Update

Got an email from our agency today. Here is what it said....



"As you know the door was shut firmly on Phu Tho adoptions last week. We had 6 families who had been referred a baby lose that referral. It was so sad for everyone but especially those 6 families. In this process of matching we have no idea where the match will come from until we receive the referral. In your case I asked if Judy E could get a status due to the Phu Tho closure. Sure enough you file was located in Phu Tho. You were somewhere in the process…not sure if the match had been made or not. Your file along with several others has been retrieved and redirected. We have been told that the Phu Tho families will be given priority. This means you will not be starting at the end of the line. You may see families receive referrals before you as we will not bump any matched families from the process. We do not know which province your referral will come from but I do know they have redirected your file. I am pretty sure that this is not the news you were hoping for, but maybe you can find some comfort in just knowing what is happening. I do not expect any further updates until we receive news of your referral."

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to everyone out there. We are having a low key holiday this year. Everyone is traveling and we thought we would have a new baby so we opted out. Well, things don't always work out as planned so we still do not have Pearl. So, we are just going to relax. Eric will go to the mountain several times and I will read lots of books and do arts and crafts with Carli. A good time will be had by all.
All the best in 2008!

Still no updates...

Plan, our adoption agency, had a meeting in Washington DC today to discuss what is going on in Vietnam. Nonetheless, things are very quiet in Vietnam and will continue to be quiet for the near future.

Carli still asks everyday when we are going to pick up her sister....it breaks my heart.

Another delay....

Hi all, You will be able to read the frustration in this post (just warning you!)

Today we found out that the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) and the U.S. Department of State (USDOS) created a new process for the I-600 filing procedures. What this means is another bureaucratic step. Before, the I-600 was completed while you were in Vietnam. Now, it must be completed prior to travel approval. Our agency is saying this could delay the process four months. Can we say UGH!!!!!!!!

No updates yet....

Just want to let everyone know that we have no news yet. Our friends Deanna and Steve leave tomorrow to go to Vietnam to pick up their new daughter. We wish them lots of fun and excitement! They will be able to share all of their travel secrets with us!

I am working on travel prep. I called Carli's doctor and she is up-to-date on all her shots. I guess that means Eric and I are the "lucky" ones because we are going to need plenty of shots.

Hit the road Jack....uh I mean Eric, Carli and Seniye

So what do you do while you are waiting patiently for Pearl? Well, you go on vacation of course!

We just returned from a very fun and relaxing vacation in the Wallowas and Sunriver. We missed you Amy and Greg...maybe next year you can join us.

The "real" wait begins...

So as we wait, it is the perfect time to get Carli ready for kindergarten. I cannot believe her last day in preschool is tomorrow. Here is a picture of her graduating class.

Paperwork is complete!

Well, it has finally happened...all the paperwork is back and our dossier is off to Vietnam tomorrow!

Things got tied up in San Francisco at the Vietnam Consulate but with a little extra work on PLAN's part, we have what we need.

Next stop...translation in Vietnam.

We got it!

Well, it took 5 1/2 weeks but the I171-H arrived in the mail today. Now I need to get it notarized, certified and authenticated and our dossier will be complete! I will try to get all of that done by next week since it will need to go down to Salem and then San Francisco for all of that to happen!

Still waiting...

Still waiting for the I171H. I hear it will take about 8 weeks...ugh!

Wait mode

All right so we are just waiting for our I171H. Once we receive it, we go through the entire notary, Secretary of State, Vietnam Consulate process once again. Then our dossier will be complete and ready to be sent to Vietnam to be translated. Once it is translated (usually about a week's time) it will be sent to the Department of International Adoption (the new step in the process since March 1st) and we wait for our referral.

Fingerprinting Appointment

We got notice of our fingerprinting appointment for this Saturday morning. Also, our dossier will go to the Vietnam Consulate in San Francisco this week. Things are moving along but who knew there were so many steps?!

