Adoption Crackdown Puts Family In Limbo

By NICOLA M. WHITE The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 11, 2007

VALRICO - They have the diapers, the scrapbooks and a crib filled with stuffed animals.

To complete their family, all they need are the black-haired babies they already consider their daughter and son.

Problem is, Tisha and Floyd Goble aren't sure when Raegan and Keaton can come home to them.

The Gobles are one of thousands of American couples panicking this month as the Guatemalan government cracks down on foreign adoptions amid allegations of kidnapping and baby trafficking.

By Jan. 1, all adoptions are expected to be halted as the tiny Central American country tries to comply with intercountry adoption standards set by the Hague Convention.

Foreign adoptions in Guatemala have soared in the past five years, making Guatemala the most popular country after China from which Americans adopt. That's why the government has to increase its scrutiny, Guatemalan officials say.

For law-abiding couples emotionally and financially invested in becoming parents, though, the crackdown is playing out as a punishment to the children, many of whom are born in dire poverty and have been relinquished by their parents.

"When they hand you the babies, 30 seconds later it's like, 'I don't know how I can live without these kids - and please don't tell me I have to,'

" Tisha Goble said.

Adoption advocates in the United States have launched a massive online petition effort. Families also are bombarding U.S. lawmakers this week asking them to intervene to help existing adoption cases. Advocates especially want to see a grandfather clause in the government's plan to ensure adoptions currently under review are finalized.

Guatemalan politicians are expected to vote on such a clause in early November, according to the Joint Council on International Children's Services, a Virginia-based advocacy group.

In September, the Gobles traveled to Guatemala with their teenage daughter and son, who also were adopted, to meet the babies for the first time. They instantly considered the 5-month-old girl and 2-month-old boy part of their family.

"I really want them home," said would-be big sister, Caitlyn, 13, "especially after spending time with them. It's like them taking my brother, Tyler, away. I love them just the same."

The number of Guatemalan orphans adopted by Americans has doubled in the past five years. There are plenty of reasons for the country's popularity: it's a three-hour flight from Miami, hotels and airfare are not as expensive as traveling to Asia, and families are almost always guaranteed to be matched with a baby.

In the Tampa Bay area, at least two dozen families are members of a Meetup group devoted to couples who adopted Guatemalan children.

"Now that we have our son, I look back and say this is what God had planned. He was waiting for this child to be born for us," said Renee DiNi- cola of Holiday, who started the group.

DiNicola struggled with in vitro fertilization and two failed domestic adoption attempts before she and her husband turned to Guatemala last year. Their son, Nicky, was born in Guatemala on March 29, 2006. He was Pasco County-bound by Dec. 7.

In the 10 months since the DiNicolas adopted Nicky, the adoption process has become longer and trickier. Reports of birth mothers selling their babies - or worse, having their babies stolen from them - have sounded alarms about the country's adoption procredures.

Adoption advocates support measures that ensure the safety and validity of Guatemalan adoptions, but not measures that essentially would cut off attempts to give children parents, they say.

"The Hague in its spirit and its intent is a fine thing. Where it has gone horribly awry has been in the actual implementation of it," said Kevin Kruetner, chief writer for the blog www.guatadopt.com.

Kruetner, of Wisconsin, has adopted two children from Guatemala. He travels there every year and has become an advocate for safe, legal adoption. In those travels, he and others like him have reported unscrupulous adoption agencies and have tried to call attention to poor practices.

Because Guatemala is such a poor country with limited resources, those complaints have been largely ignored, he said.

"The current system had a lot of checks and balances in it. But if the speed limit says 60 mph, and I can drive down the road at 70 and no one tickets me, what's the speed limit? There was no enforcement, that's what allowed things to go on," he said.

In the meantime, the Gobles in Valrico check the Internet and scan blogs for any updates.

They pore through the scrapbooks they made of Keaton and Raegan and stare at the dresser where the babies' books and tiny sneakers sit.

They are hopeful. They have been since the day they first received e-mailed photographs of the boy and then decided to adopt a second baby, too.

"The minute we saw him, we both started crying," Tisha Goble said.

MORE INFORMATION

To learn more about the adoption situation in Guatemala, visit the Joint Council on International Children's Services Guatemala Web site at www.jcics.org/Guatemala5000.htm

TOP COUNTRIES FROM WHICH AMERICANS ADOPT

1. China (mainland): 6,493

2. Guatemala: 4,135

3. Russia: 3,706

4. South Korea: 1,376

5. Ethiopia: 732

6. Kazakhstan: 587

7. Ukraine: 480

8. Liberia: 353

9. Colombia: 344

10. India: 320

Source: U.S. Department of State (based on number of visas issued); 2006 figures

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib .com.