Pgh Trib Review Article

This is an article that was posted in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review (and was sent to me by my Aunt Diane - thanks! :-)... it may help explain things a bit better than I can. Please go to www.5000orphans.com and sign the petition if you have not had a chance to.. we are 5 weeks and 4 days in PGN... Let us OUT, Sr. Barrios... soon, soon, soon!

Thanks for all of you who have been praying, who have signed the online petition and who have smiled at me while I have been difficult the past few weeks... I swear I will smile more once he is in my arms! Congrats to my blog friends who have recently got OUT - how wonderful to read a few outs lately! Also, to Natalie and Joel who will be traveling soon on their first visit trip - give her a squeeze for us! And lastly, to my dear "adoption elf" whose son will be sleeping in their house this weekend. It is about time! I love you guys!

Edict on Guatemalan adoption worries families
By Richard RobbinsTRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, October 5, 2007
Annette Merlino is confident that by Christmas her adopted child -- a 7-month-old baby girl from Guatemala -- will be living with her and her husband at their Delmont home. "She's beautiful," Merlino said of the baby the couple has named Leia. "She's perfect." One of more than 3,000 U.S. families awaiting Guatemalan adoptions, Merlino said her faith in God is so strong that she believes nothing will stand in her way -- even an order by the president of Guatemala. Oscar Berger said he would freeze adoptions to the United States on Jan. 1, even those that were started months earlier and are considered in the "pipeline." "I'm at peace," she said. "I believe (the adoption) is going to happen. But I am worried about other families." Merlino said it doesn't make any sense for Guatemala not to "grandfather in" pending adoptions. "It doesn't make any sense for Guatemala," she said. "It doesn't make any sense for the children." The problem, according to private adoption officials in the United States, has a number of dimensions. First, the United States will not have fully adopted a new international agreement on adoptions by Guatemala's Jan. 1 deadline. The United States is expected to be in full compliance by April. Second, even though Guatemala's formal compliance with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions will fall on the first day of the new year, the governmental infrastructure that would give life to the agreement is not expected to be in place. The Guatemalan national legislature recently passed a series of laws -- principally concerned with oversight -- that would give life to the international pact but failed to appropriate money to carry out the measures. According to Tom Defilipo, of the private U.S.-based Joint Council on International Children's Services, these are the "legal reasons" for the freeze on adoptions. "The rationale from the perspective of the Guatemalan government is their belief that there is a high incidence of corruption with the adoption process in Guatemala," Defilipo said. Defilipo, whose group is headquartered in Alexandria, Va., said charges of corruption stem largely from the activities of money-grubbing Guatemalan attorneys at the heart of the adoption process in that country. The attorneys reportedly offer relatively large sums of money to Guatemalan women as inducements to give up their babies. Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in Central America. According to Defilipo, the average cost of an adoption in Guatemala is $30,000, nearly twice as expensive as adoptions from countries such as China and Russia. U.S. families have been turning increasingly to Guatemala for adoptions over the last several years, because of Guatemala's proximity to the United States and its relaxed adoption rules in comparison to Russia and countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. Plus, Defilipo said, the children are highly "adaptable." Tina Fratangeli of Hopewell in Beaver County is a would-be single mom who has her heart set on gaining custody of a 15-month-old Guatemalan girl. "I have a daughter; her name is Mela Ana," Fratangeli said. "I've been to Guatemala City three times to see her. She calls me Mom." Fratangeli said Guatemalan officials have put a number of unexpected obstacles in her path recently -- more paperwork that may take weeks to review. With the Jan. 1 deadline looming, Fratangeli is trying to remain upbeat. At the same time, she is prepared to move to Guatemala to wait out the process and to take custody of Mela Ana, if necessary. Merlino, who will visit Guatemala next week with her husband, Tom Felmley, to see Leia, indicated she is prepared to do the same thing if worse comes to worse. U.S. families seeking Guatemalan adoptions are expected to "blitz" congressional offices, as well as the Guatemalan government, with letters and petitions next week aimed at reversing the order of the Berger government. The State Department, on its Web site, said the U.S. government "is asking the government of Guatemala to allow (adoption) cases, now pending, to proceed to completion without additional requirements." Melissa Merriman of Greensburg, who brought her adopted son, Madden, home on Tuesday from Guatemala, said charges of corruption in the adoption process in that country do not make sense. The Merrimans, including husband Justin, a photographer for the Tribune-Review, began the adoption procedure in October 2006. "I think it's absolutely ridiculous (the charges of corruption)," Merriman said. "They make you dot all the i's and cross all the t's." Madden's birth mother declared that she was voluntarily giving up her child on four separate occasions, Merriman said. Twice, she said, the mother's and the child's DNA were checked to make sure babies hadn't been switched. Merriman said Madden, a year old, is adjusting well. "We are happy to be home," she said.