Progress

Our paperwork is back from the Oregon Secretary of State. It took less than a week! Next stop...San Francisco to the Vietnam Consulate. We are still waiting for our fingerprinting appointment.

The dossier is off!

Well, I mailed our dossier yesterday. The next milestone is getting our fingerprinting appointment. We should get the appointment in the next several weeks. Basically, it is sit around and wait time - and of course more check writing! :0)

Once the dossier is translated and approved in Vietnam, we will get our referral which will include a picture of our new addition!

Picture included in the dossier (with the house picture)

Good news and bad news...

Good news first....
I have all the paperwork completed on my end (yes, Eric still has a few pieces to go)! I hope to get everything notarized by this Friday!

Bad news...
Time lines seem to have lengthened. On March 1st, Vietnam changed their process so that there is an additional step (aka layer of bureaucracy). This means that we could be looking at 6-9 months of waiting once they have received our dossier. UGH! It was a month previously. Our adoption agency is waiting to see what reality turns out to be but it is definitely not what I wanted to hear!

Making progress

I feel a little better today. We have completed our application and commitment letters. They now need to be notarized. Also got Eric's medical letter yesterday. I went to the police bureau today at lunch and got the local police clearance letter. Tomorrow I will go and get a certified copy of our marriage certificate. So today, I feel like we are making some progress in the "paper chase".

Plugging away!

I am trying not to get frustrated by what is referred to as the "paper chase". Last week I sent off the documents to our doctors, contacted the police (no response), got my employment letter (Eric get on it!) and started our application and commitment letters. Our passports are copied and pictures are taken. This week I hope to get our passport pictures taken and complete the rest of the paperwork and get it notarized. We have friends who are adopting and they said they would have their dossier completed by June 1st. I decided that would be a good goal for us too!

Yesterday afternoon Carli and I sorted through baby clothes and washed everything. I then let Carli put the clothes away in the dresser that will be Pearl's. I figure the more I can involve Carli the better and since she is a little mother herself, she actually enjoys it.

Time to begin the dossier

dos·si·er (dŏs'ē-ā', dô'sē-ā')
n. A collection of papers giving detailed information about a particular person or subject.

Here is a list of documents required for the dossier. Gotta love the paperwork!

 2 HOME STUDIES
Certify and Authenticate ONE

 2 CERTIFIED MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE
Re-certify and Authenticate ONE

 4 APPLICATIONS FOR ADOPTION
Certify all 4-Take one photocopy to VN when you travel

 4 COMMITMENTS
Certify all 4- Take one photocopy to VN when you travel

 4 LETTERS OF EMPLOYMENT (2-Mother & 2-Father)
Certify and Authenticate ONE for each

 4 LOCAL POLICE CLEARANCES (2- Mother & 2-Father)
Certify and Authenticate ONE for each

 4 MEDICAL CERTIFICATES (2-Mother & 2-Father)
Certify and Authenticate ONE for each

 2 POWER OF ATTORNEYS Certify and Authenticate ONE

 2 I-171H (PRE-APPROVAL FROM IMMIGRATION)
Certify and Authenticate ONE

 2 COPIES OF PASSPORT (Mother & Father on one page)
Certify and Authenticate ONE

 4 PASSPORT SIZE PHOTOS (2-Mother & 2-Father)
2 of each for dossier & two of each to travel with.

 2 PICTURES (Front of home, and family picture)

Home Study Interview

We completed our home study interview last night. It was pretty straightforward. After Carli got warmed up, she basically did all the work for us! She was showing Don around the house and taking him outside to see her car in the backyard.

Don was really pushing for us to consider a boy. Apparently there are lots of boy babies since everyone seems to want girls. I really want a girl and Carli has her heart set on a sister so I think we will stick with our original plan.

Don told us he would have our home study written up by Thursday and then it has to be passed around to several people in the office for review. Once it is complete, it will get sent to the US Homeland Security office so that our I600 can be completed.

