Strocked by memories

that is exactly how I felt today, it happens quite often actually, it's just that a ton of memories from Angelina and our time together come back to my mind and I just feel this huge urge to hold her and hug her or just hang around her as I used to. And all this tears come running to my eyes, it's hard not to cry. I am a very emotional person so... I just can't hide my feelings!
It hit me hard today, after we turned on the digital player and seeing all of her pictures.
Angelina was my joy, I remember when she was here I just didn't want to spend my time with anyone else. Anything else seemed as special as being there just watching her grow up and learn.
Especially because I knew that any day she would be gone and only God knows how much time it's going to be until I can see her and hug her again!
It is going to be a year since she was taken to her forever home next March. I can't believe it's been that long... I still miss her so much!
I am sorry for being so corny.... It is just that... I can't help it! that's what is in my heart

They Ask Protection for Over a 1000 Children

This article came to my sight today in one of the national newspapers (I am adding a link on the title so you can track it, though it is written in spanish), I translated it so here it goes:

The CNA requested the Children and Adolescents Courts protection for over 200 children whose adoption files were not presented during the verification process done by PGN. In the past few days 832 similar requirements were made.

Elizabeth de Larios, CNA's president, commented the institution's worry for the safety of these children, so they came to several courts.

There is total of 1032 children that were not presented to the authorities by the attorneys in charge of their cases in 2008, when it was required the presence of the child and the birth mother to prove their familiarity and the mother's desire to give her child for adoption.

The CNA is still evaluating another 122 cases before requiring the placing of the minors. Among other things they have to verify if there is any duplicity in these files registers.

The judges recieved the addresses contributed by the attorneys to locate the children, who might be in danger.

A co-chairwoman from PGN, Florencia de León, informed that her unit's registers say they identified 43 children that were not presented for the verification process, for 27 of these cases they opened a judicial file.

She assured that those minors are located in particular homes or with foster mothers.

She also exposed that they are a process to purify their information to stablish why there is so many difference among CNA's cases.

Yesterday, about 30 adoption cases were filed to PGN to be evaluated in order to their approval, they all correspond to previous requests from 2008.

Nidia Aguilar, from Child Defense, hopes this year adoptions will be fast forward, so the number of completed adoptions increases.

I just think it is awful for these people to continue to manipulate children this way! How can they just keep doing this as if they didn't notice all of these terrible things happening, do they think that just because they are so young it doesn't affect them?? And how come they don't even know were children are located???? in the rest of cases I am almost a 100% sure that they HARDLY EVER check the orphanages.

I also found this other Registers:

In PGN there are still authorizing cases under the old adoption law.

3,033 Children were registered in CNA in 2008.

1,403 adoption files were verified by CNA and PGN.

598 cases were approved before their verification.

1,032 children and birth mothers were not presented by the attorneys in charge of their cases.

932 files are still waiting for the attorneys to fulfill all the requirements from the old adoption law.

30 adoption cases were filed to PGN yesterday, to be checked, evaluated and authorized.

1,846 children have been institutionalized currently and are in need of protection.

1,259 adoptions were authorized by PGN between May 8th 08 and Jan. 27th 09.

I am dreading my first day of school :s

School starts tomorrow and I really really don't want it to start :s... Last week I was dying to start but right now.... I am dreading the things that come with school starting, though I know this year I will have a lot of free time unlike last year.
The thing I am dreading the most is having to wake up so early, since we are dropping my dad at work, I know for sure my eyes will be looking swollen and I will be yawning all day... anyway... I am sure I am going to start liking it once I am there and get to see my friends again. I was a total loser this vacation and couldn't get together with them not once.
Hope you have a great monday!

Almost potty trained!!!

Oh my goodness! I actually cannot believe I am doing this post! My babygirl's mommy wrote to us this past week and said both Andrea and Angelina had been visiting the toilet! Not even the potty but the BIG TOILET!
Angelina went poopoo 3 times and cute miss Andrea went peepee! Wow!
I just have to say that Angelina is 19 months old! She is just so young! And Andrea is 26months old. I think we all know it can be really hard to potty train kids and it is even more advisable to teach them to use a potty first before taking the big step to the toilet.
They are both doing so great! And their mommy is doing a great job too. We have to give her credit, I will ask her advise when I have my own kids for sure. As the babies mommy will have a 4 day weekend, the girls will be in toilet training camp.
I am so proud of both girls. They are sooo smart. Oh I wish I was there to give them big proud hugs!

