"He has my blood running through his veins"

This past Wednesday I had the privilege to attend a Congressional Hearing on International Child Abduction and it was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever witnessed. Left-Behind Parents pleading Congress to pass a bill in order to impose sanctions on countries that fail to uphold an international treaty they signed, called The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. In the case of non-signatory countries, such as Japan, it's a bit more complicated.

There were four LBPs at the hearing: Tom Sylvester, whose daughter Carina was abducted to Austria in 1995 when she was only 13 months old; Navy Commander Paul Toland, whose daughter Erika was abducted to Japan (the only living parent after his ex-wife committed suicide); Patrick Braden, whose daughter Melissa was abducted to Japan; and David Goldman, whose son Sean was abducted to Brazil. I suggest you read all the testimonies. The stories are very hard to read, but those are things that must be told.

After volunteering for many months at the Bring Sean Home Foundation, I had the opportunity to meet the Goldman family. One thing is see them on TV, another is to see their pain up close. I had tears rolling down during David's testimony. Only someone who's a parent can try to understand what those parents go through, but can only have a tiny idea of how much pain they're in.

I'm afraid this case is being pushed to the back burner. Not much has been reported lately. The Brazilian media was at the hearing and recorded interviews, but other than a small note on a couple of newspapers, no other media outlets touched the case.

At this point, we're waiting on the decision of the TRF-2. The iron-clad verdict from June 1st was issued a stay while the courts examine the appeal. The decision could come any day now. Someone said it was to come in September. Well, it has come and gone, as well as October and November. Each day lost is a victory to the abductors, who get to brainwash this child, for it will take much longer to "de-program" Sean once he's back into his father's arms (read the transcript the Wolf Blitzer interview here).

It's interesting the different ways Brazilians react to this case. Some will side with the abducting family, either because they came were abandoned by spouses or father, or because they're unhappy in their marriages and would love to flee with their kids, or because they have a very old-fashioned notion that a man cannot care for a child alone, or because they believe the biased reports that say the child was abandoned. Others will be on the fence, saying the mother is no longer around to give her version of the facts (despite 4 years of court records of her testimony on file that never discredited David for being a loving, dedicated father). And there are the ones that agree that say it was a crime to take the child away but he is now used to the environment and should be left alone, despite the fact that has been proven over and over that the 9-year-old has been brainwashed and the environment where he lives is not healthy. Thankfully the majority of Brazilians I know are outraged by this travesty, the corruption behind-the-scenes, the lies, and the slowness in the judiciary.

The needs of a 9-year-old boy and his natural father are being ignored by a family that is holding him hostage in Brazil.

It's time to make some noise. Write to friends and family about it. Blog about it. Post about it on message boards and forums. If you have a twitter account, please use the tag #bringseanhome when writing about it. Together we can Bring Sean and all the other abducted children Home.