Prayer for Policy Makers

I wanted to post this message sooner, but I have been busy figuring out the best way to call, write, and work with various policy makers to get Micah, and other Liberian orphans, home to America as soon as possible! I posted a brief message last week about Liberian adoptions being slowed down due to the issuance of Visas for adopted children being slowed down. Here are some details:

It is already Thursday afternoon in Liberia as I write this, but please pray that meetings to be held today at the U.S. Embassy in Liberia would result in Visas being more readily issued for adopted children. The Executive Director of our adoption agency, Patty Anglin, was scheduled to meet with Embassy officials about this issue today. Please pray for those meetings to be effective! The issuance of Visas for many of these orphans may literally mean life or death.

Special effort is being made to expedite Visas for Special Needs children and babies. Many consider babies to be Special Needs, because more than 15% of Liberian babies never make it to their 1st Birthday. I am confident that our adoption agency takes as good, or better, care of the children in their care than any other agency in Liberia, but they are limited in what they can do because of the lack of resources in a 3rd world country... no running water, little to no electricity, extreme scarcity of medications and medical help, etc.

Previously, Visas for adopted children could be issued at any time, any day of the week. Right now, the U.S. Embassy is only working on Visas for adopted children on Thursdays, and may be limiting the number of Visas issued per Thursday to 2 or 3. This is causing a huge bottleneck effect, with children languishing in orphanages who desperately need to be united with their forever families for a plethora of reasons, and tying the hands of adoption agencies in regard to helping more children who have been orphaned, because orphanages are at capacity.

As for specific prayers for our efforts: We have written to Oregon Senator Gordon Smith and asked him to advocate for getting Micah and others home quickly. Our wonderful Pediatrician is writing a letter from the position of her medical authority explaining the necessity of expediting Micah's Visa, which we will attach to our letter. We are e-mailing copies of these letters to the U.S. Ambassador to Liberia, Donald Booth, and to the Office of the Consular in Liberia. We will call Senator Smith's office next week to follow up, and possibly see about requesting a meeting with him. Please pray with us that all of these efforts--our agency's, ours, and other adoptive families', will be fruitful!

Update: I just found out that Patty's meeting with Embassy Officials will actually be tomorrow (Friday). She is allowing the in-country (Liberian) staff an opportunity to meet with officials today. So let's be praying tomorrow, too! Thank you!!