Now it is time to put together our dossier.

Home Study Appointment!

Don, our social worker called today. We have our home study scheduled for Monday, May 7th at 7 p.m. He said it will take a few hours. We also need to provide a blueprint of our home but otherwise he said to not get nervous about the home study.

We're off!

Social Worker Assignment!

We got our social worker assignment yesterday. This means that our home study can begin. The social worker has 10 days to make an appointment with us and then 30-60 days to complete the home study. Finally, PLAN then has two weeks to approve the home study. Essentially, the entire process could take three months but I really hope it goes faster than that because our I600 cannot be approved until they get a copy of the home study.

Embracing the Vietnamese culture

I decided we need to get more familiar with the Vietnamese culture before we travel to Vietnam. What better place to start than with the food?! So, last night I took Carli to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. She loved the food and couldn't stop eating. The server taught Carli how to make origami birds while we were there. At the end of the meal, Carli says "this food is delicious. Now can I go to Vietnam with you?"

Our plan is to leave her here so that we can focus on the new addition and limit her exposure to some health issues that Vietnam still grapples with such as Hepatitis.

Carli asks daily if today is the day we pick up her sister! There will not be a better big sister than Carli.

2 great books about Vietnam...

I have been reading lots about Vietnam and stumbled on two books worth talking about. They are both by Dana Sachs.

"The House on Dream Street" Part memoir and part travelogue, The House on Dream Street offers a compelling glimpse into Vietnam more than 20 years after the war. Author Dana Sachs foregoes the history lesson and instead takes us into the day-to-day lives of working-class people attempting to succeed in a fledgling capitalist economy. Captivated by the once-forbidden country during a visit in 1989, Sachs returned two years later, took a room with a young family, and set out to immerse herself in the culture.

"If You Lived Here" The story begins in Wilmington, N.C., where Xuan Mai has built a successful Asian grocery business in the more than 20 years since she fled Hanoi. Estranged from her family in Vietnam and reluctant to form new connections in America, Mai doesn't know what to make of Shelley Marino, an American customer who asks a lot of questions about Vietnam. It turns out that Shelley is trying to adopt a Vietnamese boy. However, Shelley's husband, Martin, who has two grown sons from a previous marriage, forces Shelley to choose between him and adopting, prompting Shelley to urge Mai to accompany her to Vietnam to complete the adoption. Once there, Mai discovers a land very different from the war-torn, impoverished country she left in the late 1970s. The novel, alternating Shelley's and Mai's narration, comes alive when the setting shifts to Vietnam, revealing the author's love for the rapidly changing country. Mai's reconciliation with her past is absorbing.

We will be staying in Hanoi and traveling 3 hours north to the orphanage when we travel to Vietnam in early fall. We are required to be there 3 weeks and look forward to doing some sightseeing while we are there.

What we have done so far...

So the first thing you will find surprising about adopting is the mounds (and I mean mounds) of paperwork. We have received endless binders with reading material and countless documents to get notarized and copied. So far we have completed:

• Plan's initial application
• Training class
• More paperwork including references, background checks, medical checks and various other information
• Immigration paperwork called the I600A. This form allows us to adopt a foreign born orphan. Once it is approved, we then get our appointment to get fingerprinted.
• Lots of $$

Next comes the home study and then the completion of paperwork for Vietnam, which is called a dossier.

Welcome to our adoption journey!

Hi all. We are going to attempt to log our adoption journey. We have chosen to adopt from Vietnam through Plan Loving Adoptions.

We started our adoption journey last spring through the Department of Human Services (DHS). We were told there was a two to six month wait for a special needs child. After completing all the paperwork, training and background checks we learned that the wait could be up to six years. We all know that I am way to urgent to wait six years for a child and so we began our search for another option.

Eric's brother is adopted through Plan from Korea so we felt comfortable using Plan for our adoption journey.