Blog - visit Judge and Lobbying Washington

He’s not walking full time yet, despite Veronica’s daily walking boot camp with him! We’ve had several guesses as to the date/time — who will be the winner?!

The Antigua judge visited Semillas today to do an “inventory.” Apparently the inventory was the result of the Chimaltenango forensic doctor’s visit some time ago and the fact that his count of the kids did not match up with somebody else’s count from before. So though it scared us when we first heard about it, it ended up being solely administrative and went very smoothly.
In the end it was kind of nice actually, as at one point almost all 51 of the Semillas kids were in the center courtyard awaiting entry to Luvia’s office to meet the judge. All the kids were well behaved, and many adoptive parents were there also. Ellora presented Julia, I presented Lorenzo, and the Semillas doctor Leti presented Leo.

The kids await to be counted by the Antigua judge....

The Nannies watch the toddlers outside of Luvia's office...

Several adoptive parents played with their kids while waiting.

The judge's assistant counts little Esperanza as Luvia and Nancy look on...

We have some major news — Julia and Lorenzo’s MP letters declaring their investigations complete and free of any problems have left the MP and delivered to the PGN! As most of you know we have been waiting for almost 2 months for these, as without them *everything* was frozen. The letters’ release opens the door for their cases to finish in PGN and, if the judge in Chimaltenango holds true to her word, allow them to go home once they get their Guatemalan passports and US Visas.

We are thrilled but cautiously optimistic, as we are now in a position of having to wait for the PGN again, and we know this can take time. We’re a long way from being even close to done…..

This is also very good news for Leo (the MP claims that they are waiting for a report from the Hospital that he was born in) and the rest of the Semillas children. It demonstrates that the MP does have every intention to release the letters for all children. Let’s hope some more are released soon!

On November 4, 2008 , we had some fun and introduced the Semillas kids to the world of photography.  After a quick lesson from G, the bigger kids (ages 4-13) were given a disposable Kodak camera (thank you Grandma Deb and Grandpa Donnie!) and turned loose to capture life at Semillas de Amor!  They absolutely ate it up and it really warmed my heart seeing the kids having fun with the camera.  I was also thrilled because, after about 5 attempts that were cancelled due to rain, we ended up with what I think might be the best weather I have ever seen since Arizona!  

G gives the kids a quick photography lesson!

Armed and Dangerous!

Once the big kids were done we handed out cameras to the smaller children (ages 2-3), and assigned them a big kids “tutor” to help them out.  We were flabbergasted at how caring and helpful the bigger kids were — if only us adults could be so kind to each other….

The kids founds lots of beauty at Semillas!

Jefferson received a little help from his friend Ellora

Even the Nannies got into the project!

So the big news is that we will be releasing a BOOK of the kids images for Holiday sales!   We are going to do it up right and have a book release party and an exhibition at Semillas of the kids’ images, complete with sparkling cider and snacks.  The proceeds of the book will help fund our nascent foundation called Futuro de los Ninos (www.futurodelosninos.org).  More on that later…..  :)

p.s. HUGE shouts to Ellora for all of her help with this project.  Also huge shouts to Gaby, Nancy’s daughter, for her translation skills.  Thanks, gals!

Today the kids got all spiffed up for the upcoming “Dia de las Gracias”, as my stylist Karla came in and found only moderate resistance from the ninos!
Lorenzo was a superstar (and Karla spoke English so no shaved head today), Julia loved it after a rocky start, and Leo was good for 90% of the time — hates getting those sideburns cut!

Lorenzo was $$

Julia loved it after a tearful start

This pic is sorta unfair - Leo was great for 90% of the cut today

Good grief, not the thumbs up, Karla!

My last morning in Washington, DC was spent paying a visit to my Senator from New York, Hillary Clinton.  Her office did not make it to our meeting the day before so I stopped by to get them up to speed.  I met with one of her staffers named Chelsea (no, not that Chelsea!), who was apologetic about not being there the day before and also extremely interested in the Semillas story.  Overall a great success, as now all of my reps from NY are appraised of the latest news with Semillas. 

