[kzwief]

When I was in Guatemala last week my foster family gave me their address and cell phone number. My foster mom asked if I could write and send pictures. How do you all do this? I don't speak Spanish, but would love to remain in contact, especially seeing my little girl is still under their care. I understand that I should be cautious, but I would love to have a relationship with them as they are such nice people. Any suggestions?

[preciousbaby]

Do you know anyone who speaks spanish? If you do, I would see if they would be willing to transulate for you. We have contact with our foster family and call once a week. My husband speaks spanish so he talks to them, but I don't . We just put them on speaker phone so I can hear our son. They will put our son on the phone and we can talk to him. Sometimes he doesn't want to talk and other times he talks away. It is very special to be able to hear him and talk to him. I just hope that when we go to pick him up that maybe he will recogize our voices, and the transition will be a little easier. If you can find a way, I would definetly at least call so you can talk to your little girl, or at least hear her. You can see how she is doing. Our foster family called us the day our son started walking. I was happy that he was walking, but sad at the same time, that we missed it. Also, you can learn about things that she is doing now, and things that she likes or doesn't like. You can keep up with her growing. I don't know if this helps at all, but my advice it to call if you can.

[robandjulie]

There are lots of ways to go about this. You can use the basket lady to translate and deliver letters and photos for you in addition to gifts if you'd like (PM me your email and I can forward her info to you). We do speak some Spanish and our foster family has a daughter who speaks English so we can muddle through. If you aren't that lucky, consider calling a local university or even HS and asking if they can recommend a local person to act as a translator. You can meet up with that person and make the phone call with his or her help. If that's not an option and you can figure out how to do 3-way calling to Guatemala you may be able to work something out with someone on here or something.

We talk to our foster family every 2-3 weeks via email and cell phone and it's wonderful. I love knowing they can reach me if there's something they think I should know and vice versa.

[judymend]

Hi Kim!

I translate many letter to foster families on this forum! I would love to help you in any way

If you'd like to have a 3 way conversation with them with me as your interpreter, I've done this as well. I'd be glad to help anytime. You could PM your letters, I'd translate them and you could send out to them. Do they happen to have an email address? This of course would be the most ideal, since you could simply email it to them and they would receive much faster. But regular US Mail is fine too, when I send special cards and small items to my foster family it usually takes about 2 weeks to receive, packages take a bit longer of course w/some costs incurred. Hope this helps.

Blessings

P.S.: Its Peter Jack's birthday this Saturday and his foster family will be calling him!!!! It is a wonderful Blessing to be able to share this way with them.

[PackGirl]

We keep in contact with all 4 of our foster families. I speak elementery Spanish...but it seems to be enough to get points across... such as everyone is ok...so and so is talking and growing...etc...
I have friends who are fluent and sometimes I have them call for me.

I also send letters, cards, and packages down using usps.... I try to send pics at least 4 times a year. One foster mom has an email addy...so we talk more often.

For us, it has been very valuable to have relationships with the foster families.

jmo

[Mariais5]

We keep up with Sofie's FM through email.. I use an online translation service to translate the emails.. Sometimes there are portions that don't translate, but I can always get the jist of what they are trying to say.. I'm not sure how they translate my emails..

Last week, out of the blue, we received a card from Bryce's FM.. I hadn't heard from her since our pick up trip in Jan of 06! We had mailed her some pictures back in Nov of 06, and she was thanking us for them.. We are planning a couple of trips to Guatemala this year and hope to meet up with both of these wonderful families..

[Rhody]

We're in touch with our son's foster family through email, and we have also send pictures and video through our agency. We also have used the basket lady to send pictures. She also translates if that is needed.
I usually just have a friend translate the letters. We have also had a local Spanish high school teacher who is Guatemalan help with translations.
We send pictures every three months or so, usually with a letter talking about how our son is, and what he is doing now.

[Devora]

We maintain contact. Here's how:

- We send letters and photos through our attorney who is happy to call the foster family and the dad picks up the letters from the attorney's office.

- The letters are sent through our agency. Once they no longer have cases in Guatemala we may go the courier route (Jose Pineda).

- If you want to use UPS or FedEx be aware that they do not deliver to all locations in Guatemala. They mostly deliver to GC and Antigua. However, the US offices will tell you they deliver everywhere; they are wrong. Call headquarters and ask for the international shipping department to find out if they deliver to where you need to go.

- I pay a local college student to translate letters for me. This is a cheap way to do it and at the same time it supports a college student, gives them translation experience, etc. I found the student by contacting the chair of the Spanish department and asking for a recommendation of someone who would have the necessary skills and also would have a professional attitude. It's been great.

- Vilma Paz (aka "the Basket Lady") has a reputation of being reliable and will deliver letters as well as baskets.

[jking5344]

Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL International

I use this translation website. I write in English, cut and paste, and send Willow's foster mother emails almost every day. I email pictures of us to help her know where Willow is going. She emails back very often and I cut and paste again on the translation website. It's not perfect either way, but it's close enough that we can figure out most of what we're each saying. I've had a Spanish teacher at my school read them to be sure it's close enough for me to keep using it. Everything my collegue translated from our exchanges was very, very close! And the best part is it's free (and I don't have to depend on anyone else).

Good luck. Either way, you will love having this contact. If probems do happen to come up, you'll figure out how to handle them. It's definitely worth the slight risk of issues.

Jessie

[kzwief]

Thank you for that site, looks good to me. I will try it when writing letters.

[cjrogers]

I'm in contact with ours. I do speak spanish, but you can easily have a friend, someone on our board or even Google or AltaVista's Babelfish help you translate a simple letter online.

I think yes, remain cautious, but you *can* say no if you feel that they are taking advantage. I think it's a great thing and your child will appreciate the opportunity to meet or at least "know" all about this person who got him or her through the first months and/or years of their lives!

Good luck!