After reading the open letter and some of the resources, it’s time to take action. Human rights issues like this one are won with publicity. Public outcry reunited children with their parents in the United States, and now it’s time for it to unite orphans with forever homes, here or anywhere where they can be a real part of a loving family that treats them as first-class family members. You don’t have to use a lot of words or be eloquent with the ones you have. You merely need to hit the share button on Facebook or Twitter and demand action. We have made this as simple as possible for you. These issues are complex, and we don’t expect you to explain them to people in detail; we can do the explaining, but they have to know we are here. Likewise, they have to know the American public cares and holds them accountable. Friends, in this mid-term election year, time if even more important. Vote with your heart; vote for those who take a stand for adoption. Be loud. Orphans needs you to cry out for them.
NOTE: As of January 2020, there is a new Special Advisor for Children’s Issues at the Department of State. Contact Michelle Bernier-Toth at Adoption@state.gov.
Below are U.S. senators and representatives, from both parties, who have said they are adoption advocates. While some may have shown evidence they are not always pro-adoption when it comes to immigrants such as these, there is no reason we cannot call them on their claims to care about every child having a family. These members of Congress have introduced programs or legislation that helps adoption and are more likely in general to have open ears to this crisis, as well as to helping to move the Department of State into better accountability for its decline in international adoptions. If you belong to the districts of these legislators, please contact them. Because of the volume of input they receive, we encourage contact to come directly from their constituents in order to be heard. Thus, if you are not but know someone who is, please ask them to contact these legislators, for the sake of the children who cannot. Click the links below to go directly to their contact pages.
U.S. Senators:
James Lankford (Oklahoma)
Kirsten Gillibrand (New York)
Ben Cardin (Maryland)
Richard Burr (North Carolina)
Roger Wicker (Mississippi)
Roy Blunt (Missouri)
U.S. Representatives:
Jared Huffman (CA District 2)
Steve Russell (OK District 5)
Karen Bass (CA District 37)
Don Bacon (NE District 2)
The White House
*Regardless of your own political persuasion, the fact remains that the executive branch has the power to order the U.S. Department of State Office of Children’s Issues to make international adoption easier and more affordable. It is only one step in this fight, but it is an important one.
Tweet the open letter to the President here, and the Vice President here.
To lobby for changes and standards within our own adoption system, contact the United States Department of State. Here’s the Office of Children’s Issues contact informationÂ
Free the Orphans 
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