Help the Rapoza kids get their US Residency

I am doing this Gofundme for my sister Angela and my nieces and nephew. Here is their story. Any help if greatly appreciated

In June 2000, I moved to Entre Ríos, Bolivia to work as director of the children's ministry in a local church. This included frequent trips to the surrounding farm communities to start up new classes and train teachers. Naturally, I fell in love with the country kids – so full of innocence and life, taking me on great adventures through their beloved woods, harvesting wild fruits, hunting critters and sharing their world. The adults said I was a child magnet. I wondered at this notable gift that suddenly appeared in my youth of gaining a child's confidence to sidle up and spill out even the most unsuspected details of his or her home life. Sometimes, I think, all a child needs is an open ear.

Years passed and I gained more knowledge of the beauty, and sometimes horror, of simple, country life through these small windows. Joy from deep within spilled over as we discovered a small pot made of mud by the bugs, listened to halting voices read by themselves, raced through the rain on a foot path tread down by goats, memorized verses and stories that changed their hearts. But pain just as deep seared inside upon hearing of things no child should ever see or live through. I learned statistics and legal processes through their experiences. Found these small brave ones who dared to bare their souls put into institutions, because there was no family to take them in. Thousands abandoned to the system in a country “without a culture of adoption”. And there they stayed until they aged out. Then on the streets to struggle for success, all too often ending in the empty console of addiction or trafficking.

After being offered unwanted and at-risk kids at least five times in the country, I walked into the Child Defense Department to find out how adoption works in Bolivia. They handed me a law book. Step by step, fulfilling all the requisites, which they kept adding clauses to, 9 months later, two beautiful girls were handed over to me forever. Then it took the judge, Social Services, and Child Defense six more years to finish off their legal process, passing the basketball back and forth in the court. “This is why anyone interested in adopted gives up their dream as soon as they start the legal process.” My seven-year-old Aviela and nine-year-old Anaya were worth the hassle and patience test.

Someone finally did something about the legal process, adding to the law book. A year ago I adopted their older brother, George, in about 4 months, once I got the right lawyer on his case. All three are mine forever, “Rapoza Rapoza's” as my girls happily sing out (new law says they have to have two last names, even if they have only one parent). In the middle of the pandemic, we miraculously were able to get them tourist visas for ten years. I have three teens, now, full of hope and dreams for the future. We'd like to open the doors for them to be able to study or work in the U.S., and this has to be done before they turn 21. I figured it would be similar to the non-immigrant visa process. Turns out, paperwork in the U.S. is complicated, too. I should have been a lawyer. To get permanent U.S. residency for children adopted abroad, one has to go through four steps, each with its own application fee...a total of $1,100 per child. An immigration lawyer will charge me $2,500 for his legal fees to do both girls' complete process. George has to wait another year before I can start his.

So we'd like to start the legal process on the U.S. side. It takes a while, the sooner we get it started, the sooner my kids will have immigration visas, and the possibility to carry out their dreams on U.S. soil. They would even be able to become U.S. citizens, if they choose that path.