This is Ethan at one year old and still in the orphanage.

Our Special Delivery

Jerry & Dawn Ford

We had seen the stories on television about homeless children in other countries – poor, hungry, and needing someone to love them. Something inside of us told us that we were the right type of couple to take on this process and bring into our family a child who needed us.

We started the adoption process with Special Delivery International Inc. in June of 1997. This company, was referred to us by 3 families who all adopted a number of children from Guatemala. The first requirement was to complete an application and specify whether we would like a boy or a girl, and what age we preferred. In a few weeks, we received 2 pictures of a beautiful little 1-year old boy. At that point, the real work began with lots and lots of paperwork. We gathered our birth certificates, marriage certificate, and other documents. Six of our friends had to give us written witness statements indicating the type of people we are. Next we were fingerprinted, and the local police had to do background checks on us. Everything had to be notarized and then approved by the Secretary of State.

Next, a home study was done which consisted of all sorts of questions about our families, our childhoods, and our marriage.

By this time, we had chosen the name “Ethan” for our new son. When he was still in Guatemala the hard times began. Ethan had a couple of terrible ear infections, he fell down the steps in his walker and broke out a tooth, and there was also a scare that all the kids had scabies, which we never knew if that really happened. Then our paper work was held up because of a miss-spelled word in the home study. By this time it was almost Christmas and the government of Guatemala closes down for a month during this time.

We were so close to having everything done that we didn’t want to wait a whole month while the government was on vacation.

We were determined to be with Ethan for Christmas whether in the U.S. or Guatemala. In order to save time mailing documents back and forth, we decided to go to Guatemala and try to push things through faster. On December 12, 1997 we boarded Aviateca airlines at the DFW Airport that took us straight into Guatemala City where we met up with Larry Boggs.

Larry is an American missionary who, with his wife Claire, operate the Hogar Cuna orphanage in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. The orphanage is about a 5hour ride up through the mountains from Guatemala City. Larry had brought Ethan with him to the airport and the first thing we noticed when we saw him was his long fingers. He was very scared and held on tight to the lady that came along to help Larry. When I finally got to hold Ethan I realized I was finally a mother.

We had good news that night that Ethan's passport was ready and all we needed to do was to visit a doctor for the medical release and take some paper work to the U.S. Embassy. We couldn’t get this scheduled for a few more days, so we decided to take the 5hour trip to the orphanage. I am glad we did because it was the most breath-taking trip I have ever experienced. The people and their country are like no other you will ever see. The people and their families work from sun up to sun down.

When we arrived at the orphanage we just had to go in and see all the kids. They were all over the place playing with toys and having a good time. All together there were about 30 children with 20 of them under the age of 4. In the corner of the room was a nice little Christmas tree with presents already under it. Another couple from Dallas was also at the orphanage to pick up their new infant son, so we were able to do some sight seeing with them. An apartment for visitors had been built as an extension to the orphanage, so we stayed there for the night.

In the morning, we all went and ate breakfast in a little nearby restaurant. Here where 4 gringos that didn’t know a whole lot of Spanish trying to order breakfast. We ended up with scrambled eggs, so I guess we didn’t do too bad. Next, we went to “Las Ruinas”, which are the ancient Myan Indian pyramids and dwellings. We told the taxi diver to pick us up at a certain time and he didn't show up so we waited and waited and even started walking but came back. Finally he showed up! We experienced a coke to go. Bottles are in such high demand that they open them and pour it into a plastic bag and put a straw in it.

The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala was not what we expected. We had to wait outside under a tin over hang that had port-a-potties for restrooms. Larry went in to do some paper work and to pay them but came back because one of our one hundred dollar bills has a microscopic tear in it and they would not accept it. So, between Larry and the other couple we found a newer bill.

Today Ethan is a bright happy 5 years old that is looking forward to going to kindergarten at Prince of Peace School. He loves to play soccer and will play tee-ball summer of 2001. He has a great appetite, which I believe he is still making up for times he did not eat when still in Guatemala.