Since then, we have seen much progress as far as Congressional involvement.
As I stated in my D.C. post, Senator Feinstein showed tremendous support and her office continues to follow up with us.
Soon after we came home, the House voted on House Resolution 588 concerning DRC adoptions and it passed unanimously!
Shortly after that, a Senate resolution was introduced and we were able to get more than half of all the Senate to sign on as co-sponsors! That hasn't even gone to a vote yet, but has a huge head start with the Senators on board already. We do have Senator Feinstein as well as Senator Boxer down as co-sponsors, so California has our back! ;)
In addition to the House and Senate Resolutions, there was also a Congressional Letter addressed to President Obama that was sent to the White House yesterday. You can read the letter here. We were able to get the support of over 160 members of Congress by having them sign the letter requesting Obama to personally reach out to DRC President Kabila and press for this exit letter suspension to be resolved. We now await his response.
If THAT isn't enough, the Congressional Coalition on Adoptions Institute invited adoptive parents to participate in a conference call that was held this morning. We were greatly encouraged by the support received from the Senators on the call and their staff. Like another adoptive parent mentioned, it is REALLY nice to end a conference call more hopeful than when it started (this is NOT the case with the usual DOS conference calls!).
And I almost forgot that today, we had a national "Call the White House Day"! We shared with 25,000 people - our family and friends, instructions for calling the White House and leaving a message for President Obama to directly engage President Kabila. We are told by those answering the phones that our message was HEARD!
On top of that, last week we got the privilege of watching (online) our own Kelly Dempsey from Both Ends Burning testify in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing on African Adoptions. You can view part of the hearing here (there are a couple different clips of the hearing that can be seen on the right hand side of the video player)
We as adoptive parents were so encouraged to see that the Committee cares enough about orphans in Africa to hold a hearing dedicated to it and then to invite Kelly to testify. She is a wealth of knowledge and has a deep understanding of adoption as an adoptive mom. You can read her written testimony in this document. (We love her :)
One thing has rang true through this entire process unfortunately...and that is that the Department of State has not been the advocate that we thought they would be for adoptive parents.
You'll notice that they were invited to the African adoption hearing above, but they did not attend. There are numerous questions we have for them and we have yet to receive answers.
Thankfully, Kelly led us in our trip to D.C. and as a result, we have HUGE support from our Congressmen and our Senators. So now, we have very important people heavily involved with this issue. And many members of Congress are now pressing the Dept of State for the answers that we believe should have been given long ago.
We know that it is Congo that has issued this suspension and is preventing our precious Tobias from coming home. However, it has taken WAY too long for the appropriate governmental office to get involved. We have been told multiple times that we are to go to the Dept of State and/or the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa with the questions regarding the issue.
Well, I think that I can speak for MANY adoptive parents in saying that we have gone to them over and over and for whatever reason, we are getting robotic, un-empathetic responses. We are not seeing passionate intervention for the lives of these children and are not seeing the sense of urgency that they deserve.
I was personally looking forward to seeing what they had to say at the hearing last week, but they did not attend! If you listen to the hearing, you'll see that Mr. Smith mentioned they'd like to have a "Part 2" of the hearing so that they can have the Ambassador present and give us some information as well as hear more testimony regarding this situation.
I hope that they convene again soon while this matter is very visible and on the forefront of many offices of Congress.
This is an exciting time in that I am able to witness our lawmakers at work. It is very easy nowadays to become discouraged when we sit back and look at how our country has changed. However, it has been refreshing to see our country actively intervening for the human rights of people all over the world. It sure isn't perfect, but I am definitely thankful to live in a nation where I am free to reach out to my elected officials and make matters that are important to ME become important to THEM.
I just pray this is important enough to President Obama as well...praying for a miracle. Praying that Tobias will be home by my birthday in September (prayed that last year too). Praying that he will celebrate Christmas with his family this year (prayed that last year as well).
And I'm praying that every one of these beautiful dark skinned, bright eyed children will be in the warmth of their parents embrace SOON.
I think we will have some thank you notes to send to our members of Congress when that happens.
***Reminder, I don't tolerate hateful comments :) They'll be deleted.
