To Whom It May Concern,

We are aware of a group of Americans who have recently traveled to Nepal in order to pick up children they have adopted and bring them home. Upon arriving, they've discovered that the U.S. has changed their policy regarding adoptions in Nepal and now they are stuck in a situation where it looks very doubtful that they are going to be able to bring their babies home. There are currently 12 families whose voices need to be heard and collectively we can make a difference if we act now.

Please help us fight this injustice by looking into the case and taking immediate action. These families need their adoptions to be processed under the previous investigation policies that were in effect just a week or so ago so they can bring their children home. Contact Ruth Lincoln at the Office of Children's Issues within the Bureau of Consular Affairs - lincolnra@state.gov or anyone else who may be able to resolve this issue as soon as possible. If you'd like to contact one of the members of the 12 families, feel free to email jedness@mac.com. Thank you for your efforts.

Thank you for taking the time to read of our plight. My wife, Vicki and I have been in the process of adopting from Nepal for about 2.5 years. We received our referral from Nepal, a beautiful baby girl named Purnima, on June 17th of this year. She turned one the very next day. We received our travel approval from the Nepalese government on the 23rd of July and made arrangements to leave on the 4th of August. We were advised by our agency to allow 30 days for the process to be completed. This allotment was based on two previous families from our agency in similar situations that completed the process in three weeks within the last couple months. Our return is scheduled for September 5th.

The morning of our departure, we received a telephone call about three hours before we were scheduled to leave for the airport. It was our agency informing us that the U.S. Embassy was advising people to defer their travel based on "potential policy changes". Here is a copy of the email originally sent to our agency:

After a short, but very intense discussion and some prayer, we felt very strongly that we were to continue with our plans to travel. This was based primarily on the fact that the policy had not yet been decided or announced and we were set to leave in a few hours. We felt as though it was important for us to show up on Nepalese soil and try our best to bring our baby home.

We arrived in Nepal at approximately 8:30 am local time on Friday, August 6th. We had a meeting with a representative at 1:30 pm that same day. She informed us that the policy for the investigation had, in fact, changed, and a new pre-approval process was what was still in the works. The date of the policy change for the investigation was withheld from us as it was apparently unknown. We were told that it occurred "sometime in the last week or so". We had no knowledge of this before we left for Nepal.

My best understanding of the former investigation policy is that basically if no parents or information beyond what was already provided could be found, the child was granted a U.S. visa. The new policy basically states that all documents belonging to children listed as "abandoned", are to be assumed potentially false and must be investigated and followed up on thoroughly in order to prove the child was really abandoned thereby validating the information of said documentation.

The purpose of this new policy is to fight corruption based on a few unfortunate cases that have come to light. We were told that virtually 100% of all orphans in Nepal are listed as "abandoned" as opposed to "orphaned". Therefore, this new policy is pretty much directly affecting everyone currently involved in the adoption process.

Again, this was information that was not available to us until we arrived in Nepal. In fact, that very day (August 6, 2010), the United States shut down all adoptions related to abandonment cases. Here is text taken from the official letter from the Joint Council of International Children's Services:

The purpose of our letter is to plea for our case as well as those of the other 6-10 families who have also traveled, or are in the midst of traveling to, Nepal this week to be at the very least, grandfathered into the old policy. The investigative policies in question can be likened to changing "innocent until proven guilty" to suddenly state "guilty until proven innocent". We feel the new investigation policy will result in several innocent and legitimate orphans being denied their visas. As a result of the recent shut down of abandonment adoption cases in Nepal, this policy now only applies to a relatively small group of people.

It is not our intention to deny or be blinded to the apparent corruption that we've become aware of since our arrival here. We realize that major changes need to take place in order for the situation here to be rectified and if shutting the process down and not allowing new applicants to adopt from Nepal from here on out is the answer, we understand completely.

But we already know our daughter.

There is a small group of us in an extremely unique situation in that not only did we receive our referrals as well as our travel approvals, but we are here to bring our babies home. Some of us, my wife and I included, have held our children every day since we've been here. These are our babies and we cannot leave them behind.

We are signing our adoption decree on Wednesday. At that point, Purnima will be legally recognized as our daughter by both the Nepalese and U.S. governments. The U.S. Embassy is currently advising all of those who are still eligible to adopt and still in the states to avoid signing the decree by way of not traveling to Nepal at this time. Again, since we are here, we feel as though we need to move forward and do whatever is necessary to bring Purnima home.

The government of Nepal is very unstable and we don't want to risk losing the option to claim our daughter because of a shift in power here. Currently, the Nepalese government allows us 60 days upon receiving our travel approval to sign the decree. It is extremely unlikely if we wait for the U.S. investigation to commence and be completed under the terms of the new policy that we would meet the 60 day deadline imposed by Nepalese government.

Purnima's documents state that she was abandoned and discovered in a brick and tile factory. She was brought to the orphanage when she was 8 days old and has resided there for the past 14 months. Nobody has come forth or attempted to claim her. If we are not allowed to bring her home, she will grow up an orphan in Nepal as she has been labeled "abandoned" and therefore not eligible for adoption.

We have learned that the culture makes it very difficult to investigate abandonment cases. Phone calls are not returned. Meetings are cancelled or postponed. The entire process is typically delayed over and over. Beyond that, pre-marital sex is illegal and therefore a formerly pregnant, unwed mother will try very hard to remain anonymous and not be found. In these cases, abandonment may seem to be the only option, however tragic that may be.

Again, our urgent plea to you is to help us and the other 6-10 families who are here among us to bring our babies home. The people at the U.S. Embassy have been extremely compassionate, although they have informed us that their hands are tied by the powers that be in Washington. Please untie them and give them the power and the authority they need to grant us the necessary U.S. visas.

The U.S. Embassy told us our case number is just our name "Taufer Family". Here is our contact info as well as other details that may be helpful.

Our emails are jedness@mac.com and vicki@vgallery.net