Still in a holding pattern for take-off here...

I am a member of a Yahoo Group that includes other families (9 of them) who are also going to be adopting from baby Brian's orphanage. Like me, they have all received pictures of their new son or daughter. They are all in some process of this adoption cycle. I heard once that an elephant's gestation period for child birth is 2 years... I know a lot of my listmates from the Yahoo group feel like this wait has been that long! Judy from our group shared this link (below) with all of us showing pictures from the flooding. Amazing. It puts all of our driving desires for our babies in perspective.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Vietnam-Floods/ss/events/wl/110308vietnamfloods/im:/081112/ids_photos_wl/r2723899522.jpg/

We received a message from our agency yesterday letting us know that Bac Ninh has put all filings on hold. They did have a 2 week delay due to flooding, but now the hold is because they want all the remaining families to travel at once to adopt their babies. This will be the last group of potential adoptive parents from the United States to adopt from Bac Ninh orphanage. The international adoption program between US-Viet nam expired on September 1. The orphanage will still be processing adoptions to families in Ireland, but until Viet Nam has specific adoption reforms in place, many countries have halted the program.

I did clarify with my adoption agency and putting the remaining adoptions and the filings on hold does NOT affect me. (Praise the Lord and pass the biscuits!) My I-600 has already been filed. I am just waiting the I-600 approval and travel approval from the USCIS at the Embassy. I am on day 10 - and the average wait lately has been 8-14 days. Anyday now...

However, I am so very empathetic and sad for the other families I know who are waiting to go bring their children home though. We all want to be home by the holidays with our little ones! I know these other families won't be far behind us. But it is just a bit maddening to be in the dark about the timeline, what is happening and when the next phase will occur.

So, while we wait, life goes on joyfully. Jordan had a playgroup ice cream gathering last night, and it is just horrible to have to eat ice cream sundaes while the girls play, hehe. I have almost finished Christmas shopping and will be decorating the house for Christmas this weekend. I am usually an early decorator, but even this will top my decorating timeline record! I might even go get my free Kroger Preferred Card turkey and fix a pre-thanksgiving meal tomorrow. I am hoping to be giving thanks from the other side of the International Date Line on Thanksgiving Day!