What if RainbowKids could no longer show you the faces of children who are waiting for families?
What if one person, with all the power, believed that families interested in adopting should not be allowed to view children who are legally available for adoption?
Couched in legalese,with the invention of a new term called "soft referrals", that is exactly what is being proposed by the person heading the Office of Children’s Issues at the US Dept of State. The idea is that no family without a homestudy should be allowed to receive information on a legally waiting child. This is completely contrary to how US Foster Adoption works for waiting children. Children waiting for adoption in the USA may be viewed by anyone visiting the national database at AdoptUsKids.org, or any of the state websites featuring waiting children in fostercare.
Under new leadership, the Office of Children’s Issues has taken radical steps to impose new fees on families wishing to adopt, crushing oversight requirements on adoption service providers, and now a vague instruction to agencies that repercussions may be implemented (retroactively!) should they fail to comply with instructions about sharing information on specific children with interested families.
How many families would adopt a child with Cerebral Palsy, had they not have first seen his or her photo? There are over FIVE HUNDRED children with CP waiting on RainbowKids. What chance do these children have of finding families if this new leadership at DOS has their way? ZERO!
Bulgarian Organizations Submit Letter to US Departement of State on Behalf of Special Needs Children:
The situation at the Office of Children’s Issues has become so dire, that 15 Bulgarian Organizations have written a letter outlining how shutting down advocacy for children with medical special needs goes against the Hague Covention. This letter was submitted this week and may be read here.
What can you do?? Read this about rising fees in adoption, and know that shutting down waiting child advocacy is part of it. This is happening. Don’t let it!
SAVE ADOPTION
Special Needs Spotlight: Heart Defects
How many children with a heart defect are waiting for a family on RainbowKids?
ONE THOUSAND-FIVE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY FOUR
ALL of those children will not be able to receive advocacy, including being featured here and on RainbowKids.com, if child-advocacy for international children is shut down. Including these twins at right.
No homes for waiting children. No International adoption.
One THOUSAND. Five Hundred. Fifty Four….that is how many with just this single special need are waiting for a family. Adoption needs RainbowKids. These children need families. ONE PERSON at the Department of State Children’s Issues should not be the reason these kids fail to be raised in a loving family.
Featured Country: Burkina Faso
There are many children waiting in Burkina Faso
Married couples between the ages of 30-50 may adopt a child or sibling group from the West African country of Burkina Faso. Children range in age from infants to teens. Travel consists of 15 days in country.
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