Beginning the Adoption Process in Fall 2006

Last fall we made the decision to move forward with our plan to adopt our daughter. Like many other families, we were interested in China; several years earlier we learned about the process through friends and through our conversations with the staff at Family Connections, in Cortland, NY. At the time, the wait for a child was between 6 and 8 months, a timeframe that we were ok with. But in fall 2006, we experienced the reality of the international adoption world, that it is a dynamic process, always changing and shifting, and now the minimum wait for a child from China was over 2 years after the paperchase. This was such disappointing news. Then we learned about Vietnam.

Here is our timeline for our Vietnam adoption process (Note: this list will not be interesting to you unless your are adopting, but for us it was a good way to chronicle our steps for our records) :

Late October 2006: Started discussions with our caseworker Renee H. at Family Connections in Cortland, NY.
Early Dec.: Applied to World Child, an international adoption agency located in Maryland.
Dec. 14, 2006: First 4-hour homestudy visit with Renee.
Dec. – Jan. : Worked on homestudy and Vietnam dossier documents, and reviewed first draft of our homestudy report. In early Jan, applied for new passports.
Jan. 10, 2007: Second 4-hour homestudy visit with Renee. Our homestudy document was completed later that day.
Jan. 17, 2007: I 600A (Petition for Advance Processing as an Orphan) was received by Citizenship and Immigrations Services (CIS) in Buffalo.
Feb. 6, 2007: Hoang Huyen Trang (Phoebe!) was born in LangSon, and I 171H completed by CIS.
Feb. 7, 2007: Busy day! In the morning, all documents were county certified in the Tompkins County Clerks office then driven to Family Connections at 10:30 am. At noon, Renee delivered the documents to another parent who then drove to Albany for the Great Seal of NYS, and returned them to Family Connections later that day!
Feb. 8, 2007: Family Connections sent dossier, except for the I 171H and my medical letter (the notary was from a different county, which I didn’t notice until I tried to get it county certified in Tompkins Cty—my mistake) to the Consulate General of Vietnam in California to be authenticated.
Feb 22, 2007: Family Connections sent I 171H and medical letter to the Vietnam Consulate.
Mid Feb.: The consulate sent documents to World Child.
Late Feb.: Dossier in Vietnam.
March 14, 2007: RECEIVED OUR REFERRAL FOR PHOEBE!
March 15 (Thurs) and 16 (Fri), 2007: Scheduled medical reviews by Dr. Bradshaw in Ithaca and Dr. Sarah Springer in Pittsburgh.
March 19 (Mon), 2007: Accept referral.
March & April: WAIT
May 11, 2007: Instructed to apply for Vietnam visas to enter on May 25.
May 12, 2007: Submitted visa applications to Vietnam Consulate in San Francisco.
May 16, 2007: Informed that the Ministry of Justice in LangSon split our group and that we would not travel. Visas to Vn arrive that afternoon.
May 18-June 5: sad, sad, sad.
June 6, 2007: Family Connections called with travel and Giving & Receiving Ceremony dates!
June 12, 2007: At 6:55 am fly from Syracuse to Newark, then Narita, Japan and
June 13, 2007: Arrive in Hanoi late at night and go to the Hong Ngoc Hotel.
June 14, 2007: Depart Hanoi at 6:00 am for the LangSon orphanage to meet Phoebe and then go to our Giving & Receiving Ceremony at the Ministry of Justice in LangSon when she will legally become our daughter!
July 4, 2007: Fly home!