Back on August 8 I wrote a post about David Esaú, a baby boy in Guatemala who is waiting to be adopted. David has been waiting for more than 5 months, and while adoptive families are eager for referrals of girls or infant boys, children like David keep getting older, and their chances of being adopted decrease every month.

The reasons a child like David (but not necessarily David himself) are not matched with a family at birth are various:

• The birthmother doesn’t decide to relinquish until after a few months.
• The child is matched with a prospective adoptive family, but the family has to withdraw from the adoption.
• No families are ready with their paperwork when the child becomes available. By the time any families are available, the child is a couple months old, and families who now have their paperwork ready are interested in another child (especially if there is a younger child).
• The child is a boy and paper-ready families are looking to adopt only girls.

All of these reasons are legitimate, and it is important for prospective adoptive parents to make a decision that is best for their family. It is bad for the parents and bad for the adopted child when adopters make a decision that they feel pressured into.

On the other hand, perhaps many families have not seriously considered whether they can expand the range of what they are willing to accept in terms of age or gender. We encourage families to examine their reasons for the decisions they’ve made, discuss them, and be willing to revise their plans. For example, a husband may have supposed his wife only wanted a girl, but upon discussion, he discovers that this is not as important as he’d thought. Or taking another example, a family might decide that the difference between a 10-month-old and a 16-month-old — though significant — is not as important as actually adopting a child in need. (A Guatemalan child who is matched with a family at 1 month old will probably be at least 10 months old when the adoption is complete.)

If you know a family that is paper-ready and looking for a child in genuine need, please direct that family to our adoption photolisting page of waiting children from Guatemala. Not every family can or should adopt a waiting child. But for those who can, there are many children waiting. (Please talk to our office about the current risks of Guatemala adoptions before making a decision.)