thank god skye is home....

This is a link and posting to a hogar that was raided in Guatemala City 2 days ago. Three of my friends, one living here in Portland, brought home 4 children from his hogar in the last 6 months. They were stuck in horrible red tape, and this is what has happened to 17 children waiting for their families to be allowed to come get them. Sometimes during this process people would ask me what was taking so long, and all I could say was Guatemalan politics. Here is an example of these politics at their finest. It's pretty awful. Susana has been one of the most outspoken attornies addressing the lawlessness of the police and PGN. I have no doubt that these actions are directly linked to trying to quiet her.

The kidnapping of the Children at the Primavera orpahange
Yesterday , the hogar of Primavera was raided again. Oscar Rivas and Rafael Curruchiche of the the District Attorney Office (Ministerio Publico), Jose Miguel Morales Lopez of the PGN and Jaime Tecú of the National Council of Adoptions came to the hogar, with a transfer order of Cesar, a two year old boy whose adoption started as a relinquishment, turned into an abandonment and it is already at the PGN for final approval. When the lawyers hired by Primavera opposed the transfer, based on the Abandonment Decree of Cesar that states that Primavera could continue the adoption initiated in 2007, if the CNA did not find a suitable family for Cesar within ten days. When the CNA did not place Cesar with a Guatemalan family, Primavera proceeded with the adoption already in process, it was approved by the Social Worker appointed by the Family Court and the file is now at the PGN pending approval, but the CNA refused to obey the court order and decided to take Cesar away,just to show who is in command.

The occupation of the hogar took place with the overwhelming help of policemen armed
with assault rifles and the agent Oscar Rivas , who was extremely rude, did not let in Susana Luarca, the lawyer of the hogar, arguing that there were already three lawyers inside. Around noon, they decided to take all the children with them, with the lame argument that "the children were `abandoned' because the director of the hogar is in jail". That has no legal grounds, because the director Enriqueta Noriega is in protective custody, not in jail, and furthermore, the seventeen children were under the care of three nannies, a cleaning woman and a laundress/cook who take very well care of them, so there was no reason to take the children to another place.

First they went to the Court of Appeals of the Childhood and Adolescence, to denounce that the children were at risk, in order to get a court order to move them. The time was running late, the court closed without giving them the order. That did not stop them. They went back to the hogar, ordered the nannies to prepare the children to go, and when they refused they opened the drawers and filled garbage bags with clothes and shoes, which is a felony, and under the rain, packed the seventeen children, aged from six months to six years into a minivan and took the children to the court that remains open all night, and left them there for over six hours, as the TV news reported, showing the children being treated as criminals, sitting on the floor of a court, waiting for a place to be sent. Around midnight, they found where to place them, although in different orphanages.

Primavera never has accepted children kidnapped from other hogars, in order to discourage the PGN from doing those illegal transfers of children. That is one of the reasons why it is being targeted. We hope that the places where the children are, have their best interest at heart and do not use them as pawns to further their own agendas. The best way to show that they want the best for these precious children would be to actively collaborate in sending them back to Primavera, where they belong, because there are court order for each of them to stay at the hogar Primavera until the finalization of their adoptions.

Susana Luarca, attorney at Law

All I can say is that I'm so grateful that Skye is home safe with us. We had a good & bad day today. He got frustrated with me in the late afternoon and decided he would hit me in the head. Not hard, but with intention. I calmly - thank god I train martial arts and am used to being hit - told him to sit down. He came completely unglued and I ended up having to restrain him. Long story short, he ended up going to a place of such deep and profound grief. Much too much for one so young. The pain and tears pouring out of his eyes was enough to cripple me if I thought too much about it. All I could do was tell him that I loved him and that I was so sorry it took so long to get him home with us. All in all it was close to an hour of this. It just breaks my heart that so many people lost sight that we were talking about a little boy, not a political pawn. All I can do is thank whomever it is that brought him home and give my gratitude that he's not one of the children who were taken last night.

I look forward to those in my life to get to know both my sons. They are both silly, quirky, funny, kind and totally a part of our family. Sometimes I just sit back and watch what my life has become and give such thanks to the universe for allowing me to have this experience. No I don't love every minute of it - frankly I don't really like 2 year olds! - but I love that I get to be these 2 boys mom and hope that I can instill enough strength, courage, and compassion in them that they become strong independant men.