the Marriott, and the quote about growing up Guatamalan wasn't in our version (in Ohio). Wish it had been, I would have had more to say in my letter!

[Dachshund]

An Article about Guatemalan Adoptions was in the Sunday Seattles Times - It's infuriating - please e-mail the editor and explain that our adoptions are not "streamlined" or "easy". We do not get our children from "baby brokers".
mad mad mad

Melissa
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsourc...&date=20060730

[jeannecr]

We have been discussing this article--it originated from the AP. See other threads....

[MicheleB]

OK everyone - we had a half dozen different threads going on this topic and I have merged them all into one thread.

Hope this helps!