To Steal or Not to Steal, baby stealing in Guatemala.

Though some of you may not know it, one of the reasons I believe the Lord led us to serve Him - in this way and in this country - is because Guatemala is closed to international adoptions. This means that people who do not live in Guatemala can not adopt children from Guatemala.

Toward the end of 2007, Guatemala shut it doors to the possibility of babies and children being taken out of the country. Why? A country where over 50% of it's population lives in poverty, 17% in extreme poverty, was bringing in over $200 million a year in illegal adoptions.

Multitudes of mothers were being coerced by lawyers, doctors and social workers to basically "sell" their babies to foreigners. 4000 to 5000 children a year were being illegally trafficked to none other than the great USA. That placed Guatemala right behind China and Russia in the world for foreign adoptions. These "baby" brokers were charging anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 per child, and the process, in many cases, took less than a year. It has been reported that during the civil war, soldiers stole up to 300 babies and would sell them off. Pregnant women were being hunted for their unborn infants. And mercy-stealing, what about that?

You are walking in the jungle along a trail high up in the mountains. There is no electricity, no clean water, and disease-ridden bugs flying all around. You pass shack after shack with cracks between the boards so big you can practically see what is going on inside the dark, damp, dirty home. Babies are crying, children are running around barefoot, their rotten teeth dangling from their gums. The tattered and filthy rags they wear as clothes hang from the bodies.
There's a little one left alone outside. It's curled up against a wall. Wet from the damp air. You get close enough to smell the infection, to see the countless bloody bite marks, patches of hair are missing from all the scratching. His malnourished belly is huge and hard and round from the parasites crawling around inside. You want to pull him close to you and hug him, but you are afraid for the bugs might leap from his hair into yours. The way those fearful eyes look up at you, you know they are scared, but they are desperate for a human touch, a smidge of affection.
You find yourself heart-broken, stuck, not knowing what do. I've been there more times than I care to remember. It occurs to you just how much you could love this little life. You know you could give him a life that is leaps and bounds better than what these people can. A big home in the States, an endless supply of food and medicine, and education....And just then a woman walks out of the home. She rounds the corner and you find yourself staring at her. She is obviously the mother of this child. With tears in her eyes, she bends over and scoops the little one off the ground and pulls him close to her breast. You can see she loves him. She loves him more than you, who only caught a minute-long glimpse of him. She'd die for him without a moment's hesitation. As a matter of fact, she gives herself away on a daily basis just to be able to put tortillas and beans on the table and tattered clothes on his back. The love she has for her child does not compare to the momentary sympathy you felt for him.

And what do you do? Do you go back home and hire a baby broker to go and steal him for you? Do you hide behind the assumption that because you can make him fat, you can love him more than his own mother? Are you going to "save" his life by giving him an education and a car when he turns 16? Does this child deserve all the things you can give him and you consider it terribly unjust to leave him at the hands of his mother? Have you convinced yourself that it is okay?

Well I am sure that this is what many, many people thought and probably still think when it comes to stealing children. So I guess it is a good thing that Guatemala shut it's doors to international adoptions, and it makes me feel sad for all the moms out there who lost their children, and grateful for the adoptive parents who selflessly adopted children who truly needed adopting. Unfortunately, due to the extremely selfish thinking of the rest, children in Guatemala who truly are orphaned, abandoned, and abused will get placed in under-funded and over-run orphanages until they are 18 years old. Many will never have the opportunity to know the love a family can offer. Many will develop attachment disorders that will prevent them from being able to love a spouse or their own child, causing a vicious, spiraling cycle. They will learn to compete for attention, manipulate others, and lie or steal to get what they need. They will thrive off of naive pity. Many will be abused in the homes by adults or other children, they will continue to live in substandard conditions, but this time without a mother willing to bend down, scoop them up, and hold them close. The boys will have a hard time learning to transition into manhood as the orphanage workers are primarily women. And the list of detrimental effects that mercy-stealing, which is flat-out stealing, has caused goes on and on.
Foreigners and missionaries who step into this country to lend a genuinely helping hand find it hard to build relationships with the people. They find it unsafe to walk about in the rural parts. Over the past 10 years, there has been documented cases of village people seeing a white person, and in fear of losing their children, they have beaten, stoned, and lynched the innocent intruders. And if for none of the above-mentioned consequences, mercy-stealing, child trafficking, and coerced or manipulated adoption is wrong. It is wrong before the Lord and it has caused a lifetime of greivances for millions of children who are FAR worse off from the loved one you took pity on.


Will Guatemala reopen it's doors? They say they plan to. But with all the organized crime that runs this country now, I believe it is still far from happening.

So, while we have to be extremely careful as we attempt to make our life here in this country caring for and empowering the orphan, I know that God was strategic in bringing us here. If a child enters our to-be home as an infant, with God's provision and with your blessing, we can ensure that child that we will do everything in our power to give it a life full of love, joy, health, and opportunities. We can ensure that during that child's 18 years with us, he or she will grow up in a Christ-centered environment. It will walk away from our home ready to not only face the world, but to change it in Jesus' name. That is our prayer and our goal.

Next week we will present the plan of installations of our upcoming children's home to the social worker. These must be approved by the government in order to receive the accreditation we need to accept the children. The paperwork is moving fast....we need the construction to move just as fast. I would hate to turn the babies and children away that will come just because we lack the funding we need to move forward with building. We can not do this without you. Get on board!

Mision Vida Nueva

Empowering God's children to change the world.