Adoption in Guatemala
For adopted Guatemalans, a searcher will look for birth moms. But sometimes the reunions are fraught.
Guatemala shut down international adoptions in 2008. Before that, US families adopted some 30,000 Guatemalan children. Now those kids are growing up, and some want a connection with their birth families. Enter “searchers,” who will try to track down birth families for a fee. But as one adoptive mom found out, that process can be difficult — and it’s as unregulated as international adoption itself once was in Guatemala.
