Adoption Vietnam

The Latest

2008-10-05T15:08:00.004-04:00

Last Tuesday I sent an email to the person we've been working with at our adoption agency to see if there was any new information about Vietnam. Two days went by with no reply so I called them Thursday morning. They told me this person had been gone for 2 weeks. They asked if we got the email that was sent out and I said no, no email or phone call. It's been well over a month since the last conference call..that we know of..I kinda wonder if there were others and they just never told us. That sounds a little paranoid but what would you think? In the end they said they would leave a message and have someone contact me. Here is the message I got lastnight a little after 8:30.

"There is no news from Vietnam. The agreement expired
on September 1 and it appears it will be a long time before another
agreement is reached. The other options there have disappeared
so we have to wait it out.

I will let you know of any other options that come up."

So, the great wait continues.

Checking In

2008-09-17T09:48:00.002-04:00

Haven't heard anything new...the deadlines have come and gone. Things still aren't looking very good.

We have a few options that we're thinking about.
I'll post here when we are closer to a decision.

Buckle Up...

2008-08-25T14:15:00.002-04:00

For the International Adoption Roller Coaster!!!!

We were on an upswing for quite a while...now we're screaming towards the ground....again.
Today's conference call wasn't very encouraging.

There could be an interim agreement..of course that's subject to change. My feeling right now is that there won't be any agreement.
Our agency hopes to know more in the next 2 months. Hopefully it won't be 2 months after that and 2 more months after that.

We're back to having 3 options again.

1. Opt out of the program and be done...

2. Transfer to another program...can't really do this for many reasons.

3. Hang in there and see what happens...I'm still willing to wait at least 2 more months. If things don't work out then I'll be just as upset as I would be now.

Janice and I will have to talk about it this week and decide what we want to do. We'll probably make an appointment to talk with someone at our agency before we make the final decision.

If I find out anything more I'll let everybody know.

Books Books Books....and More Books

2008-08-15T17:17:00.003-04:00

Found a bunch of books that might be pretty cool!...Click on the titles for more information.

When You Were Born in Vietnam: A Memory Book for Children Adopted from Vietnam

A Look at Vietnam

Children of Vietnam

Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew

To Swim in Our Own Pond: Ta Ve Ta Tam Ao Ta : A Book of Vietnamese Proverbs

How Tiger Got His Stripes: A Folktale from Vietnam

Cross Cultural Adoption: How To Answer Questions from Family, Friends & Community

Tet: Vietnamese New Year

Children of the Dragon: Selected Tales from Vietnam

There are lots more but I don't want to bore everybody to death.

Today's Conference Call

2008-07-31T13:28:00.002-04:00

Had another conference call today.

Things are going better than we thought!! WOOOOHHOOOOOOO!!!!
They talked a little about the article that I posted below and both sides seem to be working on a new agreement.
It's still not a done deal but it's getting closer and sounds like we can start being a little more excited again...we've been pretty desperate for this kind of excitement.

I think Janice is at the movies right now so I haven't been able to tell her the news yet.
You know how when you want to tell somebody something but you can't find them, you want to pull your hair out??
I don't have any hair to pull out so I'm really going nuts right now!!! I've called her twice in the last 15 minutes.
Of all the times to go to the movies on your day off!! What was she thinking??!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

ThanhNienNews.com Article

2008-07-28T17:45:00.002-04:00

Lawmakers back bid to join Hague adoption convention

International adoption responsibilities would be fielded by a single government agency if Vietnam joins the convention.

A majority of National Assembly’s Standing Committee members supported a bid to sign the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption Friday, scheduling a vote on the measure by the year’s end.

The International Adopted Children Bureau, under the Minister of Justice, would be solely responsible for approving international adoption applications if Vietnam becomes a signatory on the convention, said Deputy Minister Hoang The Lien on the sidelines of the committee session.

Currently, each provincial government ratifies its own international adoption applications.

Financial aid to orphanages would also be handled by the central government agency if Vietnam joins the convention, said Lien.....To read more click here.

ADOPTION FIGURES
Of 378 orphanages nationwide,
85 centers have been licensed to process international adoption applications.
Around 2,000 Vietnamese children are adopted into international families each year.