Bye Bye Cédulas

That's right, the government started the year with what I think is a great step forward, getting rid of the Cédulas.

Cédulas are what americans call an ID. They are being replaced with the new DPI (Documento Personal de Identificación). I think in english it would be Personal Identification Document or something like that.

Cédulas have proved to be a pain, they are made with a certain kind of paper that can be damaged very easily. I have had my cédula for only 2 years and hardly ever take it out and the outside its already very damaged. It means that you have to replace it very often. Besides it is very easy to get fake ones.

Every guatemalan or foreign person living in guatemala, registered in RENAP should be able to get their DPI's. This will be the only document for civil, administrative and legal acts, or in any other thing were it is required by law. The new document allows the citizen to identify and gives you the right to vote.

The DPI has several safety methods to avoid duplicity and its made of polycarbonate. It has a chip in it that saves the person's fingerprints and has 3 levels of security.

For every case there will be an Unique Identification Code, this number won't change until the person has died. This code will be the base from which the society and the State identifies a person for all effects. It will be adopted obligatorily and progressively for all the dependences of the State. This number will be joining all the identification systems and public records in a term that must not exceed 5 years from the start of Decree 90-2005.

Hope at least this one does work, or will it be like the adoption decrees, it's true they had much more shorter terms but, they usually are not fullfilled no matter how much time they were granted.

Here is a glimpse of how the DPI will look (I took it from RENAP's webpage... I wonder if it's illegal?...)

Feliz Cumpleaños Mamita!

It was my mommy's birthday yesterday. I so love my mom with all my heart, she is like the best mom in the world. She inspires me to be a better person every day and pretty much everything I know in life it's because she taught me. She has always been a stay-at-home-mom. So she has ALWAYS been there for us.
She is always there no matter if we did good or bad, she is always there cheering and clapping and just there to support us when you need it the most.
I remember back in high school, I had to do an essay for my literature class, it was about "My Hero", when I first heard about it, I thought " I guess I'll write about Mother Teresa or the Pope" but when I finally sat to write the paper I realized that they were good people, almost saints but who was my real hero the one I truly looked up to? And I could only think about my mom, and everything she has done for us and most important of all, how many things she has turned down for us. I so I wrote my essay about her. I was really inspired and wrote about 3 pages when it had to be 1 and a 1/2.
Like a week later the teacher was giving back the papers and I was waiting for mine, I was really proud of it, I think no one else picked the same theme. So the teacher calls my name and at the same time he called for everyone's attention and said: Most of you struggled with this essay, for the ones that have to repeat it, you may ask Eva to borrow her's, her essay is so good it could be publish in the newspaper!". I was shocked! I worked hard on mine but I never expected something like that!!! I will never forget that moment and the moment I gave the essay to my mom so she could read it and the red letters on it saying "Congratulations! This should be publish on the paper!"
I thank God everyday for having such a great mom and grandma. And all and all the family I have.

So yesterday, we had a small dinner at my grandma's (as usual) for my mom. We had some delicious Chuchitos con salsa y queso, cake and nachos. It was supposed to be like a small reunion but at the end there were cousins, uncles and aunts there. We had lots of fun.
There was no singing but we girls talked and gossiped for hours! She had lots of phone calls and was just happy.
My mom can't speak english YET, but still here it goes:
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH MOMMY! YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND EVER! I PROMISE I WILL BE THERE FOR YOU AT ALL TIMES JUST LIKE YOU ARE THERE FOR ME ALWAYS.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

The New Adoption Law has been working for a Year now

I read this in the newspaper today. It makes me sad these people are hardly doing a thing for thousands of children waiting in horrible orphanages for a family to love them, meanwhile they earn thousands of Quetzales and spend MILLIONS!

I will try to translate it just as is written in the paper, I also added a link so you can see it, it's written in spanish though. (I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistake.)

The New Adoption Law has been working for a Year

"Mery de Garcia it's about to close the Hogar she runs. She, along with some friends founded "Nuestra Señora de la Piedad" 10 years ago, but this year things have got so difficult they probably won't be able to continue. Only 2 of the 50 children she shelters were adopted, meanwhile the children grow up without a family. Today makes one year since the New Adoption Law started working and only a little over 50 children have been adopted with a budget that goes around Q. 10 million.

