Family Update

As most of you know, we have been planning to adopt a little girl from Guatemala for quite some time. The process started a little over a year ago, and while we finished the necessary paperwork very quickly, the process has been a slow one ever since. The main reason has been the Hague Treaty, which countries around the world have been implementing in an effort to conform international adoptions. While the treaty is ultimately good for the children and their future families, countries like Guatemala have struggled to live up to the new rules due to the rampant corruption within the country. We knew about the Hague going into this, and also knew that Guatemala was near the top of the list for countries that would struggle with implementation, but we felt comfortable with the risk and confident we could get in under the deadlines.

So, today we received the bad news. And although it wasn’t entirely unexpected, we are very, very sad that it has come to this. Our adoption agency informed us today that Guatemala will not be allowing new adoptions for another year to year-and-a-half at a minimum. Our options were postpone until February 2009 and see if there is any change, switch countries, or drop out of the program. After weighing the three options, and carefully considering the impact of each on our family, we ultimately feel the best decision for our family is to drop out of the program.

We feel at peace with our decision and hope you support us in our effort to move on to other new adventures. We love you all.

Jon & Cher