All it took was a moment. Loyda Rodriguez recalls carrying her groceries into her Guatemala City apartment before turning around to find her two-year-old daughter Anyeli gone from the patio.

“I said, ‘Where is she?’ I was very confused – why did they take my nena?” said Rodriguez of that afternoon in November 2006. As it turns out, her “nena” (Spanish slang for “baby girl”) was on a long journey to Liberty, Missouri, to be adopted by Jennifer and Timothy J. Monahan.

Last week, the Guatemalan government announced that it will begin reviewing adoption cases that were halted midway after the United States barred all adoptions from Guatamala in 2007, for the latter’s failure to comply with Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoptions regulations that aim to prevent child trafficking. All reviewed cases found to have established consent with the birth parent of the adopted child will be allowed to proceed, while those adoption cases opened after the U.S. decision will remain closed.