Melina

In mid February 2000, my husband Richard and I returned from Guatemala with our beautiful daughter Melina Guadalupe, who was placed with us by Hannah Wallace's organization, Adoptions International. We cannot endorse AI highly enough. Determined to do a great deal of research before selecting our agency, we investigated many agencies' claims as well as their reputations. Predictably, we wanted to find an agency we could trust to connect us with our daughter as smoothly and expediently as possible. We also felt very strongly that we wanted to find an agency with which we shared values. Specifically, we were concerned that the adoption process be an ethically sound one, which benefited not only us, but also the birth mother and more crucially the child. We were concerned that the birth mother be treated with respect (and if possible provided with pre-natal care) and that the child be in good foster care until the time we would be allowed to bring her home. When we read Hannah Wallace's mission and some of her essays, we felt we were hearing our values echoed. Interviewing references and talking with AI staff confirmed our feelings that we had found our agency.

We were not disappointed. Through every step of the long process the AI staff, Doris, Marlene and Hannah, were available to us, even allowing us to intrude into their home time and space when we felt desperate for news or answers. Their knowledge, expertise, and generosity eased us through this frustrating, sometimes even agonizing, process. They kept us as informed as possible during a procedure in which information (from the country) is often at a premium. And their predictions (they are careful never to promise since this process is never sure) proved true: Hannah said that over half the cases take about six months, and ours was just about exactly that, even given the Guatemalan Christmas holidays during which the country effectively closes down for a month.

When we decided to go to Guatemala for the last few weeks of the process to begin life with our daughter, AI gave us their support and sound advice making our time there very positive. We met and spent quite a bit of time with Melina's foster parents, Carlos and Sonia and their children, Ingrid, Juan Carlos, and Felipe. This family truly fostered our daughter, giving her a safe and nurturing environment in which to spend her early months. Their love for her was evident both in their difficulty in seeing her leave them and in their joy that she was going to a loving home. While in Guatemala we also spent quite a bit of time with the AI lawyer for our case, Sonia de Cordoza, who is a lovely person, and a capable and principled lawyer, with two sweet children whom we met as well. Then too, we shared a delightful meal with Blanca Estela, the coordinator for most of the AI adoptions. She is a most interesting woman of great personal integrity, who works tirelessly on behalf of both birth mothers and adoptive families.

Before leaving for Guatemala and while in the country, we talked to a number of adoptive parents working with different agencies who were experiencing nightmarish delays in their processes. One woman had arrived in Guatemala without the requisite papers, which she was in the process of waiting for her husband to gather and send to her. Several others had delays of three and nine months respectively due to corrupt lawyers. Others simply had to endure lengthier processes; although the workings of the adoption all seemed to be legitimate, their agency was not as efficient as AI. Talking to these folks, we felt especially blessed to have selected AI as our agency for this most important undertaking of our lives.

Since Melina has been home, AI has continued their support of us, with Hannah offering advice (at our request) on everything from skin conditions to child development. The folks at AI have also been eager to share in our joy through pictures and updates of our glorious daughter.

In sum, my husband and I would suggest that if you plan to adopt a child from Guatemala, you should strongly consider using Adoptions International as your agency. They are an efficient, accessible, knowledgeable, and deeply humane group of people with great personal integrity.

Sincerely,
Gabrielle and Richard Dane-Dodson