"In Appreciation For Your Work With The I CARE Foundation And Model Citizenship"
It is a tremendous and humbling honor to receive this magestic United States Flag that was flown over the United States Capitol Building in my and the I CARE Foundation's honor due to our volunteer activism trying to help protect children and parents everywhere who are targets of international parental child abduction at the request of the United States Senate.
When I first found myself Chasing The Cyclone of international parental child abduction, I made a promise that one day I would try to help other parents and children who face abduction. My desire to help first came in the form of writing Chasing The Cyclone, which critics have been very kind to. It was from the power of a book that so much more occurred, including the creation of the not-for-profit I CARE Foundation. In fact, the impact of Chasing The Cyclone has been beyond any of my initial hopes.
The I CARE Foundation's mission is expansive, but so too are the challenges children and parents face who are targets of abduction.
Over the course of this past year alone, the foundation has helped reunite numerous children of abudction with their chasing parents. We have helped prevent a expotentially larger number of abductions. We have helped build a pro bono network of lawyers committed to protecting children from abduction. We have embarked upon a grassroots educational campaign to abduction awareness with the tremendous assistance of an incredible group of parenting bloggers. We continue to conduct research in the area of international child abduction. And we have worked hard at creating new laws and policies that will protect against international child kidnapping and trafficking.
Our successes have been meaningful; however, they remind us of just how much more has to be done in the name of children. Equally, when I fly this flag, I am reminded of the incredible men and women advocates who came before me who fought to help protect children from abduction. Collectively, it is through all of our voices rising up together that we are pushing back the mountain.
On a deeply personal note, one day I will pass this flag down to my son, who I love with all my heart.
