Implosion

Today we received some very disappointing news from Vietnam. I am heartbroken. Here are the low lights:

-Our agency is discontinuing its partnership with one of the orphanages in HCMC. We don't know when this goes into effect. Families with dossiers there will either be matched ASAP or moved to a different orphanage. If these people have been waiting longer than us, and their dossier gets moved to Khanh Hoa, they presumably would have priority over us, which would increase our wait time significantly.

-While other agencies are closing their Vietnam programs, our agency is changing the description for new families to indicate only older children and waiting children are available. This is in response to the fact that there have been so few infant referrals lately and so much competition from other agencies with lower ethical standards.

-Tensions are rising among the US CIS and Vietnamese DIA for many reasons that I won't go into. CIS is cracking down, issuing more NOIDs (Notice of Intent to Deny). A NOID happens when you get over there with baby in arms, then they deny you approval at your exit interview.

-There is a real risk of Vietnam adoptions coming to a halt in March 2008. The bilateral agreement between the US and Vietnam needs to be renewed by March, but there are some points of contention that both sides can't agree on. If it shuts down, there may be little to no warning and all adoptions in process could be suspended.

We have sent some serious questions to our adoption coordinator and are waiting for a reply. There are several items here that put our adoption into significant jeopardy. Best case scenario, we get a referral for an infant in the next few weeks. Even if this happens, there is a real risk the program could shut down before the adoption is complete and we could lose this infant. We could decide to accept an older child, as it seems there are several currently waiting for families, but the same risk remains with the possibility of the program closing. Finally, we could cut our losses now and switch to another country. This would mean a loss of time and money, but in the long run, may have greater success (= a baby). For now, we are just waiting to hear back from our adoption coordinators and will make a decision thereafter.