Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Good News...A New Proposal!

I don't know if this is just Guatemalan politics playing out, or if the 5000 families made an impact (or both), but I woke up this morning with this announcement:

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JCICS (www.jcics.org) has just formally announced the following:

We can now report that members of the Guatemalan Congress, including numerous party chiefs, have submitted a new legislative proposal which:

- includes a strong ‘grandfather’ clause,

-designates April 30 2008 as the effective implementation date of the Convention,

-allocates $5 million Quetzales ($650,000 USD) for the creation of the Central Authority,

-allocates a percentage of the total government budget for child welfare services

-creates a new government entity to act as the Central Authority in Guatemala,

-provides for private non-profit accredited entities to provide services to children,

-allows single potential adoptive parents to apply for adoption,

-and creates a functional process by which children can find a permanent, safe and loving family
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For Natalie specificially, this could mean that we would be grandfathered (not sure of any specifics) - and with the Hague not being implemented until April (when the US is supposed to implement) - it give us four more months to get the heck out fo there.

THIS IS ONLY A PROPOSAL AND HAS NOT BEEN VOTED ON YET. We are just ecstatic that their Congress has at least acknowledged many of the issues we were concerned about.

It's at least a step in the right direction and gives us some major hope. Woooo Hoooo!!!!!

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