We need your help!

Things are getting complicated for us.

Here is a brief summary. We have approval to bring 2 orphans into the country from the USCIS (formerly INS, now under Homeland Security). The form we filled out to do this was called an I600A. We were approved. Then The Hague Treaty was approved and Congress said that if we have former approval before the Hague we could be grandfathered in and not have to have a Hague approved agency, homestudy or approval to bring orphans into the country. Well, the CIS is granting a 1 time free extension to that approval, but that's it. And it will not cover the time our China adoption is taking (5-8 years). We would then have to fill out the new form I800A which is the Hague approval to bring orphans into the country. We would have to spend thousands of dollars (again) to have our homestudy redone to meet the requirements of the Hague. This is making us do everything again, and be Hague approved, which the Congress said we wouldn't have to be. The USCIS needs to be put in check.

The long wait will have a toll on us financially for sure. Thankfully our agency is Hague accredited so we will not have to switch agencies if we have to file the I800A (other adoption agencies may feel the financial burden of completely losing their China program which may cause closures and loss of jobs).

The challenges of us getting I800A approval will be truly impossible.

Staying with our I600 approval will help us so much. For example, if we have to switch to the I800A we will have to get clearances from every foreign country that Dave has been in, including Iraq. Do you think they have a child abuse registry yet? No. If we wait 6 months without response we then have to ask them for a letter saying that they are not going to provide us with that form. Why would they do that? What a ridiculous thing to have us do, and impossible. If someone isn't going to respond, they aren't going to respond with a letter saying they aren't going to respond. These details should have been worked out before insisting that families complete this mess.

With these uncertainties of how the Hague Treaty will affect us is making us very nervous. Two things could happen. We could lose our place in line after waiting more than 3 years and have to start over as a Hague case. Or the financial burden, or just impossibleness of what they ask of us, may stop our adoption all together.

The Hague Treaty is supposed to help and protect children, at this point, with the uncertainty and confusion, I am not so sure. In theory I guess it will help and protect, but some details need to be worked out first.

Here are the 5 things you can do to help us and thousands of other adoptive families: http://www.jcics.org/5WaystoHelp.htm

If all of this is too complicated and you don't have the time or interest to really get into all of this. Here is the abbreviated version.

1. Send these emails to these addresses:
mark@ccainstitute.org
Dear Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute,
I am writing to inform you that we fully support the Joint Council Position Paper on I-600A Renewals to Joint Council. Please take every effort possible to ensure that waiting families who began their adoptions with I600-A are allowed to continue their adoptions with I-600A. Thank you!

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advocate@jcics.org
Dear JCICS,
I am writing to inform you that I fully support the Joint Council Position Paper on I-600A Renewals. I commend your efforts to ensure that waiting families who began their adoptions with I600-A are allowed to continue their adoptions with I-600A. Thank you!
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2. Please sign the petition.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/22112.html

3. October 14th, 15th, and 16th (days before this is presented to Congress), please write your Senator and Congressman. If you think you may forget, please do it now. You can find your Senator's phone and email at http://www.senate.gov/ or your Congressman at http://www.house.gov/. Here is an example of what you could include in your email.

“I/we understand that USCIS is actively engaged in seeking a resolution to the I-600A issue. I/we respectfully ask the Senator/Congressperson to contact USCIS and express their support of efforts to find an immediate resolution to the I-600A Extension issue.”
A kind ‘thank you’.

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Thanks! And please stay in prayer over our adoption process. We need all these details to fall into place. And we need the money to appear.