This is SO IMPORTANT- please read

This is really long and I apologize, but let me tell the gist of it-- and we need you on this whether or not you're adopting because it involves contacting your representatives!! With the Hague being put into place, all children who come home from their Hague countries in order to enter the U.S. are being required to become up-to-date on all CDC recommended vaccinations. WHOA! Talk about dangerous. Here we have children who are already at risk for some serious immune suppression whose bodies are being overwhelmed by the vaccines working their little immune systems-- vaccines that they may have already received (yet there is no record of). And I'm not talking about 2 or 3, I'm talking about ALL CDC RECOMMENDED VACCINES. Now, as a Registered Nurse, I am so appalled by this. What about allergic reactions? What about all those needle sticks?? Not to mention compromising the immune system that much more. Please, even if you don't read through this entire thing, there is a link near the bottom to contact your state representatives as well as a reference to the laws involved. MAKE SOME NOISE!!! This is so important... for Ping Ping's sake.

In order to receive their U.S. immigrant visas all children that are
adopted internationally from Hague Convention countries will be required by this
new U.S. law to become current on all Centers for Disease Control's (CDC)
recommended vaccines for their age prior to receiving their U.S. visa. This
means that they may receive many more vaccines than we would ever give in a
pediatrician' In order to receive their U.S. immigrant visas all children
that are adopted internationally from Hague Convention countries will be
required by this new U.S. law to become current on all Centers for Disease
Control's (CDC) recommend
>
> The Hague Convention on International Adoption is intended to ensure
additional protections to these children when adopted into countries around the
world. The Hague Convention was implemented by the U.S. in April 2008. While
revising the law for the Hague's implementation, in an apparent oversight
Congress forgot to extend a previous exemption that allowed adopted children
to postpone their immigrant visa vaccination requirements until they were
safely at home. The Hague Convention itself does not address immunizations. It
was simply an apparent oversight in the new line of law that did not
reference the earlier exemption that has resulted in this situation.
>
> This oversight means that these newly adopted children must become up to
date with all the CDC's recommended vaccines before they will be granted
entry into the U.S. Various countries may have given these orphans anywhere
from several to no vaccines, and often they have received vaccines relevant to
diseases in their country and not required by the CDC. Some of these
children may have no medical record or an outdated record of the vaccines they
received at the orphanage, and therefore they would be required to receive them
again. As you can imagine, quality of medical conditions and quality of
vaccines available from country to country varies considerably. This means that
these vulnerable children may be required to receive a mega load of vaccines
all in one day, many of which they may already have received, just days
before they board the lengthy international flight home to the U.S.
Additionally, these children may not be healthy at the time these vaccinations
are
required, but as the law stands there is no available exemption, not even for
fragile health. The best way to handle vaccinations, and the way it was done
pre-Hague, was that once at home the family's pediatrician does a blood test
to show their titer antibody levels, and then provides only those vaccines
that are shown to be missing, on a safe time schedule.
>
> Let us be clear that this is the result of a U.S. law and only affects
Hague Convention country children that are adopted to U.S. families. This is
not the requirement of the child's birth country, but the requirement of U.S.
law.
>
> As the law stands today, these vulnerable children are now the only class
of U.S. immigrants that are given no possible exemption from their overseas
visa immunization requirements. All other U.S. immigrants are allowed the
possibility of exemption due to medical necessity or religious or moral
grounds. Can it really be that this is a result of the Hague Convention which
was
intended to actually provide MORE protections for these children?
>
> We are asking you to contact your congress person to request the law be
amended to afford these vulnerable children the option for a vaccine
exemption to allow them to safely receive their vaccines at home in the U.S.
>
> A request to have the law amended is presently being reviewed by
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar's office in Washington, D.C. They will likely
decide
whether or not to take further action within the next week. If you choose
to contact your Senator and/or Representative, time is of the essence. Your
appeals to your Senator or Representative could help bring this issue forward
for a speedy resolution to stop this process from continuing to happen to
future adoptive families.
>
> Here are two links which can make the process easy for you-simply click
on the links below (or cut & paste into browser) to locate your congress
people. Their websites already contain a quick link to send them an email.
>
> Senators:
_http://www.senate.http://www.shttp://www.senathttp://www.sehttp://_
(http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm)
>
> Representatives: _https://writerep.https://wrhttps://whttps://write_
(https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml)
>
> At the end of this email is the legal explanation of how this happened
and how it can easily be resolved. A copy and paste of the legal explanation,
along with your personal plea of why this should be changed quickly, may
make it easier for your congress person to understand how to correct the law.
>
>
> THE LEGAL CUT & PASTE.
>
> Public Law 105-73 provided the exception for newly adopted children to
the vaccination requirement by allowing for a written affidavit in lieu of
receiving vaccinations abroad before receiving an immigrant visa. When the
Hague Convention was passed, new regulations were issued in the Federal Register
on October 30, 2007 at 72 FR 61301. The amendments revised the Department
of State regulations to provide for intercountry adoptions that will occur
pursuant to the Hague Convention. This provided a new definition of "child"
under the Immigration and Nationality Act, amending 101(b)(1)(F) and adding
101(b)(1)(G) Public Law 105-73 provided the exception for newly adopted
children to the vaccination requirement by allowing for a written affidavit in
lieu of receiving vaccinations abroad before receiving an immigrant visa. When
the Hague Convention was passed, new regulations were issued in the Federal
Register on October 30, 2007 at 72 FR 61301. The amendments revised the
Department of State regulations to provide for intercountry adoptions that will
occur pursuant to the Hague Convention. This provided a new definition of
"child" under the Immigration and Nationality