Wednesday, June 14, 2006

We are officially "logged in"...

Yesterday we received news that our paperwork was completed in Vietnam and officially "logged in" with the International Adoptions Department in Hanoi. This was the next big step for us in the process, which came about a week sooner than expected.

Our agency said that now that we are logged in, that we shouldn't expect another update for about 30 days. Basically the International Adoptions Department has sent our information to the province that Van resides. They will then review our paperwork and Van's paperwork. We know that Van's paperwork is also complete. We received a copy of it last week. It included his original birth certificate, a statement from his mother confirming that she is relinquishing him, and acknowledgment from the province that Van has been orphaned (all with English translations). We were quite surprised to get a copy of this paper work since it included his mother's full name, address, birth date, and circumstances on her relinquishment. It was very emotional to read. She basically said that she is a young single mother and her family didn't have the means to bring up a child and provide opportunities for him to have a good life. So she agreed for him to be adopted either locally or internationally. It is hard to imagine making such a sacrifice, and we are forever grateful to her.

We also received news about Van's current height and weight. Van now weighs 18 pounds and 12 ounces which means he is in the 75th percentile. Sounds like they are feeding him well. He is also 27 inches long, which is the 50th percentile. So it appears that he is healthy and growing appropriately.

We are hoping to be able to go get Van in about 3 months. But our experience has been that things always take longer than expected in International Adoptions. Please continue to keep our family in your prayers. Pray that things will go smoothly and quickly from here on out.

6 comments:

Mrs. Broccoli Guy said...

That is great progress!! And good news about the paperwork - we also got complete paperwork on our child - we used some of it to apply for his I600. What province is Van in? Hope your timeline goes as predicted!

Craig and Chaunta said...

Van is in the city of Phan Rang and in the province of Nihn Thuan.

How old is your child? Where is he/she from? What agency are you working with?

Mrs. Broccoli Guy said...

Zeeb (my online nickname for our son) is in Dong Nai province, just outside HCMC. He is 3 years old. We're working with Holt.

I know what you mean about everything taking longer than you expect... it's been over 3 months since our dossier was approved by IAD and we've been waiting on Zeeb's approval. But his province is "known for delays" so hopefully Van's won't take nearly that long.

Craig and Chaunta said...

Oh my - we were thinking that after Van's login date that it would only be 3 months max (based on the timeline from the US Embassy in Hanoi's webpage).

Mrs. Broccoli Guy said...

I don't mean to worry you - my timeline seems to be slower than most. Our agency told us to expect 2.5-3 months for his dossier approval and then 3-4 weeks after that for Travel Approval. Well, we're more than a week over the first estimate but I'm hoping that travel approval won't take more than 4 weeks... I am so anxious to bring Zeeb home already!

Craig and Chaunta said...

We are anxious to get our hands on Van too. We hope and pray that it will move more quickly. Our agency said it would be 3-6 months after log in date. But we were banking on the 3 months - we should know better, everything has taken longer than expected so far.