Red tape chokes adoption

Red tape chokes adoption

By Leah Boyd • DAILY PRESS & ARGUS • April 12, 2010

Lynn Amorino's heart breaks a little bit more every day she has to raise the boy she calls a son from 2,000 miles away.

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The Fowlerville woman — who first met the Guatemalan child she named Nicholas when he was 7 months old — has been fighting to finalize his adoption for three-and-a-half years.

In the meantime, she and her husband have been paying for Nicholas to live in foster care, attend an English-language preschool and celebrate birthdays in Guatemala City without the benefit of knowing whether they will ever bring him home.

"I am trying to raise my child from a distance while no one can give me a clear answer as to why this is necessary," said Amorino, who claims the Guatemalan government is stalling Nicholas' adoption case without reason. "I think this is pure harassment."

Nicholas is part of a group of Guatemalan children known as "The Guatemala 900," representing the approximately 900 adoption cases still being processed out of more than 3,000 that were pending when the Central American country halted international adoptions in late 2007.

While Guatemala implemented stricter domestic adoption laws at the start of 2008 in an attempt to ease international ridicule about the country's booming adoption industry being corrupted by child trafficking, pending international cases were supposed to proceed under the country's old system once cleared by investigators.

Amorino said Nicholas' case was investigated, including a birth-mother interview, and cleared last year.

"They are stalling, and I'm not sure why, but it's not right," Amorino said, fighting back tears. "The older he (Nicholas) gets, the harder it is going to be for him to transition."

In February, Amorino said, Guatemalan authorities told her Nicholas' adoption papers would be signed shortly. Six weeks later, Amorino was told the case was being investigated further.

During a phone interview from Guatemala City on Thursday, Sonia Pascual of the Guatemalan attorney general's office said Nicholas' birth mother needed to be interviewed a second time.

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"We are just receiving instructions from our boss," Pascual said. "There is nothing wrong with the adoption documents. Everything is OK. We just have to ask the birth mother if she still agrees with this. Once that is done, we will release the adoption papers."

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Amorino said she is not satisfied with Pascual's answer or other statements made by Guatemalan authorities in media reports claiming the country is doing everything it can to resolve pending cases.

"They told me they were going to release the papers before," Amorino said. "This is another thing that I don't necessarily believe. As soon as this is done, they will say they need something else. Our case has already been investigated from head to toe."

While Amorino continues to fight her case through a lawyer she hired in Guatemala after her former adoption agency went bankrupt in the spring of 2008, she has also been petitioning lawmakers to intervene.

She said one Michigan lawmaker's office helped her get in touch with officials at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala who said they could be of no assistance until the Guatemalan government releases Nicholas.

An e-mail petition is also circulating the Web on Nicholas' behalf.

"I've been desperately trying to reach someone of influence," Amorino said. "People make it seem like it's so easy to get help, but it's not. I'm one little case. You just feel so small and so powerless."

Amorino and her husband have spent about $30,000 on Nicholas' adoption process so far, including the more than $9,000 in processing fees they lost when their adoption agency went under, and six trips to Guatemala to visit Nicholas at his foster home.

However, the Amorinos said they don't mind the cost. They just want their son to come home to the teddy-bear-adorned room they've had prepared for him since he was an infant.

"That's what makes this harder; We've held our son," said Amorino's husband, John. "He calls us mama and papa."

He added: "But it's not just about us. There are hundreds of other cases just like ours that need to be brought to light."

In March, the Guatemalan government announced international adoptions would resume in June under a stricter system and a new agency — the National Adoptions Council, created shortly after international adoptions were suspended.

Previously, the system was handled by private attorneys. The new government-run system will significantly lower the cost of adoptions as well as the number of children available to international families.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Daily Press & Argus reporter Leah Boyd at (517) 552-2857 (517) 552-2857 or at ldboyd@gannett.com