Adoption Status Updates, request for help

I am once again asking for your help in advocating for our family (and many others) in light of the situation in Haiti. I am fairly confident that families who have adoption decrees issued by Haiti will have these decrees recognized by US immigration and will be granted visas for their children.

However, what will be done with those families, like ours, who are not this far along has yet to be seen. When I asked earlier, I really was at a loss for what options might be available. What is being suggested is that all children who were matched with families prior to the earthquake be allowed to join their families. For those with adoption decrees, visas could be issued. For those without, the children could be granted Humanitarian Parole and be allowed to join their families in the US while the rest of their adoptions were completed. This is one option but it seems to be the one that makes the most sense. If you have not already contacted Ben Nelson or Mike Johanns, you could still do so using the form letter I have created. I would also ask you to use this letter or something similar to contact our Sec. of State, Hillary Clinton as she will have major influence in what happens. For Humanitarian Parole to be issued the government of Haiti would have to agree to let those children out of the country as those children are still Haitian and have Haitian parents as their legal parents.

http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php?p_sid=WvNN46Sj&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xMTgsMTE4JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ubCZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**

We are aware of many adoptive families caught in legal limbo as they have been matched with children from Haiti for months, often years, but now are uncertain of what will happen to their children and their adoptions. Even orphanages not in Port Au Prince will be affected by the earthquake as they may have been damaged by the earthquake and will soon feel the effects of people flooding into other areas of Haiti looking for food, shelter, water, and medical care. As resources are already scarce and may possibly become scarcer, we are concerned for all of the children living in orphanages. We also are concerned that those in the adoption process will be overlooked as the Haitian government focuses on the larger issues of caring for the population of PAP. We ask that the US State Department would consider the uniqueness of this situation and allow all children from Haiti who were matched with families prior to the earthquake to join their families in the US either through visas issued based on completed Haitian adoptions and adoption decrees or for those still in process, through a Humanitarian Parole that would allow the adoptions to be completed as the child is cared for in the US by their adoptive parents