Fight Until The End

My dear family and friends,

When we are so very close to being finally matched with our daughter, we should be in a time of joy and anticipation. Planning the nursery, reading bonding and parenting books, researching Chinese culture and travel.

But, that is not what we are doing.

Our I-171H expires in April. Unless we can guarantee our consulate appointment by its expiration we must renew.

We were one of the first families to use their free extension and are being told we can not renew for a 3rd time. Yet, if I had paid for my second I could renew for my free one now!?!?

However, we can renew under the new regulations, for this, your agency must be Hague accredited, mine is still waiting for our government to approve them...

When the laws were changed, Congress did not intend for us to go through this, yet USCIS (Immigration) decided differently.

I believe China will match us with a daughter, in the next 6-8 months, it might be our government that will keep my dreams from coming true.

Please help: Please read and sign this petition:
Online petition - Adoption for All: The Fairness for Families Petition

(quote from petition below)

Recently, the rules and regulations in the United States of America regarding
international adoption have changed. Congress passed The Hague into law. When
this was done, Congress explicitly stated that families who are in the process
of adopting a child internationally and who have been in process prior to April
1, 2008, are considered “transition cases.” As such, these families are, by law, grandfathered into the adoption rules and regulations that existed PRIOR TO April 1, 2008 until their adoptions are completed, and these families DO NOT have to re-file under the new Hague guidelines.

However, the Department of State and the US Department of Homeland Security’s CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services, aka USCIS) bureau are blatantly ignoring this law and forcing all transitional families to abide by the new regulations. This not only contravenes the law as written, but also creates undue hardship for the thousands of US families affected, and will likely cause the disruption of the adoption.