Reported by Tuyet Nhung

Good News!!!!

2008-07-03T20:21:00.002-04:00

Nothing is written in stone (or whatever they use now) yet but things are looking better!!!!
That's about all I can say for now...except maybe WOOOOOOOHHHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

A Few Dolls

2008-06-18T20:52:00.007-04:00

We got a little nuts tonight...but our little girl needs some dolls!!

I-171H

2008-06-14T09:07:00.002-04:00

We got our I-171H yesterday!!!
So maybe this page isn't quite right (look for I-600A)....or maybe we just got lucky.

So now we have a few more things to get signed and notarized then everything has to be authenticated. After that our dossier gets sent to the Vietnamese Embassy.

I guess we're "cautiously optimistic" about everything right now. It's good we got approval and can move along with putting our dossier together but we still don't know what's going to happen in the end.

Stuff

2008-06-03T18:52:00.003-04:00

I've got my passport appt. next Monday...woohoo!

Looks like there is no way we will get our dossier submitted by the July 1st deadline.
We're still waiting on CIS to approve our I600A, they are processing December 2007 now and ours is from March 2008.

So, it looks like we have time to get the remaining documents together. But there aren't too many left at this point.

I'm getting a little tired of the roller coaster ride of waiting and not knowing what's going to happen...I'm not ready to give up just yet but I/we can't wait forever. September is 3 months away and we've been holding our breath and wishing our days away just to get through each month since the middle of March.

I know we aren't the only ones waiting and wondering, I'm just whining a little bit....I guess it's my turn.
Hopefully I won't do it too much but if I do I'll try to keep it short.

Chinatown in NY and Our Home Study

2008-05-24T10:36:00.006-04:00

I was in New York last week and bought a Vietnamese children's song CD in Chinatown.

I've listened to a few songs...it takes some getting used to but It's pretty good! Hopefully she'll like it.

I called Mandala yesterday to see if our Home Study had been submitted...It had been submitted and edited!! We got it yesterday afternoon to review and make any necessary changes. Janice made a few minor changes and emailed it back.

We'll see what happens next.

I still think this is all going to work out in the end.

We survived!!

2008-05-05T20:55:00.002-04:00

We had the second meeting with our social worker Sunday afternoon.
No donuts afterwards this time...darn it!!!!

I guess the next thing that happens now is everything gets translated and submitted.
There's a good chance we'll get our dossier submitted before the deadline on July 1 since it's early May (I hope) but probably not much chance that we'll get a referral before the next deadline of September 1.

We're just going to keep doing the things we need to do and act like everything will work out in the end....What else can we do? Stop the process because something might not work out? I don't think so...We've been praying and I'm sure everyone else involved has been praying...so I completely expect those prayers to be answered....what else are we going to do, doubt God?? I don't think so.

The First Meeting

2008-04-24T19:53:00.002-04:00

Had the first meeting with our social worker lastnight!
Went our for donuts afterwards...

The next meeting is scheduled for May 3rd.
Might get donuts again...or maybe we'll just buy a giant chocolate cake!

Conference Call

2008-04-15T18:44:00.003-04:00

We received this email today... I wish that they could have the conference call at a time when I am at home. You know, like normal people-after 5pm.

Dear Mandala Families,
We will be hosting a conference call on Monday, April 21, 2008 at 1pm(Eastern time). Both Gail and I will be present on the call and it will beopen to all families currently in Mandala's Vietnam program who do not yet have a referral.
The primary purpose of the call is to allow us to check in with you all,answer any questions you may have, and to provide any relevant news relatedto the current standing of VN adoptions. For those of you unable to participate, we will be sending a summary of the call later in the week.

Update

2008-04-15T18:44:00.001-04:00

We received this email on Friday, April 11th..

Dear Mandala Families,
Our recently traveled families are home from Vietnam and doing well! Eight families have arrived safely back to the US and one remains in country doing lots of sightseeing! Attached is a photo of these eight families at their Giving and Receiving Ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City. They kindly gave us permission to share it with you all.

