DNA info

YIKES!!!! Crossing my fingers this will all be good and doesn't slow us down any more! Julie

Rebecca, Have you heard anything on when an interim director would be appointed or any other news regarding this situation? Julie

Nope, Julie, we haven't heard from our attorney, yet (she was supposed to meet with the interim director today). However, if you look at "PanamaJimmy"s last post in the "STILL waiting" thread, he says that their IS a "temp" (interim director?) who is a woman and is already overwhelmed with the pile of work on her desk. So it sounds like there is someone there, but who knows how soon she'll begin picking up where Carmen Donna left off. As KimP suggested, I'm sure there will be a backlog by the time the new administration comes in September. Ugh. Rebecca

Heard from our attorney after she met with the new director today. Like PanamaJimmy suggested, our attorney said the new director is "swamped" with a pile of cases on her desk, but the good news is that she is becoming familiar with each of them (probably looking through them so that she'll know who is who when the attornies show up to ask about them). Our attorney said this interim director is going to work hard to get up to speed, but since she won't be in that position for very long, we're not sure how much she can help us (my case specifically, since it's still in the abandonment stage--she may be of more help getting referrals out to you all eventually). But the GOOD news is that when the new government comes in, this woman will be able to train the official director!!! So that's where we can breathe a sigh of relief...that there shouldn't be much lag time between administrations. Rebecca :D

Wanted to offer some continuity here. I finally spoke with our attorney down there, and she is basically saying the same thing as Rebecca here. New DNA- wants to speed things ups. Our attorney says she met with her last week- says we are in "advanced " stage but don't really know what that means if anything. Probably we have just been waiting really long, with some mishaps. She did say that the new DNA is aware that Panama children stand to really loose here if they loose the international adoption requests due to many delays and poor information- so I think they are working on it. So I have taken a very large patience pill, and we will see where we end up. Does anyone know anything about the Red Cross orphanage in Panama?? yh

Thanks for the info, it's so helpful to compare notes. "Our" daughter is at the Red Cross orphanage but we don't now much about it. The Panama Red Cross has a website and just briefly mentions that they have an orphanage. Julie

"Ours" are also at the Red Cross orphanage! Maybe our kids are friends!!! ;) KimP said that the Red Cross orphanage is very nice and the kids-to-caretaker ratio is better than some of the other orphanages. Another "nice" (loving caretakers and fewer kids) orphanage is Hogar Divino Nino, in case anyone's children are there. The only one I've heard that is "bad" (too many kids for the few caretakers and too little money to support it) is the government-run one out by the airport (where our two were first taken). The good news about that one, though, is it's where many of the abused children end up, so they try to have more psychologist/dentist/medical visits with the kids trying to get them out of a malnourished state and up to speed emotionally and developmentally. The social and learning help comes later on when the children are doing better physically. (At least this is what I've heard and read). Rebecca P.S. Lauri might have pictures from her orphanage, whichever one it was. (Sorry, can't remember). :D

Hey, that's too cool! Hope we can meet there someday soon!! :D

Does anyone here know how they go about labeling a child "disabled". We recieived a picture of a girl- but the attorney thought we would not want her because she has disabilities. She sent the pictures and it looks as if she has a "lazy eye". I have forgotten what the medical term is- but I know we have a surgery in the states that can help if not fix that. I have asked for her records- I will have someone translate them here I guess (not sure how that works). But I do have a friend that is a MD and speaks Spanish. When we first had a home study- our social worker told us that many countries label a child special or having disabilities if ANYTHING is out of sorts. Missing a digit, one arm longer, cleft lift that kind of stuff. I worry though- the first referral we got- turns out she has a positive HIV on her record. WE did not find this out until just recently, much AFTER our lawyer spent alot of time trying to get the mother to sign termination of rights. Any thoughts here??

Not sure about labeling a child as "disabled" but when we sent the pictures of our daughter to an International Adoptions clinic, they came back and said one eye may be lazy (we didn't even notice it until they pointed it out). To correct this she said they can put a patch over the good eye to make the lazy eye stronger or surgery if that didn't work. I don't think I would call this a "disability" You should definitely get her medical records and make sure she has had all the tests (including HIV). Our Dr. also said that they recommend getting all those tests redone once the child is home just to be sure. Best of luck! Is this little girl in the Red Cross orphanage? How old is she? Maybe our children are all playing together! Julie

I would definitely have an international adoption specialist look at her. We were referred a little boy with a "lazy eye" and the doctor said there were other facial asymmetries as well that could indicate neurological problems and rated him as "high risk". Yes, the lazy eye can be easily fixed, but you need to find out if there is a serious underlying cause for it. Good luck, Joan

I hope that the posting that DNA is trying to move things along turns out to be accurate! As far the orphanage that our son is in - It is Foundation Camino de Esperanza. I don't have any pictures of the inside of the orphanage because we were ask not to take any the first day (children were in their underwear all getting haircuts). Then when we returned to take our son back, I was too emotional to remember to take pictures. The orphanage was a 3 bedroom house in a fairly nice neighborhood. You would never know it is an orphange except for the sign on the front wall. Two bedrooms were filled with cribs and one bedroom had two sets of bunkbeds. The bedrooms were all airconditioned. It had a nice yard and patio with about 20 children with 5 caregivers. For our son, we were provided detailed medical information and sent the information to an adoption doctor to review the pictures and medical information. She spoke Spanish, so she read the spanish versions of the documents instead of the translation. She was also very familar with Central and South American Adoptions. (Her office is in Alabama.) She spent an hour on the phone going over the pictures and medical information - basically healthy baby. I would recommend having all medical information and pictures reviewed by someone qualified in Central and South American Adoptions. The person we used has a web site with full details on how the process works, but we faxed everything one day and she called us the next day with her report. If you want the details, PM me as I don't know if I can put the link on this site. Lauri Lauri