NYHOMESTUDY BLOG

Many times families who are adopting from Guatemala wish to know holidays

that the US Embassy observes and that Guatemala observes……below are upcoming holidays in Guatemala. (The US Embassy closes on all the Guatemalan holidays).

Monday, May 1 - Guatemalan Labor Day
Monday, May 29 - Memorial Day (our holiday)
Friday, June 30 - Army Day (Guatemalan)
Tuesday, July 4 - Independence Day (our holiday)
Tuesday, Aug 15 - Feast of the Assumption (Guatemalan)
Monday, Sept 4 - Labor Day (our holiday)
Friday, Sept. 15 - Independence Day (Guatemalan)
Monday, Oct. 9 - Columbus Day (our holiday)
Friday, Oct, 20 - Revolution Day (Guatemalan)
Wed., Nov. 1 - All Saints Day (Guatemalan)
Fri, Nov. 10 - Veteran’s Day (our holiday)
Thurs., Nov. 23 - Thanksgiving Day (our holiday)
Sun, Dec. 24 - Christmas Eve
Mon, Dec. 25 - Christmas Day (both)
Sun., Dec. 31 - New Year’s Eve

One cold early Spring morning a beautiful, healthy baby girl, 3 days old, wakes up to find herself alone on a deserted street, hungry and cold. Her mother does not answer her cries, and in fact no one responds for hours. The baby, increasingly agitated and distressed, screams with primal urgency. Eventually a stranger happens by, picks up the crying baby and delivers her to the police station. Through several more intermediaries, the baby is eventually delivered to the local social welfare institute.

Examined by a doctor and then wrapped in blankets and fed a bottle, she is deposited into a crib and left alone for much of the rest of the day. That night, no one comes to answer her frantic cries. More days go by, more cries unanswered. Feeding and diapering are administered on a rigid schedule, since the caregivers have so many babies to attend to, and there is minimal opportunity to be held, carried, or spoken to. Stimulation is limited to what the baby can see, hear and feel from her crib. Feedings are piping hot bottles of formula, propped for maximum efficiency, delivered through extra large holes in the nipple. Occasionally the baby’s mouth loses its place on the nipple and the entire contents of the bottle pours onto her body. When that happens she misses her feeding, and her wet clothes aren’t changed for another hour or more.

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By LYNETTE CLEMETSON Published: April 12, 2007

Americans wishing to adopt from Russia may face an indefinite wait. The country has temporarily stopped accepting new applications from American adoption agencies as part of an overhaul of its accreditation process.

Over the last several months, licenses to work in Russia have expired for most of the roughly 50 American adoption agencies with programs there. Licenses for the last two agencies, the Alliance for Children in Wellesley, Mass., and Children of the World Adoption Agency, in Syosset, N.Y., expired yesterday.

Many adoption officials say the expirations represent nothing more than a slow-moving bureaucratic process. The officials added that they expected new licenses to be approved within months.

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Baby Lust

By PEGGY ORENSTEIN

Here is a smattering of things I did during the six-year quest to conceive my daughter: interrupt love-making to squirt raw egg whites into myself with a turkey baster (it’s reputed to abet the feminine fluid that speeds sperm to egg); substitute two teaspoons of Robitussin for my morning coffee (its main ingredient thins and loosens mucous in the lungs, and although there is no actual proof, it’s thought to work similar juju farther south); down ovulation-stimulating pills that triggered fits of rage; inject myself with the urine of postmenopausal Italian nuns (the original source of some fertility drugs, though it’s hard to imagine how the goods are gathered); chug unidentifiable herbal potions that tasted like garden mulch; squander what would have been the college fund on long-shot in-vitro-fertilization treatments; imperil my marriage.
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