Dateline NBC

I'm not sure if anyone reading here watched Dateline or not last night (Sunday). If you did and are a person who sees me in real life also, you might be inclined to ask me what I thought, and that is fine. I definitely don't mind talking about this one. In fact, I thought I'd go ahead and talk a little about it here.



First, I thought the story was excellently done. It was about as balanced as a story about Guatemalan adoptions could be at this point. I'd have loved to hear more from Troy from guatadopt.com that they interviewed at the end, but I think you can actually hear more online.

I applaud Dateline for doing a nice job with a difficult and emotional topic.



So what do I think about what they said overall? I think that unfortunately it is sad but VERY true. There is and has been a lot of money involved in Guatemalan adoptions, and that naturally attracts those corrupt people who love money. While they focused on one particular facilitator, there are many, many, many more I'm sure. And there are TONS of really bad agencies out there as well.



So what about my experience? Well, I thank God every day that we have outside confirmation of Joseph's story in Guatemala. By outside confirmation, I mean unrelated in any way to our agency or children's home. Our friends who were missionaries there years ago know the Mennonite missionaries who assisted Joseph's birthmother and spoke with them earlier this year.

I say this, because if you haven't read much of my blog before, you might not know that I do not find the agency working directly with the children's home to be trustworthy. We were lied to several times by them. We were threatened that they would delay our case just for asking questions. You might have had a different experience, but I know some have unfortunately had similar (and even worse) ones. I'm not sure why they have chosen to do things the way they have. If yours is different, just be thankful.

And please don't think I'm saying no good is done there. There is much good done there, but there are issues, too.



If you do choose to comment here this time, please do not mention the name of the home or agency right now. This is not the time or place. I haven't ever said the name here, though many of you know it. It may be in prior comments from others, but leave it off this time.