DEVASTATION

Really upset all weekend, left work to hibernate a bit on Friday. With our new timeline in my last post, this isnt looking good for us but we are pressing on. I am going to be on pins and needles until September.

From the US Embassy website:

Adopted Children Immigrant Visa Unit
Warning Concerning Adoptions in Vietnam
April 2008
The Department of State continues to urge prospective adoptive parents and adoption service providers not to initiate new adoptions from Vietnam at this time. The 2005 Memorandum of Agreement, required by Vietnamese law to authorize adoptions between the United States and Vietnam, expires on September 1, 2008. In addition, recent field investigations have revealed incidents of serious adoption irregularities, including forged or altered documentation, mothers paid, coerced or tricked into releasing their children, and children offered for adoption without the knowledge or consent of their birth parents.
The United States is strongly committed to processing legitimate intercountry adoptions from Vietnam if possible. Our primary concern is to ensure that the children and families involved in the adoption process are protected from exploitation. The Government of Vietnam shares this concern. Both countries acknowledge that more needs to be done to address deficiencies in the current system.
On April 25, the Government of Vietnam announced that it will allow adoption to be completed in cases where prospective adoptive parents have been matched with a child and received an official referral prior to September 1, 2008. It further stated that in accordance with Vietnamese law, the DIA will suspend the acceptance of new dossiers on July 1, 2008. On September 1, 2008 any dossier that has not received a referral will be closed and returned to the Adoption Service Provider. In view of the processing time required in Vietnam from placement to the Giving and Receiving Ceremony, an adoption process begun now cannot be completed before the current Agreement expires.
Prospective adoptive parents should be aware that documents relating to adoptions in Vietnam, such as birth certificates, abandonment reports, relinquishment agreements, and investigative reports are generally issued by orphanage directors, local People’s Committees, Provincial Departments and the Department for International Adoptions (DIA). The facts asserted in these documents are not verified by the issuing officials. Attempts by U.S. officials to verify the accuracy of these documents have routinely uncovered evidence of fraudulent or inaccurate information. Therefore, documents issued by the authorities listed above, and any other documents containing information not verified by the issuing authority, cannot be considered adequate evidence of the facts claimed. They may be used in conjunction with primary and contemporaneous secondary evidence, or must be independently verified by U.S. officials in Vietnam, before they can be considered valid for immigration purposes. (http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/reciprocity/reciprocity_3705.html)
Consular officers have routinely completed field verifications of orphan status in over 35 provinces in Vietnam. However, in some cases, Vietnamese officials have prevented the U.S. Government from conducting independent field inquiries into the status of children identified in I-600 petitions. Embassy outreach, as well as support from adoption agency officials, have thus far allowed independent investigations to resume in some areas that were previously impeded. We continue robust efforts to resolve this issue. Unfortunately, it is impossible to predict when we can complete the field inquiries in areas which are still closed to our staff.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and the Department of State have instituted procedures to verify that children identified for placement meet the requirements of Vietnamese and U.S. law, before the child has been adopted under Vietnamese law. Information about these procedures is available from USCIS or through their website http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis. The Embassy strongly advises prospective adoptive parents not to travel to Vietnam until they have received notification from the Embassy that their case is ready for final processing and travel is appropriate. Parents should contact the Embassy immediately if anyone, including their adoption service provider, encourages them to travel to Vietnam prior to receiving this notification. The Embassy can work together with adoption service providers, Vietnam’s Department of International Adoptions, and local authorities to resolve issues such as the scheduling of a Giving and Receiving Ceremony.

New Wait Time

10-15/18 months is the most updated wait time. It was worded exactly like that “10-15/18”, they should just say 12-18.
So, minus the 5.5 we have under our belts it could be as soon as Fall of 2008 or as late as May 2009 that we get the call and then we would have to wait to travel SO maybe by my 35th birthday I will be a Mom. Honestly, I can’t imagine 2 more Mother’s Day’s passing without my baby! This year is going to be hard enough.
I am going nuts, having a hard time, but will get over it. Really, I know there is no telling at what rate children are going to be up for adoption and there is NOTHING we can do. I have written all the people I can write as a waiting parent (i.e.: government officials).
So……
We are taking on a home improvement project per my Mom's suggestion. Tim and I are going to gut and finally paint the living room, bedroom and kitchen! I need one more thing to help pass the time and there is no time like the present to get the house ready for when Olive comes home. A fresh, clean, new coat of paint will revive our place a little I hope and help make the wait not so bad. It is going to be a HUGE undertaking because we have a lot of cracks to fill, sand, prime, etc. but we are looking forward to it. Now, if I could just commit to a color or two!

Have you seen these?

Just saw these in babytalk magazine and think they are so super cute!
Check em out at :http://www.rufflebutts.com/

5 months and 3 days

Honestly, I can't believe we have been waiting 5 months and 3 days for our referral. It seems to fly by, really. I cannot tell a lie. I think part of it is that I have made myself super busy during this time for that exact reason.
We are still number 21 on the list. I think I may have mentioned it before but our agency is keeping us at the same number through the entire process. It makes it hard though to know where we really are. Oh, well, I guess I like surprises.
I can report that our agency has just gotten licensed in 2 new provinces so maybe that will move things along a bit. I am not sure. I mean, really, we can't really guess at what rate people are having children now, can we? I know when the right one comes along, she will be ours.
Until then, I keep praying that her birth mother has enough food to keep her healthy during her pregnancy and that she is well taken care of and can get the care she needs.
Just wanted to post something to keep you all in the loop.