The adoption process for us.

Lately, this adoption process seems like the most exhausting experience our family has ever been through. Not only for Garrett and me, but also for our extended family. This will probably be one of the longest posts for us, so if you do not have some time on your hands now, you better wait and tune in later.

We have been pursuing our adoption with Dillon International since fall of 2005. How can it be, that it is March 2008, and we still do not have our child? This is the question that we get on a daily basis. I thought I might try to explain the process, from OUR experience. We did most of our paperwork, attending classes, Dr.'s appointments for all 4 family members, home study appointments,etc. during 2006. We were placed on the waiting list for a girl Feb. 14, 2007. Most families wait 6-9 months on the waiting list for girls.(Although this time frame has recently been changed to 12-15 months). We waited just over 7mths, and received our referral for Nguyen Thi My Van on September 20, 2007. What a day for our family. (This is also Garrett's Grandmother's birthday). We learned on that day that our little girl had been born on July 13, 2007. She was tiny, but had an uneventful birth and was otherwise healthy. We named her Claire Addison My Prevo. We wanted to keep one of her Vietnamese names as a middle name. (what is so ironic is that her initials are CAMP. That is what we were doing on July 13th and 14th. camping at the lake. Little did we know, that our little girl had been born on the other side of the world). From the time of referral, families have an additional wait of 3-6 mths before travel. During this time, documents are gathered for the child, and sent back and forth between officials in Vietnam. There is a 12 step process for this. Step 12 is your giving and receiving ceremony. (A giving and receiving ceremony is where you stand in front of Vietnamese officials, maybe the director of the orphanage, and pledge to care for this child for the rest of it's life. Then sign some papers, and you are done. For most people the G&R, is very quick and simple).
This is where we are. We are at step 12. We are working with our agency and the orphanage director in An Giang to schedule our giving and receiving date. We were told last week that we could have her on the 13th or 14th, but we are still waiting on our I-600 approval,(this gives us the necessary paperwork to get Claire's VISA to enter the USA) and so we are trying to get our date pushed back a week or so. It also helps that Garrett has about 12 scheduled days off of work for spring break, and he would not have to use his sick/personal days to go to Vietnam. He would be able to use these days when we get home.
We have run into some problems lately, that has made this a draining process. There was an error on our I-600 case. We were missing a document, and the US embassy informed our agency of the situation in November of 2007. Our agency did not inform us, so our case sat "untouched" for about 55 days. It was not until we started calling the embassy in Vietnam that we were informed of the problem. Although everyone makes mistakes, this mistakes has cost us an additional month or longer. We are not "mad" at our agency, this experience has just taught us to be very proactive in our own paperwork. We don't take any one's word that things are getting done, we make sure of it!
People ask us all the time, would we do it again? or Will we adopt again? Yes, even with all the exhaustion, emotions, and up's and down's, we would do it again in a heartbeat. It will ALL be worth it in the end! Will we adopt again? I think Claire COMPLETES our family. I will never say never, but we feel truly blessed with three.
All kinds of families have all kinds of experiences, but this is ours. Adoption is truly a roller coaster of emotions. All we can say about that is, keep your eye on the prize. Trust me, we have to remind ourselves of that everyday. After all this waiting is over, what a gift we will have.