[beccashines]

How many of you plan to take trips back to Guatemala so your child can understand their bio families culture, background, etc?

Any thoughts, expertise in this area?

Thanks!

[preciousbaby]

We will take our son back when he is old enough to understand, and we will leave it up to him if he wants to go. We won't push him to go if he doesn't want to.

[Slatond10]

This is sort of an answer to this question and your other one on speaking Spanish.

It is my plan to go back to Guatemala or Antigua and take a Spanish Immersion class w/ DD since I don't know spanish either. At the same time I would like to incorporate a visit w/ her first family since we have contact.

In my heart it feels EXTREMELY important that DD have a open relationship with her first family and experience Guatemala first hand at a young age and on-going as she desires.

[wildboyz2]

We intend to take DD back when she is older so that she can visit her birth country and learn about her biological heritage.

[Anne1377]

Hi!

Our daughter has been home 4 years. Since she has been home, we have returned to Guatemala twice a year to visit with her foster and birth families and to spend time in her birth country. Because we have been there so much, we have very good friends there and they are able to take us around and show us much of the country. They have also been able to come to our home and allow us to show them where we live.

It is very important for us that our daughter knows her birth family, birth country, culture, heritage and traditions. These are things that we can not reproduce for her here. She enjoys visiting with her birth and foster families. She looks forward to going back to Guatemala to visit. She understands the concept of adoption and knows she was born in Guatemala. She loves to go by the hospital where she was born and asks to hear the story of her birth ( ie- the time she was born, how much she weighed, did she have any hair, etc).

This is what has worked for our family and we look forward to continue to do this.

Diane

[guatemama94]

This is great thing to do. Our DS was adopted at nearly 6 years old....He had been home for about 6 yrs when we were first able to take him back. When he got off the plane and walked out of the airport he took a deep breath and closed his eyes and sighed and said "ah, it smells like Guatemala....just like I remember it". My son is very proud of his Guatemalaness! He told me that in a way it will always feel like home there.

We will take our DD back with our DS in another year or 2. We just got our DD home....

I think because of our positive attitude about his heritage, he has maintained a very good outlook about it. With all the immigration tension these days, I think it's good to travel to Guatemala to give our kids a sense of who they are racially/ethnically and show them their beautiful country!

[annaguat]

DS adopted at 5 1/2 yrs old is now 18 and has not had the desire to go back. DD (bio sister adopted at 4) went back at 15 and liked it but she did not want to visit her hogar or try to locate the bio mother. I let them set the pace. They are proud of their heritage. I think DS has memories that aren't so great and this has made it hard for him to visit. He has gone to other countries Malawi (Africa), Phillipines, Europe and Mexico but is not ready for Guatemala. Anna

[mommytoEli]

we have been back once, without him, bc we are STILL waiting to get his passport....but we will go.....i just wrote on another thread though that i wonder how he will be treated when we do go back.

[TeeTee]

We def. plan to take dd to visit when she is older....unless things are really bad then we may wait for her decision to go when she is even older....

[Mardan]

We have not been back yet but we definately plan to take our son and daughter back to their birth country.

Julie (proud mom to a princess and a prince)

[jeannecr]

We already took our son back once, last summer, to visit the foster family and see more of the country. Everyone was so happy to see him, and several Guatemalans asked us if he had been adopted, and when we said yes, they were so pleased to know we were keeping ties with his birthcountry.

[IH8MEAT]

If he desires to go back, then we will take him!!

[lockharts]

We took our two older sons back to Guatemala in 2004. That is when we met our now THIRD son. It was a good experience. They really enjoyed it. They said that they don't want to live there, but they would visit again.
They were going into the 4th and 5th grades. I had read an article in an adoption magazine that had some recommendations. I hadn't considered it before they were in high school. But the article changed my mind.
Good luck. PM me if I can be of any assistance.

[arthymom]

We plan to go. We are keeping in touch with the foster mom.

Dd is so young still that we'll wait until she can really enjoy the experience, but not wait so long that she is at that developmental questioning.

I'm thinking when she is around 7 or 8, or possibly younger.

Take care,

[Quesita]

One of my most vivid fantasies is that of taking beautiful Liana to Tikal when she is old enough to appreciate the wonder of the ancient city that dominated the hemisphere for millenium. We will stay in the park itself, and our trip will coincide with the full moon, during the dry season. We will climb together to the top of Temple IV in the moonlight, and look down on the lesser skyscrapers peeking through the jungle from every direction for miles around. We will talk about her ancestors who studied the stars and built great trade routes, and who liked chocolate and tomatoes and squash, just like we do. We will talk of the great empire of her ancestors, and about their daily lives.

And we will visit other parts of the country as well. Her foster family await our return. And I want her to know her birth mother, and her bio siblings who live in Mixco.

When she is older, we will go work in a school or a medical center in a rural part of the country. I plan to do mitochondrial DNA, to find out which branch of the Mayan people dominate her ancestry, and it is to that part of the country I would like to go.

Oh yes. We will visit. Over and over.