Dr. Long and other officials from DIA have spent nearly two weeks in meetings with provincial officials. Their trip began in HCMC where they met with the Justice Department, the Department of Labor, the orphanage directors, and administrators from Tu Du Hospital. The purpose of this visit was to discuss the problems with US adoptions and CIS/DOS investigations. Dr. Long’s goal is to cooperate with the United States government so that the visa process can once again move forward in a timely way.We have contacted Dr. Long by email. We hope he will respond to our questions about the protocol required for CIS/DOS to receive cooperation from the provinces, orphanages, and hospitals. We intend to pass any information he provides on to CIS/DOS.CIS/DOS recently announced a new procedure for DNA testing in VN.

There has been a lot of confusion surrounding this announcement and we want to clarify the process as we understand it. This new DNA requirement only affects children who have been relinquished by their birth parents. It will not affect families whose children were abandoned. Most of the children in Mandala’s program were abandoned.

There is a JCICS meeting being held in Washington, DC through this weekend. Both CIS and DOS have representatives scheduled to speak during the conference. We will report on any information gathered as a result of these meetings.Attached is both a letter written by Rep. David Price to Emilio Gonzalez, Director of the Department of Homeland Security, regarding adoptions from VN and Dir. Gonzalez’s response to Rep. Price. Sadly there is no new or overwhelmingly important information in the letter of response to Rep. Price. This is not surprising.

Efforts continue on your behalf and on behalf of the waiting children in VN – not only by Mandala but also by other agencies, by JCICS, and by waiting parents worldwide. Letters are being written and received daily, phone calls are being made, and every possible avenue is being explored. Know that much of Mandala’s correspondence is related to individual adoption cases and that is information that cannot be shared due to confidentiality. Our goal is to use individual cases to benefit every family in similar circumstances. If we receive information that affects the process as a whole we will share it with you immediately. We also want to take a moment to thank you all for your ongoing patience as of late. We know this is a stressful time and we will continue to do everything we can to support you through your adoption.

In order to allow us to best communicate with you, please try to consolidate your questions into one email if possible or leave a detailed message with whoever answers the phone if we are not available.
If you have an emergency - of course do not hesitate to call. Emergencies are considered anything having to do with imminent travel; any correspondence you receive from CIS or the US Embassy in VN; any looming deadlines that you are working against. We are asking for your help to allow us all to work as efficiently as possible to get your children home!We wish you all a pleasant weekend – try to do something fun and relaxing! We hope for good news next week!Thanks,Mary Beth and Gail

Got The Call...

2008-04-10T19:22:00.002-04:00

We went to Walgreen's tonight to get a few things for our trips...Janice will be in New York from Friday to Sunday and I'll be in Las Vegas from Sunday to Friday...and the social worker called.

Our first meeting is on April 22!

Social Worker

2008-04-08T21:16:00.001-04:00

We got an email yesterday saying that we should hear from our social worker this week!!

Scheduling a Social Worker

2008-04-05T08:30:00.002-04:00

I called Mandala yesterday to see if they got our information for the homestudy.
They said we were "In process for a social worker" and were waiting for the social worker to call
back and schedule a time.

I think I'll call on Monday or Tuesday to see where we are "in the process."

Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

2008-03-31T11:17:00.005-04:00

Stumbled across this blog today..Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity not sure how I've missed this one since I've read mrsbroccoliguy many times.

Anyway, Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity is a great blog with lots of good information!!

Just found this article too Road to foreign adoption grows longer.
Man!! I'm just finding stuff everywhere today!!

Also, check out the link for Bring Our Children Home.

This was on Carolina Adoptions website...

We are aware that there are websites, bulletin boards, listserves and blogs that will be discussing issues related to recent difficulties in processing Vietnam adoptions. Please be advised that many of the discussions may contain inaccurate or exaggerated information. We ask that you use discretion in commenting or posting on these web-based sites as they are read by U.S. and Vietnamese official and can be viewed as inflammatory. CAS will only disseminate confirmed information that is released by Officials such as the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, U.S. CIS, or JCICS

Judging from the visits we've had to our own blog I believe that they really are read or a keyword search is done by U.S and Vietnamese officials.

Wonder What This Means?

