Adoption Topics: EACH

EACH advocates on behalf of children adopted into American families and their adoptive families. EACH seeks to work with Congress, the White House, and government agencies to promote adoption policies and legislative changes that will ensure that adopted children of American families have the very same rights and opportunities granted to children born into American families."

This organization was founded by J. McLane Layton as the result of her adoption in 1995 of three siblings born overseas. Upon discovering that being adopted by American parents did not automatically provide her children with US citizenship, McLane Layton's mission became that of ensuring "that all internationally adopted children would have all the same rights that are awarded to children born to US citizens who are stationed or living abroad."

To this end she co-authored the Child Citizenship Act,

"which was passed through both houses of Congress and became law on October 30, 2000. She also wrote several other bills that remain in the legislative process and bills that she hopes, through EACH, to see come to fruition. Among those are the Natural Born Citizen Act and ICARE, the Inter-Country Adoption Reform Act.

Through the years, McLane has advocated for many families facing obstacles in the adoption process. She has been very successful in expediting the sometimes very lengthy process of uniting adopted children with their families in the U.S. Her vision is to continue this work through EACH, and her ultimate goal is to eliminate the label of immigrant, as it applies to foreign adopted children of American citizens and to make sure that all the laws of our land apply equally to adopted and biological children of Americans."

I received an e-mail today encouraging me to join as member of EACH. Membership is free, and it is open to anyone, not just adoptive parents. The more members they have, the more willing government officials will be to listen to their appeals for legislation, thus increasing their effectiveness in our nation's capital. Since we will soon be one of thousands of families who have experienced the joys of international adoption, this is important to us and I wanted to share it here as well. Maybe there are others who would like to join, too. (:

http://www.equalityforadoptedchildren.org/