AnnaMaria was on Dateline

Photo from our agency last March, taken at the Radisson with our foster mom, Blanca.

Dateline aired a special on NBC last Sunday called, To Catch a Baby Broker. As a family, we watched with interest. At some point Claire thought she saw AnnaMaria on the screen. It seemed impossible, but later I saw a quick clip that looked like her too. She was wearing a denim jumper and pink shoes. I thought it might be our imaginations since we had left an outfit like that on our first visit trip and later received photos of AnnaMaria in that outfit.

Our agency director, Sue, visits Guatemala frequently and sees as many children as possible. She always stays at the Radisson and from what I understand, the foster moms bring the babies to Sue and she takes photos and videos of them, which she sends to the adopting families in the US.

After the show I checked the Dateline website for a recap of the show. There were some video clips, but I didn’t see AnnaMaria in any of them. During the week, I was haunted by all the “what ifs”. I checked the web again and Dateline had posted more complete videos. My heart skipped a beat when I saw AnnaMaria.

You may or may not remember that we didn’t see our foster mom, Blanca, at all on our second visit trip. Dona Aura, our facilitator, told us that AnnaMaria was staying with her during Holy Week, so Blanca could be with her adult children. Then at the end of the trip, the other child in Blanca’s care had the chicken pox (AnnaMaria was just recovering from them). When Claire and I arrived in June, we learned that AnnaMaria had been with Dona Aura for the previous two weeks. Dona Aura said she was keeping AnnaMaria at her house to work on her motor skills, which were delayed. All this seemed perfectly believable, but after watching Dateline, I had a million scary thoughts.

I spent several hours viewing, pausing and blowing up the photos and I hope I have it figured out. Dateline said they had a hidden camera interview with Thanassis (the crooked facilitator) at the Radisson in Guatemala City. My best guess is that Sue was seeing kids at the Radisson on the same day and one of the Dateline hidden cameras caught Blanca and AnnaMaria waiting in the lobby.

It does look like AnnaMaria is happy and Blanca is playing with her, which is comforting.

If you’d like to see the clips, here are the links:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22769314#22769314
The first video is “To Catch a Baby Broker” – AnnaMaria is on at 57 seconds and 2:41 (the second one is just after a segment on Unicef).
“Critics Call him a Baby Stealer” – 25 seconds.

I thought the show was pretty good. Of course, parts of it are upsetting, but it seemed pretty fair. I recognized so many places and there were even photos of Clara and Flory, our friends from Antigua. Flory was a “poster child” on the fake adoption website set up by Dateline. I hope they paid her or bought goods from her! Knowing Flory…they didn’t get a photo without a purchase J

We never appreciate our families as much as we should, but I can assure you that I have been very thankful this week!