Here's an important bill currently winding it's way through Congress. ...

(We're in the process of adopting internationally. Take a guess on what topics will be coming up on the blog in the future!)

WASHINGTON ˆ The Senate adopted today by voice vote the Inter Country
Adoption Reform (ICARE) amendment offered by U.S. Senator Mary L.
Landrieu, D-La. The amendment seeks to improve the international
adoption process by affording children adopted internationally by
American parents the same rights as children born abroad to American
parents.

"We have millions of children around the world who need an
opportunity for a family," Sen. Landrieu said on the Senate
floor. "Children should be raised in families, not alone."

The ICARE amendment centralizes the current staff and resources
working on international adoption into one office, the newly created
Office of Inter-country Adoption (OIA). This allows for greater
coordination, focus and expertise regarding international adoption,
and enables the U.S. State Department to provide greater diplomatic
representation and proactive advocacy in the area of international
adoption.

"Every child should try to stay with the parents that bring them
into the world, but when that is not possible and no parents in their
home country can be found, then these children have a right to find a
family somewhere in the world, and we must help them," said Sen.
Landrieu.

The ICARE amendment was originally introduced in 2003 by Sen.
Landrieu and former Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., in an effort to
improve the facilitation of the international adoption process as the
numbers of inter-country adoptions increased. In 1990, Americans
adopted more than 7,000 children from abroad. By 2004, Americans
adopted more than 23,000 children from abroad.

"This legislation has taken us far too long to pass, but today we are
helping eliminate barriers and provide a more effective international
adoption system which will help the hundreds of thousands of children
who are waiting for the safe and loving family they deserve," said
Sen. Landrieu.