WHY!?

Tonight just keeps getting better and better!  After an extremely long week at work for me (and at home for my wife) I got home to find out that we have an issue with our plumbing and proceeded to dig up the lids for our septic tank and our septic tank cleanout.  The plumber comes tomorrow - please let it be something which is easy to fix.

By now you are probably wondering how any of that relates to our adoption - well it doesn't; but, to top off this week we got news from both our adoption agency and the US government about a new problem in the DRC.  The DGM (General Director of Migration) has stopped issuing exit letters to children being adopted from the Congo internationally.  This basically means that they are not letting people who are ready to take their kids home leave the country, or allowing any more internationally adopted children to leave the country for some unknown period of time.

Why?  That was the first question I asked.  That is easy to answer - once again an adoptive couple has tried to circumvent the DRC rules for adoption and has caused this unnecessary delay for every other person adopting from that country.  Honestly - why can't people just follow the rules so that it doesn't backfire and collapse the process for more than just you!  It makes me angry that people think it is OK to gamble time with my children for their adoption process.  If you don't meet the adoption criteria, don't apply to adopt from that country!  This country might be more lenient than most about the stretching of some of their rules, but some they are quite adamant about keeping - why would another couple try and break the same rule that caused the DGM to shut down in May?

Bottom line: I am upset. I am upset because no one knows how long the lock down will last - maybe a week, maybe a year.  I am upset because I completely understand why they are locking down the exit process and it was caused by something which was completely avoidable.

Please pray for the decision makers in Congo to realize that they should not punish the parents or the children who are waiting eagerly to be united and come home.  Pray that no other couple thinking about adoption breaks the rules and causes the country to rethink whether international adoption of their children is such a good idea.  Pray this shutdown is short and that our investigation process is short so we can quit worrying about other people keeping us from our kids.

Reference: http://adoption.state.gov/country_information/country_specific_alerts_notices.php?alert_notice_type=alerts&alert_notice_file=democratic_republic_of_congo_3