Friday, February 08, 2008

China, the sad truth

I'm in the Dominican Republic. My plan was to write about the political process here. However, I just got this email and wanted to share it. The adoption agency we used to get Alden - an agency that dropped all their fees so he could be adopted in spite of his age and needs - can no longer do Chinese adoptions.

Here is part of today's letter, asking for help to keep their care centers open. Closing the adoption program did not make these orphans disappear. Here is a link about their work. Also, a very short video about a child in one center.

We are faced with a crisis! Our Foster Care Centers in Changchun and Siping had been supported by China adoption fees. However, many of you may know that last spring we went to bat for an African-American parent that had received pre-approval by the CCAA to adopt a special needs child and then was denied the child when the CCAA saw her photo and realized she was African-American. We fought with her against the CCAA for her right to adopt the child and we won. She now has her daughter. We did the right thing by standing up for her human rights but the price we paid was the loss of our adoption program in China.

I'm glad Alden's adoption was not stopped when I publically joined voices over this issue. I thought we might lose him and it was scary. And, there was fall out, though we personally did not suffer.

I think this story is a perfect demonstration of China's absolute disregard for the dignity of EVERY human life. They did the right thing with this woman to stem our outcry, but, they punished the people who disagreed with them. A communist government that rules by fear is amazed and frustrated by free speech, so they try to squelch it.

IT MAKES ME WANT TO SPEAK LOUDER!