Please Contact Your Congressmen and Senators!!

For His Glory Outreach released the following statement this morning:
January 18, 2010

Kim is asking all families to please contact your local media. Tell them that the orphanage that Geraldo Rivera was at during his two hour special last night is your orphanage where your kids are. We need to CONTINUE to get the message out that these kids need to come home. And we need the public to join us in being loud with our government that this is what needs to happen.

And we need everyone to contact their Senators and Congressmen, and ask everyone you know to contact them as well. It is a federal holiday, but call and leave voicemails, emails, etc. We have to keep pushing, letting everyone we can know that we are there, and we need help, and we need to get the kids out. Thanks for your help!


Below is a copy of the email I sent to both my Congressman and Senator.  Please feel free to copy and use to contact YOUR constituents as well.  (I used Google and simply did a search for "Congressman, DE and Senator, DE and easily found the email links and phone #s for each)

"My request is regarding the following orphanage in Port Au Prince and the EMERGENCY EVACUATION of children already matched with adoptive families here in the US:

Maison des Enfants de Dieu houses 138 orphans at Delmas 31 #32 in Port Au Prince. This week's earthquake have left these children with substandard housing and a lack of access to food and water. They received food and water yesterday but this was only after an urgent cry for help went out and people connected to the orphanage began desperately seeking help from any sources they knew of. They were only given a 1/2 day supply; obviously this will quickly run out. They are also concerned with their safety as the exterior walls to the compound have collapsed and looting is an issue in all of the city. They have sick children and many babies who have been drinking regular milk rather than formula for lack of a better alternative. Please advocate for the children of this orphanage to be evacuated to the US as there are not places in Haiti that can adequately take in this many people at once. Many of these children have been matched with adoptive parents who are willing to care for them and complete their adoptions stateside. There is paperwork to establish who these children are; they are not newly orphaned children with no identification. These children need to be evacuated from Haiti as staying in Haiti at best means life in a tent city and at worst means starvation or death from illness.
I implore you to contact the State Department and ask them to issue the approval for this to take place!
From the JCICS website...
"It is Joint Council’s position that the U.S. government should immediately grant humanitarian parole to all children being adopted by U.S. citizens. At present, Joint Council is appealing with the U.S. government, specifically the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), to issue humanitarian parole for any child that has been referred to an American family. Humanitarian parole, if granted, would eliminate the need for a visa. Humanitarian parole would also minimize the paperwork and possibly eliminate the need to find documents, which have been destroyed in the earthquake. Given the urgent needs of the children, the fact that the Haitian government has lifted all exit requirements and that the children have adoptive families, we believe that humanitarian parole is the most humane solution to this crisis. Please note that Joint Council has not received confirmation for humanitarian parole but we are working diligently towards that end. When and if humanitarian parole is granted, we will publish the information widely. "
The Haitian government has lifted all exit requirements. That is a huge deal. That means it is just up to our government to agree to let children who have been matched with families in and to come up with a plan to do so.
Thanks cannot even begin to express my gratitude for your timely and urgent help in this matter,
Jennifer D. Ream
Wilmington, DE
P.S. I have two 9-year old nephews who were adopted from this very orphanage and JUST arrived HOME the week before Thanksgiving. I am so grateful that they are home, but there are so many other families waiting for their children to be saved. Please help."
 

Not only will this allow the children from this one particular orphanage to come home, but it will allow ALL Haitian children currently in the process of being adopted from the US to be evacuated out of the unthinkable circumstances they find themselves in.
Please do what you can, pass along the information and pray that God will do "exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine!"
To God Be The Glory!
~Jenn~