It's been 18 months since I was put on my agencies waiting list for a child from Vietnam and the hopes of bringing home my child are fleeting. I went ahead and let my INS paperwork expire therefore forfeiting my FREE extension. When it's time, if it's time, I'll still need to update my home study ($$) however; I'll also need to fork out the dough for the fingerprinting and approval again. All in all I'm OK with that decision yet I'm still a little panicky about it.
What's the point of extending the paperwork when it'll expire in June 2010 and the likelihood of having to resubmit is very high (meaning more $$)? My paperwork has to be valid through travel, so IF Vietnam reopens and starts referring children again the beginning of 2010 I would need to be one of the first to receive a referral in order to have everything go through the steps it needs to go through to get my travel dates and then travel and return before June 19, 2010. There's still the matter of my dossier needing updating as well ($$) which will take some time. Color me skeptical, but I don't see things happening like that.
Looking back I think I would chose a different agency from the get go. Not that I think my agency is at fault for the goings-on between the US and VN because they are not however; I think they could have/should have handled my case and many others better. Knowledge is power and I, by my fault, left that power in the hands of my agency and I think they may have taken advantage in some ways. There are other blogs that I have stumbled upon of families that started around the same time as I did or after who have been home with their children for a long time and they used different agencies. Why are they a completed family and I'm not? That is a good question. In my mind I can come up with 1) they are with a smaller agency and therefore their waiting list isn't as long, but I can dispute that will two agencies in particular 2) possibly their agency isn't as above board as mine however; if their agency wasn't then they wouldn't have their children due to all the regulations/investigations the US has 3) their agency just might be more liked than mine by the orphanages in VN, but I can't really justify this unless I compare the statistic from agencies that work within the same province as mine. Then again, it is up to the orphanages to refer children to particular agencies, so I could say by the mere "swiftness" that parents go through the process with other agencies it might be true.
Christmas is a mere two days away and I'm feeling a little depressed in this holiday season because this should have been my first Christmas with my new son or daughter and it looks like that first Christmas won't be for another 2 or more years.
Sorry for the downer post.
Have a Happy and Safe Holiday.
1 comment:
We made the same decision as you. I hope you are able to have a merry Christmas!
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