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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

News

I don't know that I would actually consider this news at this point, and even if I did, I'm not sure whether to consider it good/bad...I guess it's kind of neutral.

We are considering switching adoption agencies. I'm kind of hesitant, as from what I understand there are some shady adoption agencies doing business over there and I have no idea who those agencies are.

We really, really like our agency. They were one of the first agencies to get relicensed in Vietnam back in January. The problem is that they have only had 4 referrals this whole year so far. Supposedly it's supposed to pick up, as they are adding more provinces, but we haven't seen it yet. Added on top of that is that there are already 40 waiting families ahead of us, and we haven't submitted our final paperwork yet. At this rate, if you do the math, it will take us 10 years! Now I am sure that things will pick up, but still it's frustrating.

We talked to a lady from another agency and she says that they have already placed 18 infants, they have 4 families in Vietnam right now, and 7 more will travel in December. She says that they have waiting children and that thier referral wait time is 4-12 weeks, with travel in an additional 4-12 weeks. So that's that....

In other news, We are having a painting party on Saturday. It should be fun and everyone is invited...although I understand if you have other things to do:). At this point, I think it might just be me and David...and Mark if he is awake. We are going to paint the dining room and kitchen. What color, I am unsure. Hopefully the edges turn out better than my other room that I attempted to paint by myself. I am optimistic that they will, as David brought me a nifty little tool that lets you neatly to edges. (Although I'm not sure they had me in mind when they made that claim.)

Fingerprinting and my second section of my exam tomorrow...

That's about it for the night....

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Angel & Mark, my heart goes out to you, all this preparation and now this huge wait-possibly never? Sounds like we need to do some hard praying. What does Karisa (sp) think? I had just been praying for you guys today with exam, fingerprinting and now this. Sounds like you better check into it. About painting, don't know other than taking Leah to school to leave at 3 A.M. Sat. morning for Dominican what we are doing. Will keep that in mind.

Angel said...

I don't think it's possibly never. Probably just longer than we had initially thought. At this other agency people have been getting a referral and bringing the baby home within 3-4 months. So probably we will switch to this agency. The only problem is that it is sooner than we expected, so we re going to sit down tonight to figure out if that gives us enough time to save the money...we might need a few extra months!

And it's ok if you can't make it to paint...we've run into some obstacles surrounding that as well. Mark started to take the rubber baseboard off and since it was glued on it is taking off the front part of the drywall. Not sure how you fix that. (Just the very top paper layer...not the actual drywall.)

Anonymous said...

So if you switch agencies does that mean More paperwork? the wall can be fixed easy enough with dry wall compound.

Angel said...

No extra paperwork...the agency will take care of everything. They will just attach a cover sheet to everything saying that they are the placing agency now...

Anonymous said...

Hellooooooooo from Norton, MA. In case Angel hasn't said anything, turns our that her Aunt & Uncle-in-Law are ALSO going to adopt from Vietnam. How COOL is that? Two babies in the same family adopted from the same foreign country. We're so excited--both for ourselves and for Angel and Mark.

We are definitely NOT paper ready, but ready to get started asap. Angel, would you please give me the contact information for the agency you are considering switching to?

Another question for you--when you say that you have to send in your Passports, does that mean your actual, plysical passport, or a copy of it? I'd hate to give my passport over to anyone at all. I'm going to get a jumpstart on things and get these docs together before we actually need them.

I have TONS of questions, and am so grateful you've offered to help out! Even more I think it's amazing that we can share this process as family members!

Happy Holidays everyone!

XOX,
Dorothy (& Terry [Platt])

Angel said...

For your passport you just have to make a copy of the photo page and have it notarized.

Have you looked into agencies to do your homestudy yet? The social worker has to be licensed in your home state in order to do your homestudy. I will email you tomorrow, but I would suggest getting started on the homestudy asap as that's whats going to hold you up the most. And a lot of things you need for the homestudy you also need for your dossier, so that's nice. For example, you will need a medical physical form for the homestudy and for the dossier. Most homestudy agencies supply their own forms, but normally will accept a copy of the one you need for the dossier to make it easier. And I wouldn't start gathering many documents unless you've started the homestudy. You have to have each document authenticated by the vietnamese consulate or embassy, and they won't authenticate a document that is older than three months, so you may have to send your documents in batches. Then once your dossier is submitted, none of the documents can be older than 6 months.

I hope I am not overwhelming you. Everything seemed so hard when we first started, but it's definitely a lot easier than it looks, just time consuming!

We are way excited that our babies are going to be around the same age and everything!!!