To my elected representative who I pray for,
I know you are busy but I pray you won't skip this as a generic letter from someone you don't know, but will receive it as from a real person, voter you represent, father, and someone who wants to help our country as you do. My wife and I adopted a Congolese boy in 2011 who never made it to America as he died on the airplane ride back from Kinshasa (the capitol), apparently in poor health. I carried his coffin to his grave there in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and wept over our loss so I can speak very experientially of the heartbreak that is felt when an adopted child is not able to be united with his loving American family. Adoptive parents begin to love the children they're adopting as they're own before they are in their home, and so this is a great personal concern and care of mine that I hope you don't just write off what I've written and toss this note in the trash. It is equally heartbreaking for any loving family to not be able to bring home their adopted child, and it is no exagerration or emotional overstatement to say orphans and children are dying in the DRC all the time, and hope is dying for children in DRC who families you represent have adopted.
I am writing from Northern CA as one who has adopted 2 children from the DRC and has seen many families blessed as mine has been, and I'm writing to plead with you to do all you can to help the same happen for American-adopted children who the DRC is not releasing (as of 9/2013). I have met some of these children and their parents and if you could only meet one of them, I'm confident you would want to do something to help bring families together for hundreds of children who have been fully investigated and approved and official by the U.S. Embassy (many with U.S. exit VISA in hand) but the DRC is not issuing exit letters. Some parents have spent weeks or months in the country with their children, but the DRC won't let them leave as if hostages for political reasons.
California has a long and rich history of adoption from the orphan trains of the 19th century and in the 21st century is a very multi-ethnic state and fitting force and place to advocate for other peoples (like DRC and others) whose governments don't always have their best interests in mind as I trust ours does. When families are made up of different nations it's really a microcosm of the family of America, and a beautiful picture of biblical truth. My great-great-grandfather grew up in racist Kentucky in the Civil War, but his heart was changed to become an abolitionist and the lone voice in the state government's House of Representatives to support Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. Perry Layton's name is enshrined in the state record as speaking up for those who couldn't speak up, and his son Edwin became a medical missionary to the DRC (which not many white people from the South did in those days, risking their life to minister to black Africans, truly believing "all men are created equal").
There are not many voices from our representatives today speaking up for these little ones in Africa who can't speak for themselves. I've spent many weeks in DRC and seen this country has no care for orphans or their voice, but they do care for what you have to say. They respect America and want to be in its good graces. I'm thankful my great-great-grandpa's name is remembered for caring enough for the blacks to stand up and speak for them when others in his state government wouldn't.
MY QUESTION FOR YOU IS WILL YOUR NAME BE REMEMBERED IN THIS REGARD?
WHAT AM I PLEADING WITH YOU TO DO:
• Ask Secretary of State Kerry to take a personal interest in resolving this situation with Exit letters from DGM as a first step, getting these American-adopted children home. If for the future, Hague Convention or other steps are desired, please urge the Secretary to work with him on behalf of American families and to assure him the US is committed to make sure trafficking never happens. Please express to the Secretary how important innocent children’s lives are to you and your representatives and ask for his help in resolving this situation immediately;
• Send a letter asking President Joseph Kabila and the Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo of the DRC to intercede so that these children can be united with their adoptive parents immediately; and
• Speak publicly about your support for these American families and their children.
I am blessed to live in this country where the voice of every man, woman, and child matters. In our democracy, to have representative leadership who can express the voice of those they're entrusted to serve is a further blessing. So many children I have met in DRC orphanages do not have either blessing but have families here ready to shower them with blessings and love. But without your help, many have been denied the joy of bringing their adopted children home for many months now. I also know first-hand every month these kids have to stay in poverty and orphanages has an effect. I also know what a wonderful thing it is when an abandoned child is embraced in a family. If you care about children and care about Africa please speak for these who can't speak for themselves.
Thank you
I know you are busy but I pray you won't skip this as a generic letter from someone you don't know, but will receive it as from a real person, voter you represent, father, and someone who wants to help our country as you do. My wife and I adopted a Congolese boy in 2011 who never made it to America as he died on the airplane ride back from Kinshasa (the capitol), apparently in poor health. I carried his coffin to his grave there in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and wept over our loss so I can speak very experientially of the heartbreak that is felt when an adopted child is not able to be united with his loving American family. Adoptive parents begin to love the children they're adopting as they're own before they are in their home, and so this is a great personal concern and care of mine that I hope you don't just write off what I've written and toss this note in the trash. It is equally heartbreaking for any loving family to not be able to bring home their adopted child, and it is no exagerration or emotional overstatement to say orphans and children are dying in the DRC all the time, and hope is dying for children in DRC who families you represent have adopted.
I am writing from Northern CA as one who has adopted 2 children from the DRC and has seen many families blessed as mine has been, and I'm writing to plead with you to do all you can to help the same happen for American-adopted children who the DRC is not releasing (as of 9/2013). I have met some of these children and their parents and if you could only meet one of them, I'm confident you would want to do something to help bring families together for hundreds of children who have been fully investigated and approved and official by the U.S. Embassy (many with U.S. exit VISA in hand) but the DRC is not issuing exit letters. Some parents have spent weeks or months in the country with their children, but the DRC won't let them leave as if hostages for political reasons.
California has a long and rich history of adoption from the orphan trains of the 19th century and in the 21st century is a very multi-ethnic state and fitting force and place to advocate for other peoples (like DRC and others) whose governments don't always have their best interests in mind as I trust ours does. When families are made up of different nations it's really a microcosm of the family of America, and a beautiful picture of biblical truth. My great-great-grandfather grew up in racist Kentucky in the Civil War, but his heart was changed to become an abolitionist and the lone voice in the state government's House of Representatives to support Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. Perry Layton's name is enshrined in the state record as speaking up for those who couldn't speak up, and his son Edwin became a medical missionary to the DRC (which not many white people from the South did in those days, risking their life to minister to black Africans, truly believing "all men are created equal").
There are not many voices from our representatives today speaking up for these little ones in Africa who can't speak for themselves. I've spent many weeks in DRC and seen this country has no care for orphans or their voice, but they do care for what you have to say. They respect America and want to be in its good graces. I'm thankful my great-great-grandpa's name is remembered for caring enough for the blacks to stand up and speak for them when others in his state government wouldn't.
MY QUESTION FOR YOU IS WILL YOUR NAME BE REMEMBERED IN THIS REGARD?
WHAT AM I PLEADING WITH YOU TO DO:
• Ask Secretary of State Kerry to take a personal interest in resolving this situation with Exit letters from DGM as a first step, getting these American-adopted children home. If for the future, Hague Convention or other steps are desired, please urge the Secretary to work with him on behalf of American families and to assure him the US is committed to make sure trafficking never happens. Please express to the Secretary how important innocent children’s lives are to you and your representatives and ask for his help in resolving this situation immediately;
• Send a letter asking President Joseph Kabila and the Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo of the DRC to intercede so that these children can be united with their adoptive parents immediately; and
• Speak publicly about your support for these American families and their children.
I am blessed to live in this country where the voice of every man, woman, and child matters. In our democracy, to have representative leadership who can express the voice of those they're entrusted to serve is a further blessing. So many children I have met in DRC orphanages do not have either blessing but have families here ready to shower them with blessings and love. But without your help, many have been denied the joy of bringing their adopted children home for many months now. I also know first-hand every month these kids have to stay in poverty and orphanages has an effect. I also know what a wonderful thing it is when an abandoned child is embraced in a family. If you care about children and care about Africa please speak for these who can't speak for themselves.
Thank you
