TB Petition

We're not usually ones to get political but this is important. On July 1 the CDC started requiring TB testing for all "immigrant" children over the age of 2 from China and Ethiopia. If the child tests positive they cannot enter the U.S. until they test negative even if they are no longer contagious. This could take anywhere from several weeks to six months, significantly complicating a family's trip to adopt a child.

Here's our beef, this new rule only applies to children being adopted from China and Ethiopia. If a family were to have a biological child in say China, they would not be subject to this rule. Anyone else traveling to the U.S. is not subject to this rule. This is blatant discrimination on the part of the CDC against internationally adopted children.

The reason we bring this up now is because there is a family currently in China who's legally adopted daughter tested positive for TB. To make a long story short, they had to leave her behind because the CDC would not approve her visa to enter the U.S. To read more about this family check out their blog here. Although we understand this family's situation, we talked about it and if this happened to us one of us would stay behind with our daughter for as long as needed. We know this is not an option for everyone but luckily we both work jobs that would allow this (thank you Uncle Sam and HCPSS).

There is a online petition that we urge everyone to sign that urges the CDC to alter its policy on TB testing. Beth and I both signed it. You can get to it here.

Now for the update. Things are going even slower now but are expected to speed up soon per the Rumor Queen, lets hope.


As of 8/8 here's our wait statistics:
Referred through: 3/22/2006
Current wait: 41 months
Projected referral date: 9/13/2012
Projected months to referral: 37