This week, El Salvador celebrates a national holiday complete with athletic events, religious celebration, art shows, beauty pageants, food, dancing, costumes, parades, theater – and mass migration to the beaches and resorts. It’s Las Fiestas Agostinas – the August Feasts. One whole week of partying in honor of the patron “saint” of El Salvador – Jesus Christ.
(My thoughts: If you’re going to pick a saint, why NOT shoot for the top? And if you’re going to celebrate the Savior of the world, why not stretch it out for the whole week?)
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I read this post today, and it struck me how differently we deal with death with our children here in the U.S. With some exceptions, we think we can somehow shelter them from it. We’re blessed that those exceptions are so few and far between that many parents can pull it off. I have friends whose kids don’t even know a pet has died – they’ve “gone to a farm” or some similar thing.
Not so in El Salvador where the author Linda is living.
Worth the read: “We are Going to the Tree“
As El Salvador begins to implement the Children’s Law that went into effect on April 16th of this year, there have been some adjustments to the way adoptions are processed. Having gotten clarification through our agency from our attorney and facilitator there in E.S., here’s my understanding of the processes – both from the Prospective Adoptive Parents’ and the Children’s experiences. Read the rest of this entry
I just heard from our agency today that our attorney is looking into a “previo” (or “prevention”) to our case in El Salvador. It’s basically a reason to interrupt processing our file at OPA (La Oficina Para Adopciones – The Office for Adoptions). Sometimes a prevention happens when paperwork is missing or not completed (I promise this isn’t it), sometimes it’s because of a request for additional information. Sometimes it’s just one person at OPA wanting to review another’s work.
And as OPA fired two of their staff psychologists a few months back, it’s possible that one of them was part of our review process, and so now someone else wants to double check that screening.
Sigh. Read the rest of this entry
The boys and I picked up a couple friends from the Hispanic group we’re in on Sunday nights and took them hiking at Patapsco Valley State Park, this afternoon. And besides being an excellent friendship-builder, this afternoon also proved to be one of expanding our Spanish by immersion.
Stand-out words of the day: former slur terms that are now used as national identification slang (often with pride) by the various people of Central America.
Happy to share. Read the rest of this entry
I was having the boys write the date on some of their schoolwork today, and it hit me that we sent our paperwork to El Salvador nine months ago this week.
Nine months. So if I had gotten pregnant at that time, I’d be giving birth right about now.
But I didn’t get pregnant. No, “all” I did was send a huge dossier to El Salvador. Many in the adoption community refer to that as being “paper pregnant.” Read the rest of this entry
Last week, I got an email with a much-anticipated photo I asked Kurt to send me from the last day I was at CIPI. I mentioned in that day’s post that I took pictures while Kurt passed out new shoes to the “Medium Boys” – aged 9-12 or so – who needed them. Kurt’s sister’s church back her in the U.S. had sent the money to pay for them, so I took a couple dozen pictures of him slipping shoes onto the boys’ feet, so he could send them back to the donors.
But he had me hop into the last picture with a bunch of the boys and their new sneakers.
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On March 26, 2009, El Salvador’s Legislature passed this comprehensive law, formally to recognize and protect the rights of children and adolescents living in that country. It was signed by then-President of the Republic Elias Antonio Saca Gonzalez and entered into the legal record on April 16, 2009.
The Ley de Protección Integral de la Niñez y la Adolescencia (Law of Integral Protection of Childhood and Adolescence) will take effect on April 16, 2010. The delay in enforcement was due to all the infrastructure set-up required actually to practice all the measures prescribed therein.
As future-parents of Salvadoran kids, we were interested in what this “New Child’s Law” actually said. Especially since it will impact our adoption process, and we kept hearing about it in adoption and missions circles. Read the rest of this entry
Been home for a week and a half, and for some reason this trip has thrown me into “reverse-culture shock” unlike any other I’ve been on. Maybe it’s the kids – going from CIPI to my own five year olds who can read, write, and explain the Louisiana Purchase in-detail. That we have so much stuff here, after spending one day with no running water there. Or that I was working alone most days, so I’m “debriefing” myself as I talk about my experience with everyone else who asks.
Or maybe it’s something else. Don’t know. But at any rate, I’ve been struggling with a bout of something like “survivor’s guilt.” I went, I played with some kids who have nearly nothing, and then I came back to my very-comfortable life here in the U.S. Meanwhile those same kids are heading into another week of only basic physical needs being met. Read the rest of this entry
After attending The Union Church of San Salvador (international non-denominational church) this morning, Lucy hopped on a bus to Guatemala to do some adoption networking there. Our housemate Jen and I got the better end of the deal and ventured out to hike up the volcano that sits northwest of the city.
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