48 hours ago, there was still £30,000 to raise before The Dark Matter of Love hit their Kickstarter campaign goal. A few days ago, The Washington Post reported that "A 57-country conflict-resolution organization on Tuesday urged Russia to allow adoptions to proceed for the 300 U.S. families who had begun the process when a ban was imposed on Americans. The measure was introduced at the OSCE annual meeting in Istanbul by U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who told the assembly it was unfair to change the rules after parents and children had met. The resolution carries moral authority rather than force of law, but Wicker said in a telephone interview that it sent a strong message that would support the United States in negotiations with Russia over the children who had bonded with families. 'All of these families deserve a happy ending,' Wicker told the assembly." (To read the whole story, click here)
Sarah (the film director of The Dark Mater of Love) was there in Istanbul. She screened her film to the 57 country organization. Russia was trying to stop her screening, and even took all the projectors so she couldn't show it. They had to move her to a different hotel to hide her, and eventually found a projector she could use. The film was so powerful that 57 countries signed on and agreed that Russia should let these kids who'd already met and bonded with parents go home to their American parents! This was all possible because of Sarah! Awesome! Way to go, Sarah! Sarah has done more for us in the last few weeks than anybody else in the last 6 months! She is amazing!
I was feeling very sad that we weren't going to get the money needed for her to continue with her campaign. Very sad indeed. This is Sarah's outline and plan for the money:
"In the lead up to Obama's visit to Moscow in early September we would:
-Engage a professional lobbyist
-Engage a foreign relations expert
-Engage a press strategist
With the specific goal to put pressure on the Obama administration to raise the issue during his meetings with Putin.
In Russia we would:
-Conduct a series of high profile screenings
-Engage a Russian publicist for the screening tour
-Create a Russian subtitled version of the film
-Distribute the Russian version of the film as widely as possible
After the OSCE I've been invited to the following parliaments:
-Irish
-Swedish
-Spanish
-French
-Finland
-Austrian
-German
I would create subtitled version of the film in those languages (costs about £1000 for each version) and screen in those parliaments.
The Russians fought so hard to have our OSCE screening blocked, they care about their international reputation deeply and screenings of this film in those parliaments would build on our OSCE success."
I feel like the press in Europe is exactly what we need to get this adoption thing resolved. For some reason, Russia cares deeply what Europe thinks of them. I really truly felt like this film was key for us. I had no clue how to raise £30,000, though, let alone £30,000 in 24 hours! The beginning of our miracle started in the morning of July 4th. We were at a parade with our family when I got the message that an anonymous donor had offered to pay the last £10,000 if we reached £40,000. Eeek! The first excitement! We started spreading the word via Facebook, begging people to give. We got a great response in some special needs adoption groups, and the numbers slowly started to creep up. They were sharing and begging others to donate. As I got ready for bed on the Fourth of July, the numbers were around £23,000. We had two big name bloggers blog about it on the evening of the 4th, but I was certain we weren't going to make it. I was so very sad. It would take a miracle. The support that was shown to our kids was amazing, though! I felt such an outpouring of love and my heart was full.
I was exhausted after our 4th of July. I had been up early and went to bed late and was in the hot sun most of the day and had spent SO much energy on the Dark Matter of Love Campaign. I slept in, and was SHOCKED when I woke up!! I had a million messages and our numbers had somehow shot up to £38,000!!! The excitement was electric! Hundreds of people were rallying for our kids!! In the final minutes of the campaign, we reached and even surpassed our goal by a few hundred pounds. I am still on a high from it! What an incredible experience!! There is no way we could have met our goal short of a miracle. Our miracle happened, and now I've got my fingers crossed that it's the first of many miracles!!
Many of the original 300 kids who'd met prospective adoptive parents from the U.S. have been adopted. Most of them from other foreign countries. Most of them young and healthy. The children that remain are special needs children. They have no chance outside of being adopted by parents from the United States. Please continue to pray for these children! They deserve families, too! They deserve a life outside of an institution! We're still holding out hope that "A Miracle for Meg" will occur! We're hoping there can be some sort of special needs amendment because, in the end, these are the children that are suffering the most from this ban. These are the kids Russians don't want and other foreign countries don't allow to be adopted. These are the kids that need us!! Thank you for your continued love, support and prayers and for being a part of our miracle!!
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