Guatemalan adoptions put on hold due to legislation
00:03 EST
Shortly after, they were followed by Greg and Melissa Shumante of Reading, who brought home their 11-month-old daughter, Carmen.
Samuel and Carmen are among the last of the Guatemalan children that will be adopted by American parents — at least for a while.
Bethany Christian Services of Lancaster, the agency that processed the Reinfried and Shumante adoptions, has just a few more families who will be able to bring home children from Guatemala before the doors close.
Only adoptions that had been in process prior to Feb. 8, 2007, are expected to be completed, according to Steve Royster, spokesman for consular affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
Bethany stopped accepting applications for new Guatemalan adoptions last September because the national agency's attorneys saw the uncertainties increasing.
Pointing the way to the uncertainties was the United States' upcoming ratification and enactment of the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-Operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, an agreement signed by more than 70 countries. The United States enacted the agreement on April 1.
"The (Hague) Convention provides a framework for Convention countries to work together to ensure that adoptions take place in the best interests of children and to prevent the abduction, sale or trafficking of children in connection with intercountry adoption," according to the State Department's adoptive parent guide to understanding the Hague Convention.
If Hague countries don't have that infrastructure in place, the Hague Convention prohibits adoptions between the two countries.
Therein lies the problem between the United States and Guatemala.
State Department officials knew the United States planned to enact the Hague Convention this year, and they were quite sure that Guatemala's adoption infrastructure was not in compliance with Hague regulations.
So the State Department issued warnings to American adoption agencies and adoptive parents in June 2007, cautioning against adopting from Guatemala.
About that time, the Reinfrieds had just made the decision to adopt a second child from Guatemala.
"Their warning was based on their inability to guarantee that the process would proceed 'smoothly' since Guatemala did not have Hague-compliant procedures in place," Shawn Reinfried wrote in an e-mail, soon after returning home with their son.
Reinfried said they entered into the process knowing it could be arduous but placed faith in God to help them get a sibling for their daughter, Delia.
"Our main concern in proceeding with the Guatemala program was that there was a possibility that our case would end up in limbo somewhere between the existing law of adoptions in Guatemala and any new legislation that might come into place."
The June warning from the State Department also was based on reports of fraud, in which impostors pretended to be mothers of children who weren't theirs. Investigations also were being conducted into American adoption agencies and facilitators.
Greg Shumante said he had confidence in Bethany Christian Services.
"The good thing about using a reputable agency is that, wherever possible, they have been acting in general compliance with the Hague for a number of years," Shumante said. "The agency we used has been … working only with ethical, licensed facilitators in Guatemala, China or wherever."
Guatemala continues to try to put an adoption system in place to meet the requirements of the Hague Convention, and the U.S. State Department and the Joint Council on International Children's Services have been offering assistance.
Americans adopted more than 4,700 children from Guatemala in 2007, so stopping new adoptions from Guatemala affects many prospective parents.
No one seems to be sure what will happen with future Guatemalan adoptions. When Shumante was in Guatemala to adopt Carmen, he spoke with Guatemalans about what they thought would develop.
He said he heard speculation that the National Adoption Council will give first priority for adoption to a biological family, then other Guatemalan families, before considering American families.
Reinfried spoke to a man who worked with Bethany's agency in Guatemala. This man feared the Hague legislation, as interpreted by Guatemala, would lengthen the time it takes for a child to find a permanent home.
Basically, he told Reinfried that while the Hague legislation would end corruption of unethical attorneys and adoption facilitators, it also had the potential to end international adoption, leaving thousands of children without the possibility of having a "forever family."
Tom DiFilipo, president and chief executive officer for the Joint Council on International Children's Services, shares that concern. Although the countries have met Hague requirements on paper, many adoption agencies in Central and South America are simply not functioning, he said.
Children are not being placed in homes and few countries, except for Brazil and Colombia, have a strong social service network to support the orphans. Therefore children are left in orphanages, live on the streets, end up in forced labor and get involved in illegal activities, DiFilipo said.
E-mail: lespenshade@lnpnews.com