2008-03-29T08:37:00.005-04:00

Probably doesn't mean anything at all...but I can't figure out why they changed the letter we got saying that Vietnam and Guatemala were closed. Here's the new one...

Dear Friends and Family,

Mandala’s ability to unite children in need with forever families is in jeopardy. For this reason, we are placed in the unenviable position of asking for monetary help in order to keep our agency doors open.

Conservatively, 150,000,000 children are orphaned around the world today. Mandala has spent the last 14 years placing children with families who will love them. Mandala actively supports the rights of children throughout the world, by making contributions to humanitarian efforts........

There's more to the letter but it's the same as the last one. The first paragraph is what's interesting now. It's the same as the second paragraph, with no mention of Vietnam and Guatemala being closed. It could just be a mistake, no one has contacted us saying that things have changed and we haven't heard from anywhere else that anything has changed so I'm probably just being paranoid and should stop developing the complicated conspiracy theory that I was working on...just when it was getting good too!!!!

We're Still Sad, But...

2008-03-27T20:39:00.003-04:00

Janice sent our homestudy paperwork back to the adoption agency yesterday.
They should have it today or tomorrow.

Decisions..Some Made..Some Not...

2008-03-23T12:07:00.004-04:00

We've decided to go ahead with the homestudy in case Vietnam opens again. At least we'll be one step ahead if it does...if it doesn't then we can use the homestudy for another country. I can't really see us going with another country right now though. Vietnam was a good choice for several reasons and we really had our hearts set on it.

One thing we haven't decided yet is how long we can wait.
I guess that will take a while to figure out. There will probably be many things in the next 6 months that will change our minds several times over.

I'm sure we're not the only ones trying to decide what to do next so keep us all on your prayer lists and we'll let everyone know what happens along the way.

Thanks!

Very Bad News

2008-03-18T18:44:00.004-04:00

A little over an hour ago Janice got an email from our adoption agency with probably the worst news we could get. I've copied some of the letter here...please see my comments after the letter.

Dear Friends and Family,

Mandala Needs Help! Adoptions in Guatemala and Viet Nam, our two largest programs, have stopped. Recent Guatemalan legislation, passed in response to US pressure, has closed international adoption in this country. In Viet Nam, the US State Department and CIS have determined the program will close in September.

Mandala’s ability to unite children in need with forever families is in jeopardy. For this reason, we are placed in the unenviable position of asking for monetary help in order to keep our agencies doors open.

Conservatively, 150,000,000 children are orphaned around the world today. Mandala has spent the last 14 years placing children with families who will love them. Mandala actively supports the rights of children throughout the world, by making contributions to humanitarian efforts.

All of this takes money, which is the purpose of this letter. Mandala has never before asked its families for any type of monetary contribution; however, the future of international adoption is at stake. We must raise $800,000 in order to maintain our services. These funds will support operating expenses needed to bridge the period of time when new and existing programs (Mexico and Viet Nam) open or re-open, and allow us to continue to fund Mandala’s humanitarian programs.

We knew there was a chance that this could happen when we started but we didn't think it was very likely and we were willing to take the risk. Vietnam was our 1st choice and Guatemala was our 2nd choice when we decided to adopt...We need to talk with someone at Mandala to find out if we can get everything done before September or is it already too late. With the amount of time it takes to process all the paperwork I think it might be too late...but I'm not giving up until someone from Mandala says it's not possible....hopefully we will be able to talk to someone tomorrow. If we do I'll let everyone know what we find out.

Fingerprinted Today

2008-03-15T16:43:00.012-04:00

We went to Charlotte this morning to get fingerprinted at CIS. You're not allowed to bring in cameras or cellphones, you have to leave them in the car. No one ever checked to see if I had a phone or camera & I never saw anyone else get checked so how would they know if you have one??

Our appointment was at 2:00 but we got there at 12:30. We waited about a half hour, got the fingerprints done, left before 2:00 & got home about 4:30.

Had awesome sandwiches at TGI Friday's too!! Chipotle Grilled Steak Sandwich with onion rings...HOLY COW!!!

We also got our last 2 reference letters. One lastnight and one this afternoon.

