Lilypie Waiting to Adopt tickers

Monday, October 29, 2007

Fishy



This is another one of my favorite hats. For some reason this one makes me smile every time. I have made several intended for our baby, but someone else always wants it. I think the next one I make will go in our baby's closet and wait for him to come home. And talk about closets... Oh, my! This boy has quite a wardrobe. I will try to post pictures later. The strongest comfort to combat "Adoption Anxiety" seems to be Baby shopping. I guess that is wonderful for the stockholders of Gymboree.

Now for the adoption update. There isn't a whole lot of news. We did move up a spot on the waiting list last month. Our agency had a referral of a beautiful baby boy.. Congratulations to E and her family. There are several other families who are very close to getting their exciting news. We are waiting on the edge of our chairs right along with them.

As is pretty much the standard in International Adoption, there have been more process changes. The USCIS department has made a change to the I-600 approval process. The I-600 document is a request to classify an orphan as an immediate relative. Early in the adoption, parents request a pre-approval ( I-600A ). It is at that time that the family is "checked out". (fingerprints, home study...) After their child is identified, families file the actual I-600 request. In this process the child is "checked out". The child's paperwork is reviewed to insure that he/she is truly an orphan and eligible for adoption according to US law.

Previously, the I-600 was filed while the family was in Vietnam after the was adopted. This posed numerous issues when there was a question about a child's status as an orphan. In these cases, the family would have already adopted the child under Vietnam Law, but the US would not recognize the adoption or allow the baby into the country. Now, as horrible as this sounds, it is not something that occurs frequently. The US has now chosen to take steps in favor of insuring ethical adoptions. The I-600 will now be filed right after the referral. This way, the family will not even travel until the US has had time to investigate the paperwork and verify the child is eligible for adoption.

This should not affect us greatly except to shorten our trip a few days. But, it should help to weed out agencies who are not acting in the best interests of children. Unfortunately, the combination of families desparate for a child and families living in poverty combine to make conditions ripe for corruption. Luckily, our agency goes to great lengths to work in a transparent and ethical manner.

So, that's pretty much all the news on that. At last estimate our coordinator thought that we might expect a referral 12 - 15 months from when we turned in our Dossier. That would put us in a April - July time frame. There's always the possibility things could move a little faster... but that isn't something we are expecting.
A.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I LOVE that hat. How much????

S. said...

That is an adorable hat! you are so talented! I am still keeping my fingers crossed that things pick up for you!

Anonymous said...

Such a cute hat. I showed a lady I work with and she wanted to know where you find your patterns at.

Sarah said...

I love your latest creation. It's my favorite thus far.

Jacqueline Miller said...

Hi,

I am very interested in finding the pattern for your cupcake hat and the ladybug beret hat. Would you be kind enough to provide me with that information? The hats are adorable. You are very talented. Thank you.

Unknown said...

I love the hat! Too cute!