Political Update

We found out yesterday that the Guatemalan congress approved the "Ortega Law." I won't go into details about this law, but this is a tragedy to the future of Guatemala adoptions. There is still work to be done on this bill and congress is meeting on 10/9 to review all of the amendments. One of the amendments on the table is a grandfather clause for all current cases. This would allow current cases to proceed under the current laws. Our agency and other groups feel confident that this amendment will be approved, but it is still up in the air. If this amendment is not approved, there are potentially 5000+ children that will be left in limbo and the Guatemala government has no plan for these children. It would be devastating.

Focus on Adoption, a major advocacy group, is urging all of us touched by adoption in some way (that includes friends/family) to contact our congressmen, the Department of State, and UNICEF to urge them to support this amendment and place pressure on the Guatemalan government. We need to make these contacts today and tomorrow since the Guatemalan congress will be reviewing the amendments on 10/9.

We thank you for all of our support and your efforts to send these letters can make a tremendous difference in the loves of 1000's of children, including our son.

Jason and I will be faxing letters to the Department of State and UNICEF. If you want to e-mail us your letters, we can fax them all at once. Just e-mail them to us by tomorrow afternoon. steph24mohr@yahoo.com

Thank you, thank you, thank you