Adoption Expos and Adoption Votes

     This past weekend Ben had a swim meet near Washington, DC so I drove him up, dropped him off and took the Metro into the city to the Freddie Mac Adoption Expo.  I spent the day passing out brochures and talking to anyone who would listen about Reece's Rainbow.  Best of all I got to hang with three lovely ladies, Amy Boroughs, Judy Williams and the star of the show, Andrea Roberts.  

     In the last month Andrea has won both the People Magazine Hero of the Year Award and the Congressional Angels in Adoption Award which has made her quite a celebrity.  Because of this we had to endure television cameras at our booth for what seemed like an eternity.  Andrea just took it in stride.  Not me.  I wanted to crawl right under the table and stay there until they left.  I can talk with the best of them in normal life, but shove a television camera in my face, attach a mike to my shirt and I become a slobbering mess.  I'm so hoping they edit out my incoherent dribble and stick with the lady who works so hard for so many.  Despite the cameras recording our every move, it was a wonderful event.  It was the first time Reece's Rainbow has ever been represented at one of these Expos.  Pray that the seeds we planted in the hearts of so many people will take root and grow.

Aaron's country is in desperate need of prayer right now.  Possibly as soon as this week, a vote for a bill is again coming up that would put a moratorium on adoptions.  Shockingly, it passed a few weeks ago but has to pass a second time.  If it does, it goes to the president to sign.  Simply - adoptions would stop for a season.  Nothing is simple though - It is a very complicated mess.  The goal of the moratorium is to clean up the system but sadly, putting a stop to adoptions, even for a season, leaves hundreds of children and families in a horrifying limbo.  Unfortunately, no one really knows when that vote will happen.  It could happen this week or next spring. 

Thankfully, God has been moving in hearts and we are not without hope.  There are people working on both sides of the ocean, advocating for the children.  There are many voices being raised to have the moratorium not affect the adoptions of the special needs children since they are in desperate need of getting out.   Please storm heaven that hearts would be moved.  There are currently 70 Reece's Rainbow families who are in different stages of the process to bring more than 100 children home.  Andrea put this statement out yesterday concerning the moratorium:


     "IF they do indeed put a moratorium in place, we are advocating HARD with Congressional Leaders, the US State Dept, the US Embassy in K**v, and our facilitation teams on the ground there in U**ne... to make sure the voice of these children is heard, and that the parliament there understands the life-altering gravity of their decision to impose a closure, even for a short period of time. Even under the guise of improving the process or moving towards Hague compliance, this would be nothing short of a human rights violation, to prevent the adoption of those children with special needs."

     So please pray.  There are hundreds of lives at stake.  The Reece's Rainbow children can't afford to wait.