Read below to see all the steps we need to take to bring our baby home.

In general, our agency manages to complete the process in 4-6 months from the time of referral of a child (due to the recent rush to adopt from Guatemala, this has changed to 6-8 months). Unlike most other countries, where children linger in a state run orphanage for months until they are referred, most after they are 1 year old, the babies in Guatemala are referred soon after birth and come home far earlier than in most international adoptions.

In Guatemala, the children are not institutionalized, but placed in a home with a caring foster mom, and adoptive families can maintain contact and a longterm relationship with their baby's first family.  The babies receive excellent medical care. Adoptive parents are also able to visit their babies as often as they want during the process.  As another option, our agency encourages us to foster the babies ourselves in Guatemala if we want (for which we gladly opted). We have been fostering-adopting in Antigua since 24 June.

Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in the western hemisphere with one of the highest rates of infant and maternal mortality. Close to 70% of the country's poor women are illiterate. Education and birth control are scare.  Women are often the sole caretakers in the family. The children relinquished for adoption usually come from families that are destitute by Guatemalan standards. The government provides no social services or help to poor families. None of the orphanages receive government support.

We are fostering Alessandro in Antigua, a city of about 38,000 people, about 1 hour outside of Guatemala City, and the former colonial capitol. We arrived in Guatemala on May 17, right after the Spring semester (2006) ended.  We arrived before we knew the gender of the child and actually, before he was born.  We traveled the country in order to learn as much as possible in order to relay the experience to Alessandro in the future. 

There are many other families that are fostering in Antigua, which makes a nice ex-pat/adoptive community here who support each other. We feel like it is a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn about our D'Ale's homeland and culture, learn a bit more Spanish, and be able to be with him so early in his life!  We are a bit different than most other adoptive families because both of us are able to stay here with him in Antigua.  Most families do not have the opportunity or the time to have both parents in Guatemala for such a long period of time.

With Guatemalan adoptions, there are two phases to adopting a child:

Phase I of the Guatemalan Adoption - The Paper Chase.
During the paper chase, the parents complete their home study, file the I600A form with USCIS for international adoption, get fingerprinted, and prepare their dossier of sometimes 30 or more documents. This stage can take anywhere from 3 to 6 months. 

Phase II of the Guatemalan Adoption – The Adoption Process.
When the adoptive parents are paper ready, the dossier is forwarded to the Guatemalan adoption attorney and the referral of a child is made. After reviewing the referral information, if the parents accept the child referral, the parents then execute a power of attorney giving the lawyer in Guatemala the authority to act on their behalf in the adoption and the process officially begins.

The Guatemala adoption then progresses in the following general order: