A real quick update on our dossier. Talked with the adoption agency last night. They got the dossier back from the Vietnamese Embassy, but a couple of documents had to be re-done. They hope to have them completed today and be able to send our dossier to Vietnam.
We got an updated preliminary approval form from CIS (Citizen’s and Immigration Service) this week. It shows that we’re adopting from Vietnam and, hopefully, that will satisfy all government agencies that need to review these sorts of documents.
Our situation has been complicated by the fact that we won’t be returning immediately to the US with Alyssa from Vietnam. Instead, we will be coming back to Turkey. This means that we won’t apply for her immigrant visa in Vietnam, but in Turkey. The good news is that the consular officer in Turkey tells that she has all of the necessary approvals to process the visa for Alyssa. The consular officer is also working with the Turkish authorities to determine what type of visa we will need to get to bring Alyssa to Turkey from Vietnam. At that point, she won’t be a US citizen and will need to get a different visa than the rest of us. The consular officer assures us this won’t be a problem. It’s really great to have such competent people working hard to help make this adoption as easy as possible.
Got word from our adoption agency last night that the dossier was completed in Washington and on its way to Vietnam. So the big wait now begins until we get a referral. Because all of the procedures are new compared to Jessie’s adoption, we don’t know how long this will take. We’ve got our fingers crossed that it will be quick, but our adoption agency says it could be up to four months.
Hopefully, the next status update will be that we’ve got a referral!
Just a real quick note to say that we got confirmation via Fedex that our dossier was delivered in Vietnam. So now the wait really is on. Because all the procedures in Vietnam are new, we don’t know if we’ll hear anything else before we get our referral.
Not sure how to categorize this, but guess it’s best put in the “Getting Ready” group. A national newspaper in Turkey recently ran an article comparing Nancy (and Tim) to Angelina Jolie because both had adopted internationally. The article mentions that we have one adopted daughter from Vietnam and that we’re going to get a second. The headlines are “A Diplomat in Ankara Is Angelina” and “Our Jolie Is Nancy.” Article complete with pictures is below.
Jessie came home from school with the note that is shown below. Obviously, we’re all getting anxious to have Alyssa join our family. We are all waiting with great anticipation, but have no further would on when she’ll be making her way to Ankara.
We received an email from Cathy and Linda from the Adoption Center of Washington last Friday. They said that they will be going to Vietnam today (March 13) to handcarry our dossier documents and to meet with other agencies and officials from the Vietnamese International Adoption Center. It’s a little hard to tell whether this is good news or bad news regarding the timing of Alyssa’s arrival. We’ll obviously know more once Cathy and Linda return from their trip.
I guess this kind of thing is to be expected when a country restarts a stopped international adoption program. We’re waiting as patiently as we can until we can bring Alyssa to her new home and into our family.
We got a couple of emails from our adoption agency in the past two days with some potentially good news and some not so good news. First, the good news is that a baby girl has just arrived in the orphanage that our agency works with. Since we’re first in line with our agency for a girl, this new arrival could potentially be Alyssa, if everything works out. Obviously, a series of checks need to be done before we will know anything for sure, the most important being medical tests. The provincial authorities in Vietnam will also have to “match” our dossier to this baby in order for a referral to be made. From what our adoption agency tells us, that means the authorities will check to see if the baby meets the criteria specified in our home study, which is a healthy baby girl as young as possible. Our agency was in Vietnam last week, met with the provincial authorities, talked to them about the waiting families and their desires. So, we are in a good position, assuming this little girl meets the criteria.
The not so good news is that the timing of when we may be able to get Alyssa is still very uncertain. We had hoped that after their Vietnam visit our adoption agency could provide more specific info on when we might be able to travel to Vietnam and get Alyssa. About all they could say, however, is that the process will take around four months, once a baby is identified. Everytime we think about waiting another four months, we get pretty down, but that is the way international adoptions are - one great big roller coaster ride full of ups and downs. Hopefully, the next update will be the one that says Alyssa has been found!!
We heard from the adoption agency yesterday that they hope, and I stress hope, to be able to make an official referral to us this week or next. The referreal would be an infant girl who was recently placed in the orphange that our adoption agency sponsors.
So, with fingers crossed and knocking on wood, we hope that we will be able to take the next big step soon. If that were to occur, of course, the next big question is when we could go to Vietnam to get Alyssa. We’re still being told it will take four months, which seems like a long time and will seem like an eternity once we get the referral.
Stay tuned for more info as we get it.
Obviously since several weeks have passed since my last post, the greatly anticipated referral did not come through. Details are not clear, but the infant girl that entered the orphanage had some problems so a referral is not in the works at this time. Maybe later, but no one knows for sure if/when it might happen. So the waiting game continues!
Meanwhile to pass the time, we (Nancy, Jessie and I) are thinking of ways to welcome Alyssa into our family when she does arrive. Jessie, in particular, has been using her newly honed writing and drawing skills to write notes to Alyssa along with wonderful illustrations. When I get a few extra minutes over the next couple of days, I’ll post some of her work for all to see.