Urgent request! (not for money)

On November 3, 2010,  the Ukrainian parliament voted to move forward with voting on legislation that will put a moratorium on ALL international adoptions.  The bill has already passed once. Now it must be voted on one more time before it becomes LAW.  I have heard the second vote will take place sometime this month.

Huge decisions are about to be made in Ukraine.  Decisions which will affect umpteen children and many, many families currently in the middle of an adoption.  Even families in the process of adopting may NOT be allowed to move forward with their adoptions.  Court dates will be denied and families will be sent packing back to the USA.

This kind of thing is not new in the world of international adoptions.  Sadly, we’ve seen it many times before. Many countries have closed their doors to adoptions.  Vietnam, Guatemala, Romania, Nepal, Cambodia, Liberia, to name a few.  We used to be able to adopt children from all those nations–but sadly no longer can.

What can YOU do?

Well, obviously, PRAY.

Then, take a few minutes (seriously, it is SO easy) to email your congressperson and senators about this!  I’ve even got a form letter you can use (stolen/borrowed from another caring mom).

I hope you’ll help.

Here are the links that you can use to contact your legislators:

To send a letter to your congressman
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

To send a letter to your senator just click on the state and follow the link
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

 

And here is a form letter you can copy/paste:

Dear (name),

I am writing to you today regarding a VERY urgent situation. Many families in the US are currently in the process of adopting children from orphanages in Ukraine. Most of these children are older or disabled. American families adopting these children offer them what may be their only opportunity at a normal and productive life free of crime, prostitution, or institutionalization due to illnesses that are treatable in the United States.

On November 3, 2010, the Ukrainian parliament voted to proceed with voting on legislation that would halt all international adoptions until inter-country adoption agreements are in place (see the State Dept. announcement at http://adoption.state.gov/news/ukraine.html) . At this point, all that is needed for this to become law is one more vote in Ukrainian parliament and a signature by the Ukrainian president. This could happen any day. If it does, many families and innocent children will be greatly affected.

I am writing to you to urge you to act quickly on this matter by (1) Contacting your Ukrainian cohorts and requesting a consideration of revision of the law to allow adoptions to proceed while the agreement is being drafted (as was done in Russia) and (2) Work with your colleagues in congress to begin drafting this agreement so that it is ready to go in the event the law passes.

Thank you for your timely consideration of this urgent matter!