This years number is not even close to the one last year: 5 thousand adopted children. "That's because children's theft is over", says Elizabeth de Larios, CNA's president, "before they could get children to sell them and that doesn't happen anymore", explains. Nevertheless the orphanages are full. According to an adoption report from the Haye's mission in 2007, there are over 500 private orphanages in Guatemala, sheltering over 10 thousand children with no parents. CNA has other number: 136 orphanages. "Those are the ones registered in the SOSEP if there are more they must be clandestine", says De Larios."

We can't know an accurate number of private orphanages in Guatemala because the CNA still does not keep a record of them. The article 58 of the Adoption Law granted them a term of 30 days to check and authorize them. It was not fulfilled, none of them is registered. "We are on it" states Jaime Tecú from the CNA.

Also, they haven't finished the Adoption Regulation, that should have been finished at the longest of 60 after the new adoption law started working.  "It's getting its last reviews. We have already sent one version to the president" says Tecú.

"The CNA doesn't want older children, I have children of 10, 11 and 14 year olds and I asked them if they could find a family for them, they didn't even answer my question." states García. "A guatemalan couple is not going to want an older child but an American couple would"." With this new law they just cut our wings to place them in a family in a foreign country" adds. García's orphanage kept working thanks to donations from foreign adoption agencies. "They would pay for legal things and sent us food" now they cannot relate to international adoptees.

Without showing up in the Congress

The congresswoman Annabella de León has stayed waiting three times for the CNA to arrive to the different citations she has set for them. There has been no way, previous commitments have stoped them. "We had a UNICEF workshop, it was impossible for us to show up, but we did excuse ourselves" said De Larios. De León hopes that during January they find a moment to visit her, "I want them to bring the vouchers from the representation expenses" she says. The CNA president earns Q.20 thousand every month that have not been justified infront of the congresswoman. De Larios requested an opinion from the  National Accounting Controler about whether it was against the law for her to charge that amount of money and they said it was not.

"I think there are less than 54 children adopted, if they are saying the truth I want them to bring the files and prove it to me" says the congresswoman. There are 54 children living with their new parents, but only 27 have finalized their adoptions, the rest of them still have paperwork to do. 

"Not one talks about the children that stayed with their parents, those are our biggest achievements" explains De Larios, "we got 28 mothers to keep their children, we have helped them with pshycologic help, you can't see that but it does count".

 

Yes, they might have got some parents to keep their children but what will happen when this families find themselves with not enough money to feed their children and have to find terrible ways to do it? Sending them to beg or work in the streets? 

And what about the older children? they deserve a family too. Guatemala is not a country with a big adoption culture, it is just not near the minds of every guatemalan. And even if they were, most of the people are trying to keep their own families fed and safe under a decent house.

Getting all the pictures together

Well, the holiday season is not officially over here, we are still waiting for the Dia de Reyes, the day the three kings visited baby Jesus bringing beautiful presents, it is also my mom's birthday so we wait until that day to take all the Christmas decorations away.
Also, tomorrow is my little cousin Diego's 4th birthday. My aunt and uncle organized a birthday party at a place called Mariscal Zabala, it has a big park and big areas for kids to play. I am in charge of the music and games for the kids, I am excited about it, I want to wear sneackers to play around too! LOL!
I uploaded the pictures we took over the holidays for Angi and my aunt Cynthia, so I thought I would share it here as well, since it turned out great and shows a little sneak peak of how we celebrate in my family and I guess most families in Guat.
It includes Campero fireworks(2nd week of Dec. its a tradition here), Christmas day, My Sister's birthday, San Silvestre race (also a tradition my grandpa and uncle have raced it since they were young and this is my brother's 2nd year) and New Years Eve. Enjoy!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Bye bye 2008 and Welcome 2009!
This was a great year. It had its ups and downs of course, but it we just see it from the positive side and learn from all the obstacles and mistakes in our lives this past year, it makes you a better person and really apreciate what you have and work harder for what you want.
I thank God for everything that happened.

We had a very nice celebration at my grandma's house, it got a little wild at some point but we really enjoyed it. The food was good, we were together and just had a great time.
I love my family and if you are reading this my best wishes for you and your family in this year to come.