Guatemalan Adoptions on Dateline NBC

I copied & pasted this from www.guatadopt.com .

January 19, 2008
Welcome Dateline NBC Viewers

Guatadopt.com would like to thank you for wanting to learn more about Guatemalan adoptions. Admittedly, you've stumbled to the right place to do that.
An adoption attorney once told me "at its best, there is no adoption system as good as Guatemala's, at its worst, there is none worse". This statement is incredibly true.
Tens of thousands of families like ours have been formed through adoption from Guatemala. For many of us, our experience was far more than an adoption process, because our lives grew in ways beyond just the size of our families.
Many of us remain involved in the community of adoptive families through websites like this, local community groups, and other means. Many of us now have a devotion to help alleviate the extreme poverty in Guatemala that leads to children needing families. One such example is Do Good, LLC – a company created by this site’s founder and chief writer that sells ethically produced items and where every sale helps feed a child a Guatemala. You can find it here:http://www.do-good-stuff.com
Guatemalan adoptions were not all corrupt. It is horribly wrong and inaccurate to assume all children adopted from Guatemala came to this country through a corrupt process. More importantly, it is incredibly unfair to the children. But as is the case with any system, the combination of money and poor law enforcement created an atmosphere for corruption.
Guatadopt.com provided a good deal of help to NBC in creating this story. We knew that it would most likely show more of the dark side of Guatemalan adoptions that involved a small minority of all cases than it would how most of our families grew. But we felt that only by helping show all the truths of the system might the public be able to understand this institution so many of us hold dear. That goal shows true by the fact that people like you are here to learn more.
One of our writers, Troy Webb, was featured on the Dateline show. You can read his “Second Time Around” blog that chronicles his adoption and interactions with NBC in our writer’s corner here: http://www.guatadopt.com/WritersCorner/SecondTime/
Intercountry adoption is an incredibly complex issue. It is political. It can be easily sensationalized. It is heart warming. But as Dateline has demonstrated, something that is obviously a wonderful concept – children finding families despite border – can run awry if left open to unethical opportunists. The real debate lies in what should be done when unethical and abusive practices exist.
The global norm is to stringently reform intercountry adoption laws. For example, Romania has formally ended the practice. Through much of Central and Southern America the trend has been to create an underfunded, complex, bureaucratic system that keeps intercountry adoption open on paper, but in reality makes it virtually impossible. The latter has occurred. No one, not even the critics of intercountry adoption like Unicef, can say what the impact has been on children. In an effort to remove corruption, are we throwing away the baby with the bathwater?
It is quite amazing that we live in a world where countless children die each day from malnutrition and other curable diseases. This is a world where children languish in squalid institutions and orphanages because their parent(s) knew that was better than what they could provide. And this is a world where there are many thousands of loving adults who just want to be parents and provide a family for a child.
Our children are not our “adopted children”, they are just our kids the same as anyone else’s. They are our purpose in life. They are the sparkle in our eyes. We love them more than words could describe. Our families may have been formed through intercountry adoption and because of this we celebrate Guatemalan holidays, we sleep in cunas rather than cribs, and we drink pachas rather than bottles.
Thanks again for visiting.
Sincerely,
Kelly Caldwell and Kevin KreutnerFounder and Chief Writer for Guatadopt.com Posted by Kevin at January 19, 2008 06:40 PM