Proposed Guatemalan Law
I added some links to a couple sites you may find interesting. I plan to add links to other sites about adoption in general, Guatemalan adoption, and perhaps other people's blogs or sites as I encounter them. I will of course, obtain permission before posting a link to anyone's personal site or blog.
One in particular is a link to a site about a proposed Guatemalan law change. The proposal is apparently aimed at eliminating some inefficiencies in the legal process, which would be great if it worked as planned. However, the law would also ban single parent adoptions. This has, of course, caused much controversy amongst Guatemalan lawmakers, so the legislation has been slow to make it's way through the system. As a side note, the link also has some interesting information about how a law is passed in Guatemala.
If I may digress for a moment, I personally believe it would be a mistake to ban single parent adoptions, because there are many great single people would make great parents. I know the child benefits from having both parents as well, but again, in my opinion, I think a single parent can raise strong well rounded children, and hopefully have people of the opposite gender in their life (fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, etc) that can help provide that perspective to the child's life. There are so many children needing homes that it would be unfortunate to turn away people who could provide loving, secure homes for those children.
Okay, I'll get off my pedestal now, and just tell you that whatever you feel about this proposal, it does represent a potential delay to our adoption if it were to pass prior to referral. Essentially, the country's adoption process would 'close' until the new process were in place. We have been told that if we receive and accept a referral prior to the law being passed, we will proceed under the previous process and should not be delayed. So, we are of course hoping that it either fails or continues to be stalled in debate until after we have reached that all important milestone.
One in particular is a link to a site about a proposed Guatemalan law change. The proposal is apparently aimed at eliminating some inefficiencies in the legal process, which would be great if it worked as planned. However, the law would also ban single parent adoptions. This has, of course, caused much controversy amongst Guatemalan lawmakers, so the legislation has been slow to make it's way through the system. As a side note, the link also has some interesting information about how a law is passed in Guatemala.
If I may digress for a moment, I personally believe it would be a mistake to ban single parent adoptions, because there are many great single people would make great parents. I know the child benefits from having both parents as well, but again, in my opinion, I think a single parent can raise strong well rounded children, and hopefully have people of the opposite gender in their life (fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, etc) that can help provide that perspective to the child's life. There are so many children needing homes that it would be unfortunate to turn away people who could provide loving, secure homes for those children.
Okay, I'll get off my pedestal now, and just tell you that whatever you feel about this proposal, it does represent a potential delay to our adoption if it were to pass prior to referral. Essentially, the country's adoption process would 'close' until the new process were in place. We have been told that if we receive and accept a referral prior to the law being passed, we will proceed under the previous process and should not be delayed. So, we are of course hoping that it either fails or continues to be stalled in debate until after we have reached that all important milestone.
posted by Jill | 2:53 PM
1 Comments:
welcome to blogland, Jill!!!! I'm going to use you as my guatamalan expert when it's our turn!
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