Big hugs and thanks to everybody that wrote a letter for us!!!

The next step is to send in our paperwork & reference letters

to the adoption agency then we'll schedule the homestudy.

Quick Update with Pictures

2008-03-12T20:48:00.007-04:00

We got another reference letter tonight!! Two more to go!

The Adoption Education class that we're taking now has homework exercises...one of them was to imagine & draw the child that we will be adopting. I'm sure a psychiatrist would have a lot to say about each of our drawings.

Just keep in mind neither one of us can draw....and try not to shoot your drink through your nose when you laugh!

We're awful parents...already!!! Hopefully she won't really look like a puppet!

Reference Letters

2008-03-09T09:13:00.002-04:00

We've got three reference letters now!!...Three more to go.

I was at super walmart lastnight and saw a cool shirt for our little girl that I might go back and get. The shirt was green with a shamrock and said "Kiss Me I'm American." OK, maybe the shamrock doesn't have anything to do with Vietnam but it was still cool.

New Clothes

2008-03-02T16:12:00.013-05:00

We got a few things at Old Navy today.

Still no shoes but we did manage to get some socks!

Check out the slideshow for today's fashions.

Quick Timeline of Events

2008-03-02T10:25:00.006-05:00

Ok, time to catch everybody up on the excitement!! I'm going to lump a bunch of stuff in one post since there isn't alot to say other than we filled out some paperwork and mailed it off.
I might assemble all of this in a timeline of some sort eventually.

February 9th: We got our passport applications. We've both had one before but they expired a long time ago.

February 11th: We sent our I-600A to Citizenship & Immigration Services & started our
Adoption Education courses online.

February 12th: I called the SBI to get the information about getting fingerprinted.

February 15th: We got fingerprinted at CCBI & did another Adoption Education class.

February 16th: Janice mailed off our fingerprints to the SBI.

February 20th: I checked to see how much health insurance was going to cost..it was a lot less than I thought!! WOOHOO!! We also got our fingerprints and criminal history report back from the SBI. We seem to be upstanding citizens with no criminal history.

February 21st: We got a letter from Citizenship & Immigration Services saying that they received our I-600A application.

February 24th: We watched another Adoption Education class. These have been really good! There are a few issues that we really haven't thought about unitl we watched the class. Mostly about health issues, sleeping patterns & bonding.

February 28th: We got a letter from CIS saying that we would receive 2 more letters (1 for each of us) about when our appointments for being fingerprinted (again) would be. Government efficiency at it's finest!!...We're sending you this letter to tell you we're going to send you 2 more letters....oh yeah, I had my adoption physical too. I managed to escape the probe for another 5 years!

Ok, now we're up to March 1st: We each received our letters from CIS for our fingerprinting appointments....we go on March 15th. For those of you who we asked to write reference letters for us this is also the due date for those...hint, hint! HAHAHA!!

The Decision

2008-02-29T17:23:00.002-05:00

On February 5th we went to an information meeting at Mandala Adoption Agency in Hillsborough, NC. We were there for 3 hours.

We've talked about adopting off & on for about 3 years now but as we were driving away from the meeting we finally made the decision. We're going to do it. No more talking and wondering...we're going to do it....we are going to adopt a little girl from Vietnam.

This is going to be the best decision we have ever made together.
Once we made up our minds (and found out we would have someone hold our hands through the whole process) we both felt very different. I can't really explain what it felt like other than we were clear on what we were about to do and we had no doubts...How often does that happen??

So, now we're in the early stages of the whole process....it seems to be going smoothly, although I'm sure we'll have some bumps along the way. That's ok...they're not unexpected. Every big decision has it's problems.

There's a bunch of stuff I need to post about and I'll be doing that little by little so bookmark this site and check back from time to time.

This is so cool!!! I'm gonna be a dad...& I can't wait!!!........HOLY FREAKIN COW!!!!

Look What We Bought!!

2008-02-29T16:58:00.011-05:00

We went out and bought 3 outfits a few weeks ago...couldn't be helped...we had to do it.

We'll probably even do it again!

Hhhmm..maybe on our next shopping spree we should buy some socks & shoes!!