Where are we on Adoption?

Well....Vietnam adopted the Hague convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Adoption Convention) in December 2010. This is a good thing. It protects children and prospective parents from corrupt and illegal adoptions. Vietnam's representative said that they would "accelerate the process" in getting all the legal stuff done to get the HAC in effect. Vietnam also passed their own adoption laws which went into effect January 1, 2011. ALL of this is great news. What it doesn't do is give a timeline on when adoptions will resume between VN and the US. If VN doesn't ratify the HAC then the US and VN will need to sign another agreement. I have no idea what is involved in VN ratifying the HAC. If it's a process like the rest of their laws then it'll be another year, at least, before that happens since laws have to be presented three times before they are passed. VN still needs to setup a central authority (a government agency that controls adoptions) in order for anything to proceed. Will the US agree to let its citizens adopt again from VN before any of this happens? I have no idea, but my gut says, NO.

I still would like to adopt from Vietnam, but that will be down the road. Tim and I are going to attempt domestic adoption right now.

I started working on our profile last June. Yes, June 2010. I didn't think it would be as hard as it has been. What do you write without sounding pretentious? Honestly, if I could have slapped a bunch of photos on a page and then put bullet points down I would have. Then we got Sailor, so I said I was going to hold off on doing anything until he was potty trained. Then I said it was a good thing to wait because we were probably going to Norway in the summer, so we didn't want to be out of country IF we were chosen. Well, you just can't think that way, right? I did basically wait until Sailor was potty trained before finishing the profile and calling the lawyer who had been recommended to us.

We did get a "prep" packet from the lawyer, so we've been looking it over and preparing questions before we meet with him today. After the meeting we need to decide if this is the route we really want to take and if this lawyer is the person we really want to work with.

One of the requirements for domestic adoption is to have a home study. Great! Been there done that except the one I did for VN is now null and void, so we have to prepare another one. My question to this lawyer is IF we have to have a completed home study before he shows our profile. I know in order to actually go through the adoption process of a specific child it must be done. If it needs to be done before showing our profile that is another 1-2 month delay. YIPPEE!!

I'll let you know how it goes.