A Week of Getting our Stories OUT!

So, I can honestly say that this past week has been one of the craziest ever.  

It has been so full, in a very very good way.

I have been pulled out of my comfort zone and taken a stand for our son in a way that I never have been able to before!  

SO SO SO SO much has gone on behind the scenes, and only my fellow Congo parents understand all that has gone on!

But for those of you who have followed our story, loved our son, and even stepped out by helping us raise awareness of the situation, I'd like to recap the happenings of the last couple weeks.


March 21st 

• A conference call wass held between the U.S. Embassy in DRC and adoptive parents (as well as adoption service providers). 
• Many parents were disappointed and angered by the lack of advocacy on the Embassy's part.  We felt that not enough was being done to encourage DRC to start issuing exit permits again.
• We (adoptive parents) realized that there was no master list of children in the adoption process, or children with visas in-hand.
• Parents believe we will have to take it upon ourselves to advocate for our children stuck in Congo!

March 27th 

• A New FB group is created to gather all parents whose Congolese children have a Visa in-hand (like Tobias).

March 31st 

• We (Congo adoptive parents) partnered with Kelly Dempsey from Both Ends Burning.  She took our case pro bono and started an action plan for us parents to take.

• All of us adoptive parents received an email from a coalition that is doing their best to get our kids home.  (separate from Both Ends Burning)  They set a plan in place for us to reach out to our elected officials and have our voices heard.  The plan:

• Send paper letters, emails, faxes, and phone calls over a 5 day period to each and every Senator (there's 100 of them!), as well as our local elected representative.
• We also reached out to friends and relatives to do the same on our behalf!

April 1st 

• Kelly created a Both Ends Burning Facebook Page for those of us Congo parents in the adoption process.
• There, we can all collaborate and be on the same page while we work together.
• Kelly Dempsey agrees that the coalition's plan of contacting the senators and representatives coincides with her initiative to make the Congolese exit letter situation very visible to the U.S. elected officials.
• We printed out and mailed 100 letters to all our senators, plus our local Congressman and the President.

 
April 2nd 

• We sent emails to the same officials we sent paper letters to. 
• We were instructed by Kelly to make our stories HEARD!  Our intent is to engage elected officials and show them that this issue is very important to their constituents.  We started contacting LOTS of media outlets asking if they were interested in hearing our story.
• A petition was written up by Kelly and we made it spread like wild fire!!  You can still sign it here. 
• Yet ANOTHER Facebook Page was made for just us Congo parents in California.  We joined forces and work together on everything!

April 3rd 

• We heard back from our local Fox40 news station and they wanted to run our story!
• Kimberly McDougall from Fox40 interviewed us and we were on the 6:00 news!
• See the article and video here.
• As soon as Kim left, I realized what a terrible tension headache I had!!!  Ah, it knocked me over!
• Adoptive parents started calling their state senators and local reps, telling them their story and asking them to get involved.

April 4th 

• Our petition had over 75,000 signatures!!  Huge!
• I continued to send our story to different officials and media outlets.
• Many other families were able to get their story on the news all over the country!
•  Huffington Post published an article!  Read here. 
• California parents printed letters to Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein.  We tried to obtain as many physical signatures as possible.  They will be hand delivered to their DC offices!

April 5th 

• Parents started making a one page outline that will be shown to Congress.  We included pictures of our family and our adopted children waiting for us along with our adoption timeline.
• These letters will go to our elected officials in DC later this month to put a face and story to each case.
• I had another terrible tension headache!!!  Had to lay in bed for over an hour....I was SUPPOSED to be packing!

April 6th 

• We reached over 100,000 signatures on our online petition!!!!
• I collected 30 signed letters for each senator at church!  Our church family cares about our son and the hundreds of others stuck in this process!
• We left for Carmel on a mini vacation.  Time to take a break from the craziness!

April 7th 

• A Congressional letter was circulated by Senators Landrieu and Inhoffe, together with Representatives Bachmann and Bass.  The letter was set to close on April 9th and we needed 100 signatures from Senators and Congressmen/women by then!
• The letter was addressed to the DRC President and Prime Minister. (the letter is not public)
• Congo parents started calling and emailing their senators and representatives again, asking them to sign the letter! (not us...we were on vacation)
• An alert was posted by the Dept. of State regarding the DRC delegation coming to the U.S. this month (read it here). 
• Our work is paying off!!!  The State Department has taken action and made plans for the DRC delegation to meet Congolese children that are home with their American families (there was no plan prior to this, and this was something we were specifically requesting!!)

April 8th & 9th 

• Parents were very hard at work, asking friends and family to call their local representatives as well, requesting that they sign the letter before the close of business on the 9th.
• A 24 hour extension was given for the close of the letter!
• We drove home from Carmel!

April 10th (the day I'm writing this)

• I made phone calls and sent an email to Congressman McClintock asking him to sign the congressional letter TODAY and requested others do the same!
• We made it to 142 signatures before the close of the business day!!!  YES!
• The person handling constituent services in Tom McClintock's office called me!
• They are opening a case to the State Department on behalf of Tobias's adoption!
• This is basically an inquiry to the Dept and will likely come back with a generic response.  However, this will show the Department of State that Congressman McClintock cares about our situation!
• Parents also started contacting the President and Vice President asking them to intercede on our behalf.

I'm sure there will be much more to add by the end of today, but I think that's enough to share for now!

I thank all of you so much for praying for us and Tobias, and now recently showing your support by way of writing letters and emails.

We are very hopeful that this will get things moving in Congo.  

We also (as adoptive Congo parents) want to emphasize that all this work done the past 10 days has not been to bring to light another country's faults.  

Our first priority has been to get our own elected officials involved.  They are here to help with issues that are important to their constituents and this week we made it clear what is important to us!

Not enough has been done by the State Department or the Embassy, and that is what we were unhappy about.

Yes, we want our kids home.
We want them to have exit letters. 

But we also have to respect their country and their laws.

We are doing our best to go about all of this in a respectful way that shows how much we ALL care about Congolese children!!!

Unfortunately, we are also being faced with a lot of negative feedback from others in social media.  When stories are shared for all to see, some people will see it that will not agree with what we're doing...it's just going to happen.

And I'll save the rest of that for my next post...