OPTIMISTIC NEWS FROM GUATEMALA
Guatemala Minister Counselor Fernando de la Cerda is returning to Washington, DC today after an intense 10 day trip to Guatemala which included 2 meetings with Guatemala President Alvaro Colom. Fernando is reporting significant progress in finding solutions for moving the adoption cases of the Guatemala900 forwards towards resolution. Fernando's efforts in Guatemala also included individual meetings with the PGN, CNA, Court of Appeals, MP, and with his own Department of Foreign Ministry.
On Monday, July 26th, President Colom hosted a meeting with the highest level officials from the PGN, CNA, MP and several high level lawyers. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss adoptions, including the resolution of the grandfathered cases. The same group along with the Deputy Secretary of Interior and high level officials from the SecretarÃa de Bienestar Social (SBS) convened again on Monday, August 2nd and will do so again next Monday, August 9th. Fernando reports that President Colom was sympathetic to the children who are in limbo and spearheaded discussions with the other officials about how cases can start to accelerate towards resolution. Fernando is optimistic that end result should be some significant measurable progress in the coming weeks and months.
Guatemala Minister Counselor Fernando de la Cerda is returning to Washington, DC today after an intense 10 day trip to Guatemala which included 2 meetings with Guatemala President Alvaro Colom. Fernando is reporting significant progress in finding solutions for moving the adoption cases of the Guatemala900 forwards towards resolution. Fernando's efforts in Guatemala also included individual meetings with the PGN, CNA, Court of Appeals, MP, and with his own Department of Foreign Ministry.
On Monday, July 26th, President Colom hosted a meeting with the highest level officials from the PGN, CNA, MP and several high level lawyers. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss adoptions, including the resolution of the grandfathered cases. The same group along with the Deputy Secretary of Interior and high level officials from the SecretarÃa de Bienestar Social (SBS) convened again on Monday, August 2nd and will do so again next Monday, August 9th. Fernando reports that President Colom was sympathetic to the children who are in limbo and spearheaded discussions with the other officials about how cases can start to accelerate towards resolution. Fernando is optimistic that end result should be some significant measurable progress in the coming weeks and months.
The Guatemala 900 group posted this information last week and I'm sure everyone involved is on the edges of their seats as we wait to see what happens next. Our problem is, we aren't sure if our case is still considered "grandfathered" since the judge sent Nola's file to CNA. The Childrens Issues department of the DOS seems to think we have lost our "grandfathered" status and would now be processed as a new case. I'm not sure how the last almost three years of our process could be tossed aside and forgotten but our DOS doesn't seem to be putting any effort into figuring that out. The Guatemala 900 folks, on the other hand, are of the opinion, "once a grandfathered case, always a grandfathered case". I like the way they think better. For now, we just wait and see what happens. I would really like to look back through this blog and see how many times I've written that phrase......."we'll just wait and see what happens".
I did get a message from the lawyer at CNA stating it would not be necessary for me to come back down right now and that he would respond to an e-mail message from me. Mayra sent one and I did the same including information on our case and pictures. Mayra also just got the "golden ticket" from our ex-lawyer's office allowing her to retrieve our file and dossier from PGN and take it to CNA as proof of our grandfathered status.
Please continue to join us in praying that all of the children who are stuck in this unfortunate situation are united with their forever families soon!
We also owe a big THANK YOU to the Guatemala 900 organization whose tireless efforts seem to finally be paying off.
THANK YOU GUAT900!!!
1 comment:
praying for Nola and your family and all the little ones who are waiting to come home to their families. Continue to persevere -- many people who don't know you are praying for you and your daughter.
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