Guatemala-Adopt is a privately owned and managed, publicly accessible email list for discussion of topics related to Guatemalan adoption (see below for an explanation of what an email list is).

International adoption from Guatemala, and Guatemalan culture, politics, and other related topics, with a particular emphasis on areas of interest to adoptive families. The list covers issues of interest to those considering Guatemalan adoption, those currently in the process, and those who have already adopted. While the focus is Guatemala, discussion of adoption and culture of other countries in Latin America is also welcome.

Don't worry! JUst subscribe, read the messages for a bit, and post your questions and comments. The basic rules are simple -- be courteous and informative, be concise, don't advertise, and keep the discussion civil and on-topic. Stick to those and you're not likely to have trouble. (But do read through this FAQ to get a feel for some of what that means in practice).

The archives (explained below) are a great resource, and we encourage you to use them. But don't be afraid to post a question just because it might have been asked before, or it seems like everyone must know the answer. We welcome people with all levels of experience with Guatemalan adoption, and all kinds of questions.

The guidelines contained in this FAQ, and any additional guidelines posted to the list from time to time.

The primary list owners (see below) are ultimately responsible for all decisions about the list.

Continued subscription of any member to Guatemala-Adopt is at the sole discretion of the list owners, and your choice to join or remain a member constitutes agreement by you to abide by the Guatemala-Adopt policies and guidelines contained in this FAQ or posted to the list, and to abide by the requests and judgments of the list owners. Interpretation and enforcement of the list policies and guidelines is based solely on the list owners' discretion and judgment at the time, and we don't promise that it will be consistent over time, or necessarily seem fair or just to others.

The current primary list owners are Debbie Davidow and Stevan Whitehead. A number of others assist the list owners with the work of managing the list. To contact the list owners, send email to guatemala-adopt-request@listserv.icors.org.

All it really consists of is a list of people and their email addresses, an email address for the list itself, and some computer software. The software simply takes all the messages that are sent to the list address and redistributes them to all the people on the list. So, if there are 1000 people on the list, the software takes each email sent to the list and simply remails it to all 1000 people (we're skipping a few hundred technical details here, but fundamentally that's how it works).

The list was started in 1997 by Bob Kupperstein, an adoptive father with children from Guatemala, to assist other families adopting from Guatemala and to provide a forum for discussion of related topics.