Hillary

I took my last hour in DC to just walk around.  I walked down Capital Hill to the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.  It was crystal clear and about 30 degrees out side with a stiff wind.  Luckily I had brought an extra pair of socks to use as mittens. I told Ellora today that I feel changed from this trip.  To see our government work, and that’s exactly how it felt, was such a refreshing change from our experience over the past year.  I’ve never felt luckier to be a US citizen and will be scary patriotic should they follow through and help us out of this mess.

Capital Hill

At the Senate....

Washington Monument

….was the day we took these “first” photos.  Happy Anniversary, family!

First Photo of LL Cool J!

First Family Photo - November 19,2007

Our meetings in DC are complete — and the overall feeling from the Semillas team is that it definitely *exceeded* expectations.  The superstars of the day were Mark Moore and Kathleen Strottman at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (www.ccainstitute.org) and Rebecca Harris at JCICS, who helped us arrange the two meetings today with the our Congressional representatives and the US Department of State.  Mark,Kathleen, and Rebecca were sharp, experienced, and sympathetic to the Semillas situation.

Rebecca Harris (JCICS), Kathleen Strottman (CCAI), and Mark Moore (CCAI)

Our first meeting with our Congressional representatives was very successful according to Kathleen, who is experienced in these type of meetings and was impressed with the number of representatives who approached her afterwards with ideas on how to help.  In this meeting I educated the reps on the where Semillas is currently and then each of the adoptive parents told their story briefly.  It was more than emotionally charged to the point where a couple of parents couldn’t finish their story and had to sit down.  Many of the reps were obviously moved.  Nancy then told the Semillas story brilliantly, and we finished up with many questions and comments from the reps. 

Nancy Bailey meeting Mark Moore of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute

Nancy presenting to our Congressional representatives.

We then met with the US Department of State.  This meeting was tremendously different in tone, the DOS was not as interested in emotionally stories as they were in the “nitty gritty” of how many children have made it home since the raids (0) and how we were interacting with the Embassy in Guatemala.  An amazing development ensued — the US DOS in Washington agreed to be our main contact with regards to our situation instead of the US Embassy in Guatemala (who we have received very little contact with).  This was a VERY positive development that we were all thrilled with. 

We debriefed back at the CCAI — and once again they were rock stars.  They suggested 3 or 4 actions items based on the meeting and again offered to take the lead on them.  We should start seeing them work on these action items as early as tomorrow.  

Several of the adoptive parent visited their individual representatives with amazing results.  Our friends Gina and Camille from New Jersey met with their congressional representative, who oh by the way just happens to be from Guatemala!  And another parent met with his SENATOR, who promised to make a potentially influential phone call to the Guatemala General Counsel at the Embassy on Monday.  This has inspired me and I plan to get up early and try to visit Senator Clinton’s office in the morning before our flight. 

More after I return from Guatemala tomorrow!  On a scale of 1 to 10 I give today an 8 - with a potential to be bumped up based on follow up results.   Keep them fingers crossed!

Fall in Washington, DC

In Front of the Capital!

After a long day of travel I am in Washington,DC!  Tomorrow we meet with the Congressional Coalition of Adoption at 10am and then meet with our Congressional reps at 11am in the Senate.  We follow this up with a meeting with the US Department of State at 1pm.  THIS IS IT!

I had a very good sign tonight. I was riding in a taxi from the airport and was greeted by an amazing sight — the almost full moon, glistening in the Potomac River, rising right behind the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.  The stars seem to be aligned!

Ellora and I had an intense meeting with our lawyer Bernardo yesterday, who provided us with a tremendous amount of information that we can take to Capital Hill on Tuesday about what he has been battling.  Bernardo is extremely hopeful that we find some help, as he confirmed that this is a political situation and that he can only do so much legally as the opposing forces in the PGN are not abiding by the laws of Guatemala.  We’ll be working hard all weekend preparing for the meeting, and on Monday I’ll be on a plane while Ellora holds down our Guatemalan fort.