Happy Mother's Day!

Welcome to our adoption blog. We're getting closer all the time to bringing our daughter home. Here's what's happened so far. We officially started the process on February 28, 2007 with our application. It seems that Vietnam changed their application requirements effective March 1, so as of that date you could no longer specify gender. Which meant that since we want a daughter, our application needed to be sent in on February 28. So that started it all.

Then we had a series of 6 weekly meeting with a social worker from the adoption agency to complete the homestudy. Part of the 6 were with both Mark and I, one with each of us individually, a short session with the boys and a home visit. During this time we had documents to gather for the adoption agency in Madison. They gave us the name and phone number of another family in Janesville who is also adopting from Vietnam. They are further in the process than we are, in fact they are going to Vietnam on May 24. I have had numerous phone calls and emails with her. It has been good to talk to someone who has already been through what we are going through. She gave me lots of helpful hints to stay on top of things and make them go smoother.

At the beginning of the process we had to fill out a form I-600A, which is a petition to adopt an orphan, with USCIS, United States Citizenship & Immigration Services. We went to their Milwaukee office to be fingerprinted and once they received a copy of the completed homestudy from our social worker, they issue form I-171H, which gives us a favorable determination to adopt an orphan. We just received this form on Friday, May 11, which was a little earlier than expected. We were planning on having it by the end of May, so it was a pleasant surprise. Now we're waiting for our passports. It's been 2 months since we applied for them. I finally got through to someone there yesterday and after explaining our situation, she was going to send a fax to their New Orleans office (that is where our passports are) saying we need them by May 18. She was so helpful.

Referrals continue to come in quickly. I'm hoping that is still the case when we get to that point. Our best estimate is that we will be going to Vietnam in September. But it could be earlier if things continue to go smoothly.