What can you do to help us bring Emma home?

Please help us bring Emma home. This is a scary time in Guatemala...talk at the Marriott is nervous anticipation about what is going to happy to "in process" cases. We are in process and Friday will be our 4th week in PGN--with no idea when we will be out (best case 8-10 weeks--worse case NOT before December 31st). This is part of an e-mail sent out from agency strongly encouraging us to advocate for our children. I know each of us are busy and time is very hard to find. But this weekend, think about taking 10 minutes from your plans and send a letter/fax or e-mail to one person on this list. It really does matter and it could make the difference in bringing Emma home where she belongs.
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GUATEMALA 5000
Dear Friends,

Guatemalan President Oscar Berger has announced plans to suspend all intercountry adoption with American families on January 1 2008. The Joint Council on International Children’s Services strongly opposes such a suspension and asks for your support in their efforts to ensure that all children retain the right to permanency through Intercountry Adoption.

President Berger’s plans also call for the suspension of adoptions currently in-process. Such a suspension would be extremely detrimental to the children referred to adoptive parents. If President Berger’s plan is actually implemented, up to 5,000 will unnecessarily remain in foster care or orphanages indefinitely.

This situation represents a pending crisis for the adoptive families who have lovingly chosen to provide permanency, safety and love to a child in need and most importantly a crisis for 5,000 children of Guatemala.

What can you do? Make six simple phone calls and one email.

1. Call your U.S. Senator.
You can find your Senators’ phone numbers at www.senate.gov
Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff
2.Call your second U.S. Senator.
3.Call your representative to the U.S. House of Representative.
You can find your representative at www.house.gov
Ask to speak with the Legislative Director or Chief of Staff
4.Call or fax UNICEF Headquarter
Ask to speak with Ann Veneman, Executive Director
Their number is 212-326-7000
Their fax number is 212-326-7758
5.Call or fax UNICEF Guatemala
Ask to speak with Manuel Manrique
Their number is 011-502-2327-6373
Their fax number is 011-502-2327.6366
*Please note that calls and faxes to Guatemala are international calls
6.Send and email supporting Intercountry Adoption to guatemala5000@jcics.org
Write briefly or at length
Joint Council will use the cumulative email petition in our advocacy for Intercountry Adoption
Sample Statement
Hello,
We are calling/writing on behalf of the Guatemala 5000 Initiative. We, as your constituents, are asking that the Senator/Congressperson add their signature to two letters. First, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute sponsored letter to Guatemalan President Oscar Berger. Second, the Joint Council on International Children’s Services sponsored letter to UNICEF.

As you may be aware, the Guatemalan government has announced that all intercountry adoptions with the U.S. will be suspended on January 1 2008. Their announcement also indicated that there will be no ‘grandfathering’ of adoptions already in process. If children referred to families are not allowed to be adopted, they will languish in institutions or foster care. Your office must get involved and sign the sponsored letters to the President of Guatemala and UNICEF. These letters ask that all adoptions in-process as of January 1 2008 be allowed to process to completion under the existing notorial laws.

Sincerely,


One single email/letter/fax/call can help the cause. I am not a huge activist but the thoughts of Emma not being able to come to our family is unbearable. Not just for our family but for her Emma. I can not even allow myself to think about her being removed from her first family January 1, 2008 if she isn't home. The Guatemalan government could mandate all foster families to relinquish the children they are caring for to put in government hogars. The thought is too heartbreaking for everyone--foster families who loves these children like their own, adopting parents who love these children more than words can describe and the beautiful innocent children of Guatemala who have already started life under difficult circumstances--being separated from their birth mother, living with their first family, and then being united with their forever family.

Please do what you can to help Emma come home.