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"In my heart I have wanted to adopt since I was 13," she said.
When her plan to adopt two boys fell through, she adopted 15. Partnering with her adoption lawyer in Guatemala, Morales opened God Bless the Children Home on Nov. 28 in Guatemala City.
Morales grew up in Guatemala but has been living in the United States for 14 years, the past six in Cape Girardeau. She and her husband decided to adopt from their native country more than two years ago.
After they started the legal process, international adoptions from the country soon stopped. In 2008, Guatemala was reprimanded for not abiding by the Hague Adoption Convention. The convention regulates adoptions between the United States and the 77 countries that signed the agreement.
Once the adoptions ceased, money coming from other countries also stopped, making the problem worse, she said.
"There is so many children that get left everywhere," she said.
Morales' lawyer, Cinthya Vallejo, founded the not-for-profit God Bless the Children Association in 2002 to help facilitate adoptions. It is now the organization under which the orphanage operates, but it also provides support to two outlying villages.
Morales said she is lobbying for financial support locally through sponsors. She said she is starting small by contacting neighbors and churches.
The orphanage, a single-story rented house, costs $10,000 per month to operate. Its staff includes four women who oversee the children and a maintenance person. She said a doctor and dentist have donated services to the project.
Allen Basham, the mission director at Cape First Church, traveled with Morales to the country during the summer. It was part of the church-sponsored trip to provide medical care in Guatemalan villages.
After 22 years of mission trips, including 32 to Mexico, it was his first journey to the Guatemala.
"It just stole my heart," he said.
He and Morales will return next year to install a water purifier in a village outside Guatemala City. He said he is also looking forward to meeting the children of the orphanage.
"To me any place is ideal to establish a place like that," he said. "I'm just glad to help her."
When she told him about the project, he said encouraged her to pursue it.
"I have a tendency to think if we can dream it, God can do it," he said.
Morales will host an open house from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at 802 Caribou Court in Cape Girardeau. She can be contacted at godblessthechildren@live.com.
388-3627
Pertinent address:
802 Caribou Court Cape Girardeau, MO
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I think this is absolutely wonderful. I know so many people want to adopt children from other countries who are less fortunate. However, the dramatic increase in stolen babies and baby trafficing in some of these countries makes you really wonder whether or not some of the adopted children you see American families with have been ripped from their birth mother's arms.
Adoptions from Guatemala didn't stop just because of the need to adhere to an agreement. It was also because of that country's illegal baby trafficing. You cannot be completely sure even if you go through a good adoption agency here, as the problems are on the other end. These families pay a lot of money and go over to get their new baby thinking they have done a wonderful thing. They see the "foster" family and are reassured that they are doing the right thing and that their new baby has been well-cared for when, in reality, many of these places are all part of the crime, and Americans are the biggest suckers for the scheme.
What Ms. Morales is doing is going straight to where the need is and caring for children who are TRULY orphans. By providing for their care, she is meeting their needs in the most loving of all ways. I wish more people would think about doing what she has done and that this new fad of purchasing foreign babies will be exposed for what it is -- criminal activity in an underdeveloped country.
This story reads like the scams we have all been warned about. Hope the reporter validated this story.
Shame on you charlie brown! How dare you suggest this is anything but a wonderful caring person with only the children's best intentions in mind!!
I think "my_thoughts" comments are a bit uninformed and a little mean-spirited. I have three wonderful children adopted from Guatemala. All three adoptions were ethical. It does not take much effort to find ethical agencies to work with.
This is not the proper forum to discuss Guatemalan adoptions, but from my personal experience, and of doing much research, and talking to many other adoptive parents, the fraud that happens is in the minority of cases. But when it comes to children, of course, no fraud is acceptable.
There is a lot of extreme poverty and suffering in Guatemala. Adoption, in my opinion, is often beneficial for everyone involved. I think transparency in the process is the key to ethical adoptions - domestic or international.
Great work Ana Morales! I am always inspired when I see others living their faith. God bless you.
Guatemala is a very poor country which is why I should seriously question the $10,000 a month figure for just a single story house and a only 15 kids. The average yearly salary in Guatemala is $1500-$2000 US dollars, so one $10,000 monthly figure would easily cover the yearly salaries for the 4 overseers and the maintenance man. A pretty decent single story house could also be bought outright for $10,000 US.
Is it supposed to be 10,000 Guatemalan Quetzales instead of $10,000 USD? That would be a little less than $1200 a month and would sound about right for running an orphanage as described in the article.
If she really is paying $10,000 US Dollars then I would agree that somebody is running a scam.
Way to go, Ana. I know your heart is truly in this, no matter what others may think or say. When we last spoke of this, you said it was your dream. God's blessings upon this dream for you and those who are helped.
As a mother of a child adopted from Guatemala, I am appalled by the comments from my thoughts.
Adopting from a foreign country is no "fad." It actually requires a lenghty homestudy, intensive background checks, mounds of paperworks and so much more. Yes, it is expensive and so is giving birth to a biological child.
The decision to adopt for us came after years of unsuccessful infertility treatment. We looked into both domestic and foreign adoptions. We simply wanted a family. The color of skin and gender made no difference to us.
At age 40 and 52 we were told by at least 20 U.S. adoption agencies that we were too old. They suggested to us a private adoption or a foreign adoption. We pursued both. However the private adoption attorney told us to be prepared to wait much longer because to many of her teenage clients we would be thought of as too old and passed over for younger parents.
We then made the decision to go forward with a foreign adoption which took about a year from start to finish. Our daughter is our greatest joy and a day doesn't go by that I don't thank God for her. This was no fad. We made the best choice for our family.
Yes there was some corruption in Guatemalan adoptions, as there is with American adoptions. Steps are being taken to address those problems. I agree with the earlier post that you can find a reputable agency to work with and we did just that.
To refer to foreign adoptions as a fad shows real ignorance of the process. The same goes for those who comment that people should adopt in their own country. We would have loved to have done that too, (and still would) but age is against us which is a real shame. I think it's important for people to educate themselves on the subject before speaking out.