Bad News/Changed News/Good News

At the same time. Whoa!

BAD NEWS - Vietnam may be asking for dossiers to be submitted (way) earlier than the September 1, 2008 MOU expiration date. Also, Vietnam is not part of the Hague Convention however, they may begin implementing Hague practices. Visit the JCICS website to learn more. Personally, the more I read it, I think the JCICS is trying to freak people out unnecessarily. If a country does not want to be a part of the Hague Convention then none of those "rules" apply to said country. I just think the JCICS is trying to show some muscle that it may not really have. Yes, they have drafted a new Standards of Practice towards adoptions in Vietnam, several agencies working in Vietnam have signed it and it has been presented to both governments, but it's a crap shoot if either government will implement them. I think it's a good idea, but getting them "passed" may prove to be more difficult. I found out that Vietnam can chose to work with only Hague accredited and not be a part of the Hague Convention. I think that stinks. This could prove to be good and bad the way I see it. If VN wishes to only work with Hague accredited agencies this eliminates several agencies from working their until they receive their accreditation, so 1) Where will those agencies children go? 2) Will those children have to live more of their lives in an orphanage or will their children be reassigned to other agencies? 3) How long will it take for their accreditation. See, the children are the one who suffer. I don't see any good coming from this. However, IF the children are reassigned to other agencies working in the same regions then it could be a really good thing for the children, those agencies and those agencies families.

CHANGED NEWS - I changed my status for this adoption. I'm still asking for a 0-12 month (as young as possible) boy or girl. I have agreed to some surgically repairable special needs. IE: cleft lip, cleft palate, extra digits, club foot. Some of that may sound scary however, all of these "special needs" could be something a child that I physically gave birth to could have and ALL of them are relatively simple surgical procedures. I didn't come to this decision lightly. I've been thinking about it for nearly 8 months and researching for about half that time. I realize that some of my past post may have seemed as though I was "against" special needs however, that is not the case. I simply wanted to adopt a healthy child and with all the turbulence surrounding Vietnam adoptions right now I felt that I needed to open my mind and heart more. With this change (which I officially made on Friday, March 7th) I was hoping to start my dossier within the next two months and hopefully have a referral by the end of the year. My case worker did say that I would start my dossier soon at our meeting last Friday.

GOOD NEWS - I received an email Wednesday night from Angie Thorn at the CHI office in St. Louis. She sent me two documents that need to be filled out for my dossier. I had to email her back and ask if that meant I was being asked to start my dossier or if it was just a "warm-up." I hadn't received an email from my case worker asking me to start the dossier, so you see where I was confused. Anyway, it turns out that I was supposed to receive an email from my case worker asking me to start my dossier. YEA!!!! Funny part? As of this post I STILL haven't received the email, but I did speak with my case worker about everything that I would need this morning and promptly started working on it. There are 10 documents that I need to gather initially and I have 7 of them together and notarized. I'll be getting two more tomorrow and hopefully the final document this weekend, but by Monday at the latest. When I have all the documents gathered and notarized then I take them to Topeka and have them certified by the Secretary of State. After all of that is done, I will have the KC branch check it out and I will send it to the Vietnam Embassy in Washington DC to be authenticated. I'm not sure if I have it translated there as well or if it gets translated in Vietnam. Anyway, after the authentication I'll get it all back, send it to CHI and they will send it to Vietnam to get logged in. And of course, I then wait for my referral and hope that the Vietnamese government will complete adoptions for those families that have dossiers logged in even if the MOU isn't signed.