We cannot run this race alone…

In November 2019 we brought Ellie home from China. It took just about 1 year from start to finish. On May 13th when we submitted documents demonstrating our intent to adopt our next daughter the gravity of what this process might look like currently hit me like a rush of water. This race will not be a typical one, it won’t be clear cut or forward moving. It will likely be stagnate, it might not be understood and it will probably be frustrating. I know this because I have watched so many over the past year and a half (for some even longer) struggle to cope with what Covid has done to Chinese adoptions. It has been nothing short of devastating for these families and they have done nothing more than advocate the entire time. But guess what some are tired, some feel hopeless, some have had to make hard choices in whether or not pursuing a Chinese adoption is feasible for them. They’ve watched their children get older, continue to delay medical treatments and more importantly delay time with their forever family. Brothers, sisters, moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, FAMILY, sitting and waiting, ready for the call but not getting it. This is hard stuff. So, when that initial rush of water hit me upon matching I knew that my pain in that moment does not even compare to those who have been waiting for so long. In that moment I felt as if we were running a relay and with our family now in this race it was our turn to take the baton and run, run fast and hard, allow them rest from their run and get to work. Advocate for them and encourage others to advocate alongside us.

Maybe you are not called to adopt, maybe you are wondering what this has to do with you. Those of us that do choose this path cannot do it alone. We need others to rally around us, supporting those who do choose to adopt with prayer, fundraising/donations, advocating, etc. So, here is a very real and super easy opportunity for you to help. Your way of jumping into this relay race we are in and taking the baton from those who are so weary and tired they just cannot hold it anymore, they need rest and they need you! If we give up now and stop fighting there will be so many more orphans not pursued, so many children with no mom and dad, so many children never knowing how it feels to have a forever family. This is unacceptable, this is gut wrenching and unfathomable. We know firsthand of how adoption can impact families, for both the child and the family saying yes. Ellie is thriving and growing and she has forever changed our entire family. I cannot imagine if this becomes a distant memory of something we did in 2019, something unavailable in the future, something we are unable to do for our other daughter, waiting without a family of her own.

Currently there is a letter advocating for adoptions in China to reopen. If you were unaware China has been closed to adoption travel for over one year now. This letter has received support in the Senate and is now circulating in the House. In order to maintain traction this letter needs the support of our House of Representatives. We need to call attention to this letter by contacting our representatives and bringing attention to the importance of this letter and we only have until midnight on May 27 to do this. Below I have outlined the steps that you can take to support and rally around adoption, whether it directly or indirectly impacts you. This will take you maybe 3 minutes. That’s it, 3 minutes. I know we are all busy, which is why I have made it this simple and included all you need to do, in 3 minutes.

1. Go to https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative and type in your zip code to find out who you should email.
2. Go to that persons website and click on “contact” or “email,” it should be clear how to send an email through their site but if you have difficulty with this let me know and I will help!
3. Copy and paste the email script below, just changing out the bold areas to reflect you sending it.
4. Push send
5. Share with others
6. Pray!

Email Script:

SUBJECT LINE: HUMANITARIAN CONSTITUENT REQUEST: PLEASE SIGN BRADY LETTER ON CHINA ADOPTIONS TO HELP BRING OUR CHILD HOME

Dear [staff name],

I’m a constituent and I write to ask Representative [Lastname] to sign the letter led by Representatives Brady, Smith, Aderholt, and Trone asking Secretary of State Blinken to elevate the humanitarian, child welfare issue of China adoption delays. This letter reinforces a similar sent by 50 US Senators on May 12. (https://www.axios.com/lawmakers-urge-biden-cooperate-china-adoptions-06a5f11a-5641-4400-99db-21be24c5e9b4.html)

Adoptions from China, though long an area of cooperation and friendship between our countries, have been halted by Covid restrictions for more than 15 months without word on when they might resume. Over 400 waiting families, have been left unable to finalize their adoptions. This heartrending situation is made worse because many of the waiting children have significant, deteriorating medical conditions which cannot be fully treated until they join their families.

Resuming China adoptions is not political, but simply about giving children in need the homes they deserve and that their loving families long to provide. Our governments are now in a position to establish protocols for safe travel. However, adoption travel remains halted, and China has made it clear that the decision to resume will be made at the top levels of government.

We appreciate the State Department’s Office of Children’s Issues’ hard work with its Chinese counterpart, the CCCWA, to reopen adoption but because the Chinese government is making the decision to prohibit adoption travel at a much higher level, families are appealing to Congress to ask Secretary Blinken to prioritize cooperating to resolve this humanitarian, child welfare matter. We are hopeful that—if viewed as a diplomatic priority for the US — travel approvals for waiting adoptive families might be granted by China on a compassionate, humanitarian basis.

In an era of many divisions, uniting children with loving, permanent families is something we can all agree on. Please sign the Brady/Smith letter, and please protect this matter as a compassionate, humanitarian carveout, separate from other issues. Families simply want to bring [their/our] children home.

We don’t have much time! The letter closes on Friday, May 28. Please use the sign-up link in the e-Dear Colleague or contact James O’Brien in Representative Brady’s office to sign on at James.Obrien@mail.house.gov. (The sign-up link in the Dear Colleague is the preferred option.)

Sincerely,

[Name]

PS CNN poignantly captured the heartache waiting children and families are experiencing in this recent news segment: https://twitter.com/CNNnews…/status/1375450554697138177....

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