Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Sign the Petition!!!!!!!

I have had the link to sign a petition on my sidebar for quite awhile... Just wanted to explain further, for those of you who might not follow all of the adoption stuff.

Adoptive families used to be able to have a wavier that basically promised to vaccinate children once they were home. That was under the old I600 form (we used this with both AnnaClaire and Kate.) Of course, now, there is the Hague process, using the I800 form. There are no more vaccination waviers. Children must get up to date on their shots at their medical exam in Guangzhou. This means that some children are getting up to EIGHT shots AT ONE TIME. In the words of my dad, "Is that even legal?!" Seriously! These are kids of American citizens, American citizens who can choose to vacinate or not. It is NOT HEALTHY to have 8 shots at a time... everyone knows that. This past week, there was a family in China whose daughter received 7 shots at once. She spiked a 105 degree fever, and they couldn't get it down, and could not get her to eat. With her special need, this was EXTREMELY dangerous. They ended up having to get an expediated visa to fly home early.

Something has got to change.

Here's where you can help. Go here: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/internationally-adopted-child-immunization-waiver.html and sign the petition. There are now over 1000 signatures, but there needs to be more. Someone recently updated that the bill is moving more quickly and should be on the floor for review soon. This bill NEEDS to be passed. It is ridiculous that this is happening. The only way for it to be passed, though, is if enough people spread the word, sign the petition, and let their senators know that something has to change.

So I ask you to PLEASE sign the petition. You don't have to know a thing about adoption... just sign your name and spread the word. It's very simple, I promise!!!!

4 comments:

Debbie said...

Definitely signing! Ethan had to get 7 shots! They don't give that many here at our own doctors. It was just horrible!

TanyaLea said...

I had no idea about this bill...and I'm not sure why I didn't know. But in anycase, I am heading over right away to sign it. MOST DEFINITELY it should be a choice to wait until we are back on American soil. There are many reasons for this. First off, NO child should have to be given all those injections of poison all at once... poor kiddos! And secondly, it would save many of us some money, as we'd only have our co-pay to take care of. But I know that not everyone has insurance. Still...it is crazy to force that on the children.

I was so upset about this after seeing Sienna get so sick after having 7 shots last week. I'm glad they are safely on their way back home, and that by God's grace, Sienna is doing much better now. But they should NEVER have had to go through such a scary experience to begin with... especially knowing it was forced on them and it could have been prevented all together!

Thanks for bringing this to light. God bless! <><

Faye said...

Emily,
Thank you for spreading the word! We are signing as well. Here's hoping Jon Paul is more up to date on his vaccinations and won't need so many, we pray.

Jeanette said...

Just signed it...thanks for posting the link. It makes me so sad that those precious children are going through that at the hands of OUR government. So so sad. Praying for a change.