Selfish headline of the year

"Adoption changes wrench American parents"

I've been watching the whole Guatemala adoption fiasco from afar, safely afar. We have discussed adopting in the past, but are no where near even starting the process. We have friends who have discussed it or are actively in the process. Thus I feel that I have compassion for the families who have been hurt by the chaos that is the Guatemala adoption system. But whom I have more compassion for are the parents of Guatemala who might had been duped into selling their children or even had their children stolen from them.

The small Central American country sent 4,135 children to the U.S. last year, making it the largest source of babies for American families after much-bigger China.

The adoptions are a $100 million a year industry for notaries.

Our government is pushing the Guatemalan government to allow the adoptions that are already in process to go on despite up to 1,000 cases where forged birth certificates or even mothers have changed their minds are documented. 1,000 children who should be with their blood families.

The women of Guatemala are not to be seen or treated as poor surrogates for the United States.

I firmly believe that if you are a real loving human being, you would want to make sure 1,000% that the baby you are about to remove from its homeland is truly up for adoption and NOT stolen. Yes, I hate the idea of children in their first few years living in homes, without someone to rock them to sleep every night, but do you really think stealing them is better? Makes you a better person? What about the mother who cries herself to sleep each night wondering what happened to her lil girl?

I really feel for all sides in this issue, but I'm on the side of the birth mothers and the children. In 20 years when your adopted son or daughter is going through some historical documents, what will you say when they ask you, "Was I stolen?"

Technorati tags: Guatemala, adoption