Members of the Alberta Teachers’ Association at Boyle School are inviting community members to come out to Boyle School on June 29 and support the Maul family, who are waiting to bring their adopted daughter home from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
“The Mauls have been on a long road and may still have a long wait before they can travel to bring their daughter home, but we wanted to show our support and help make the journey a little easier,” teacher Tara Laroue said in a press release.
Janice and Kevin Maul started the adoption process in October 2012 and ran into trouble almost a year later.
“Congolese (immigration) placed a temporary, one-year suspension on issuing exit letters for all adopted children to leave the country,” Janice explained.
The suspension was a chance for the government in the DRC to revamp its process to make it smoother and more open.
“Unfortunately, because of that temporary suspension, Canadian Immigration and Citizenship has since refused to process any files for all the waiting Canadian families,” Janice said.
Janice explained she cannot release her daughter’s name and age, but explained they refer to her as “Sweet J” and are preparing their home for a toddler.
Janice said it could be as long as a year before they are able to travel to the DRC and bring her home.
Janice said they feel very blessed by the support shown by the ATA and Boyle School.
“My husband and I feel incredibly blessed that I have such amazing coworkers and so many people in the community who are willing to step up and support us in this journey,” Janice said.
“When we began our adoption, at that time, the process was taking less than a year to complete, but with all of these changes currently happening, we still may have a long ways to go before we can bring our daughter home. The additional expenses these delays have added can be overwhelming, so we were very thankful when the Aspen View ATA members offered to help,” she said.
The event will be a five-kilometre run/walk/bike and will start at Boyle School at 2 p.m. A barbecue will follow. Donations will be accepted, and cheques can be made out to Aspen View Local 7.
