What's Next? and Travel Timing

Thank you for your wonderful emails of love and support. It is so encouraging!

I am optimistic about receiving the notice of “official referral” from Vietnam’s Dept of Internal Adoption (DIA). The US and Vietnam officially close for inter-country adoptions on September 1 so if the referral is not received before then, the adoption will not be completed.

There are 1700 families in this queue with me, and the State Department expects that only half will be completed before the deadline. I have full confidence that ours is one of them!

If you want to read the State Department Memo about this and other information relating to Vietnam adoptions, click here:


http://www.travel.state.gov/family/adoption/country/country_4318.html

We have not received an update from Vietnam or new pictures since the original packet on June 20, 2008. I am hopeful that to receive something soon. He is now 3 months, 3 weeks old. I cannot wait to hold him!

After the notification of “official referral” then I’ll have to complete and send a document to the USCIS called an I-600. The USCIS has 60 days to complete the processing. However, most families in the last month have had their I-600s processed in 25-30 days. I’ll also file for our travel visas during the next month.

Travel to Vietnam occurs immediately after the I-600 is approved. So my best guess at the timeline as it relates to our bringing Baby Brian home is:

Receive official referral
Aug 18
File I-600
Aug 22
I-600 Approved
Oct 1
Travel to Vietnam
Oct 10
Home with Baby Brian
Oct 25

There are several families in Vietnam now who have just completed their adoption and are coming home next week. It is awesome to follow their journeys and blogs to know what we can expect. The children are all healthy but most of them have scabies. We’ll take scabies treatment with us and plan on using it for all of us.

Cindy has completed her infectious disease travel shot regime (we’ll finish ours this week) and we have been talking more regularly to plan our trip, packing, and travel ideas. I am getting excited – this new adventure is just around the corner!