I Want My GusTV!

Wednesday we received an old-school (VHS, not DVD)-style video of Gus in the mail. It's about 5 minutes, and looks as though it was taken in the office of the coordinator in Guatemala, who narrated it. He spent most of the time wiggling. When they turned him over on his tummy to show us how he could lift up his head, he looked around for his foster mother, who was making funny noises (and presumably faces) at him from behind the camera. His foster mother said that he almost always sleeps through the night already, and that he takes two naps a day and spends the rest of his time wiggling. He's awfully cute in motion.

The not-so-good news: the political situation in Guatemala regarding adoption is always volatile, and it's been more rather than less in the past week. I can't explain very clearly what is going on, because no one seems to really know at this point. But yesterday the Guatemalan President presented what seems to be an executive order which would change how international adoptions are conducted--however, he probably doesn't have the authority to enforce his order, and portions of it appear to be illegal under current Guatemalan law. We don't know how the Guatemalan Congress, which is working on changes of its own to bring Guatemala into line with the Hague Convention standards, will take to the President's appropriation of their jobs. The President says that his order is only a stop-gap, but it may be sufficient to get the UNICEF money that has been offered to Guatemala as well as to snarl the system pretty effectively until the Congress finishes its work. That's all we know. No one has any idea when the changes will take place or how they will affect families currently in process.

No panicking, anyone. The uncertainty is all part of international adoption, and we knew that when we decided to start this process. Please join us in praying that wisdom would prevail, and that the people who make decisions would have the best interests of the children as their primary agenda.