Some Positive News

As many people have read recently, Vietnamese adoptions are to stop when the current agreement between them and the US expires on Sept 1st. In a nutshell, the US still stands on the idea that there is baby buying, stealing, and trafficking according in the adoption arena. While noone denies that it does occur, most feel is that is still very rare. I have read that there have been about 1200 adoptions to the US in the last year or less and yet there are only a few cases that have been discussed. After the US once again blamed the problems on Vietnam, Vietnam came back and confirmed that adoptions WILL stop with the US in Sept. Vietnamese adoptions to other countries continue to run very smoothly.

There has been much talk in the adoption world about the significance of July 1st and Sept 1st, but until today, I had seen nothing as a direct quote from the governments, especially Vietnam. The US had released a couple of statements, but they often contradicted themselves. This is the side that is the most important since the expiring agreement is what Vietnam needs, not the US.

Today, I was reading a post on Adoption Buzz that quotes a Vietnamese paper, quoting Dr Long, the head of the Vietnam's DIA....

"The Vietnamese side will continue to process applications that it receives before July 1 and meet all requirements. The applications for which no suitable baby is found before the expiration of the agreement on September 1, 2008, will be returned to the US," Long said. (from Vietnam will not renew US child-adoption agreement, Vietnam News, 5/2/2008)

This is a ray of hope for us as our application has been logged into Vietnam's system since Jan 17th (110 days today) and we should hope to see our referral in the near future *fingers crossed*. We are nearing the top of the waiting list, from what we were last told. I know that the process has been slow, but it has been moving and we didn't have too many spots to go and it has been over a month since I was given an idea where we were at the time.

I know that our adoption is at risk since things are SO rocky, but it has been a good moment to see the man in charge quoted on the big issue on everyone's mind. Also, what he says is good for us, in many ways.

Still hoping and praying!!!