foundation, letters to legislators

Nothing more about Stanley- we are waiting for the orphanage director to contact someone again. She is a very resourceful woman and we know she is doing everything she can to keep our babies safe.

Now, the reason for this post- we have a REAL opportunity here to save the lives of hundreds (maybe thousands) of childrens' lives- including Stanley's!

Today at 10 AM, there will be a State Department meeting about the options for expediting adoptions for families/children whose Haitian adoptions are already in process. We have learned that many of the adoption-related offices in Haiti have collapsed and our best chance is that the U.S. government grants temporary visas to our children to expedite the process! This is the most important thing I have ever asked anyone to do- PLEASE send this letter to your legislators.

1. Go to http://www.congress.org/ to find your legislator
2. Just type in your zip code and then follow the links for the U.S. Senators and Representatives.
3. You can click to "contact" and submit your "comments."
4. Copy and paste the follwoing text into the box:

I am writing on behalf of our friends, Michael and Monica Simonsen who have been in the process of adopting their son, Stanley Hermane (DOB: 4/9/2008), from Haiti since August 2008. Stanley was brought to Petit Anges de Chantal orphanage when he was only two months old. He was severely malnourished and covered in scabies. They have visited him in Haiti three times, each time bringing supplies and donations to the orphanage. The resources are scarce under normal circumstances and with the current crisis, there is a genuine concern that the children will not survive. They have received a USCIS approved I-797C form and signed and submitted their I-600 in front of an immigration official at the U.S. embassy in Haiti. I know that there are many families around the country who are at various stages of the adoption process and they need your help.

I am writing to request that you support initiatives created to help expedite the adoption process for children who already have completely committed U.S. approved families waiting at home. Expediting the process will not only secure their safety but will free up already scarce resources for children orphaned by this disaster.
Thank you, in advance, for your swift action in helping bring Stanley and all the other children in Haiti currently in the adoption process home.

We are hoping to put this information on our website as well but in the meantime, we want to see how many letters we can generate! Let's make some noise!!!

Lastly, we have set up a fondation for the orphanage. We are trying to collect as much as we can ($10,000 by Monday) so that we can mobilize and gets resources DIRECTLY TO STANLEY'S ORPHANAGE!!! Here is the link: http://pachaitifund.bbnow.org/

With love and appreciation, Michael, Monica, Dane, and STANLEY!