Congolese Children, Adopted Years Ago, May Soon Be Permitted to Travel to New Homes

Congolese Children, Adopted Years Ago, May Soon Be Permitted to Travel to New Homes

5

By RACHEL RABKIN PEACHMAN

JUNE 22, 2015

Nicole Craig’s nearly 3-year-old daughter, Elisabeth Grace, carries a ring of laminated family photos everywhere she goes. “She sleeps with them and kisses them and she will tell everyone, ‘This is my daddy,’ or ‘This is my brother Alex, this is my brother Kaden.’ She knows she has a family,” Ms. Craig said over the phone from Green Bay, Wis.

Elisabeth — who has a cheerful smile, round cheeks and loves to sing and dance — should know she has a family because she was legally adopted more than two years ago in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But Ms. Craig and her husband, Kevin Craig, have not been able to hold Elisabeth, tuck her in at night or even meet her because the Congolese government has not allowed Elisabeth to leave the war-torn country.

The Congolese courts officially declared Elisabeth a member of the Craig family (which includes an adopted son from Jamaica) in April of 2013, and her immigration paperwork was approved five months later. But just when she was about to travel home to her new family, the Congolese Ministry of Interior and Security instituted a suspension of exit permits for all adopted children, citing concerns about the welfare of the children in their new homes (but not about their eligibility for adoption, which the government has never questioned).

The suspension, in effect since Sept. 25, 2013, has prevented up to 400 adopted children from going to their parents in the United States, and another 700 adopted children from traveling to their parents in Europe and Canada. There are also an estimated 400 other children whose adoptions to American parents were being processed — and then halted — when the suspension was announced.

Elisabeth Grace Ngandu Craig.

That may soon change. On June 1, the State Department told waiting families that Congolese authorities have formed a commission to review the dossiers of children with completed adoptions. With a goal of July, the commission aims to resolve all pending cases awaiting exit letters. Some families were told by their in-country representatives to expect their letters any day.

The nearly two-year wait for a breakthrough in the suspension has been traumatic for parents and children. Some parents have gone into financial ruin sending never-ending fees overseas to care for their children and keep immigration paperwork current. Other parents have uprooted their lives and moved to be with their children in Congo, a country that has frequent armed conflict and spotty access to safe running water, electricity and medical resources.

For a tragic number of families, the wait was fatal. At least 12 adopted children have died waiting to go to their legal parents. “These kids could have all lived,” said Kelly Dempsey, general counsel for Both Ends Burning, a nonprofit organization that advocates for orphans and adoption reform worldwide. “They died of dysentery, dehydration and malaria — preventable and treatable causes.”

Ms. Craig said, “It’s a horrific story I don’t wish on any child or any family.” She said she was comforted by the fact that Elisabeth seems to be in relatively good care in her orphanage (though she’s had severe malaria several times), but “it doesn’t replace the love of a family.”

The Craigs have done the best that they can remotely. Skype calls with Elisabeth, who speaks a combination of French and Lingala (the regional language spoken in the capital city, Kinshasa, where Elisabeth is), are their lifeline. “She’ll say, ‘Bisou, Mommy!’ and I’ll say, ‘Bisou, Baby!’” [French for “kiss”] and when we say some Lingala back to her she gets a kick out of it; she’ll giggle, laugh and clap and say, ‘Bravo!’ ” But inevitably, each call has to end and they have remain separated, half way across the world from one another. Elisabeth asks her caregivers daily if her mother is coming to get her. “It’s a bad dream you can’t wake up from,” Ms. Craig said through tears.

After the latest news from the Congolese government, though, the nightmare may be coming to an end. “We believe this means that they are going to lift the suspension for everyone who adopted kids,” said Ms. Dempsey, who initiated an advocacy campaign in March 2014 on behalf of the affected families. Both Ends Burning organized and mobilized parents with children in Congo to bring this human rights crisis to the attention of their local and state representatives. Their combined efforts resulted in more than 116,000 letters to Congress, more than 100 meetings between waiting families and members of Congress in Washington, and led both the House of Representatives and the Senate to pass unanimous resolutions calling on Congo to end the suspension of exit permits.

“We not only had to engage our representatives, but we needed our representatives to band together and be a loud and powerful voice, and they did that; they big time stepped it up,” said Heather Long, who brought home her almost 3-year-old daughter, Harper, from Congo right before the suspension went into effect, and is currently waiting for Harper’s 17-month-old brother, Ethan David, to get his exit letter and join his family in Indianapolis.

Their united voice eventually reached Secretary of State John Kerry, who raised the issue with Congolese President Joseph Kabila when they met in Congo in May 2014 and during their meeting at the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington in August 2014. Representative Ed Royce, Republican of California and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, also spoke with President Kabila at the summit and emphasized the urgency of the situation for so many families. “The orphans in Congo face severe deprivation,” he said. “The Congolese government must allow these children to make their way to the homes anxiously awaiting their arrival; anything less is inhumane.”

But it wasn’t until President Obama spoke to President Kabila on the phone in late March urging free, fair and peaceful elections in Congo and a resolution to the pending adoptions that the Congolese government indicated any change in direction. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Ms. Dempsey said. “We knew that would make a difference.”

This isn’t the first time foreign children en route to adoptive families have been caught in political crossfire. “We’ve seen these situations before where children are used as pawns, whether it’s in Russia or Kyrgyzstan,” said Craig Juntunen, chief executive and founder of Both Ends Burning, referring to cases in which pending adoptions were halted indefinitely while American parents waited to be united with their children overseas. “This is a microcosm of a huge social problem; there has to be a recognition by us as adults globally that the most important thing to a kid is a family.”

Mr. Juntunen recently convened a symposium of more than 80 child welfare officials from 18 countries to share ideas and work together to improve the lives of orphaned children and promote their right to families.

Though as of this writing the Congo has not begun to issue exit letters, many families are cautiously optimistic. “This is absolutely 100 percent more movement than we’ve seen in the last year and a half,” Ms. Long said.

In April, Andy and Amy Kahn, both emergency room physicians, moved with their three young daughters from Dallas to Kinshasa to be with their adopted 2-year-old son, Daniel. Though the Kahns are grateful to finally be together as a family, they are eager to return to the States. “We’re hopeful that we’ve done all the right things, turned in all the paperwork, and when they are ready to give exit letters, we’re going to go home,” Mr. Kahn said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Craig waits anxiously for good news about Elisabeth’s case. “Her third birthday will be June 30,” she said. “We’ve missed two birthdays and we’re hoping not to miss a third.”

American officials also remain committed to the issue. “I’ve had the opportunity to hear firsthand the stories of many Tennessee families who are stuck in limbo trying to provide a better home and life for orphaned children living in the D.R.C.,” said Senator Bob Corker, a Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I will continue to work with the State Department to urge the D.R.C. government to permanently and officially lift the suspension of exit visas.”

The State Department is not giving up, either. ” We continue to work with the Congolese government so that Congolese children with finalized adoptions waiting for an exit permit can join their adoptive families as soon as possible,” said Susan Jacobs, the State Department’s special adviser on children’s issues.

For waiting families, giving up was never an option. Ms. Long said, “I think — I hope — our kids will be really proud to see the fight that we put up for them.”

Rachel Rabkin Peachman is a journalist specializing in health and parenting. Follow her on Twitter: @RachelPeachman.

Like what you’re reading? Get the best of Motherlode articles, links, comments and conversation, along with previews of posts to come, delivered each week to your inbox. Sign up here.

5Comments