Stand clear of the closing doors

The Vietnam program is officially closed as of Sept 1, 2008. From our Vietnam adoption coordinator: "The current agreement was NOT re-signed before March 1st. Although negotiations between the Department of State and the Department of Intercountry Adoption in Hanoi have continued, they were not able to come to an agreement. This means that the current bilateral agreement will expire as of September 1st...because the agreement was not re-signed there WILL be an interruption in adoptions from Vietnam beginning on September 1st, although we don’t know yet what that will look like. The only possible exception to this would be if the two sides sign a new agreement between now and September 1st that goes into effect on September 1st. We have confirmed that the Department of State has already urged DIA to make a determination as quickly as possible regarding the status of families whose dossiers are in Vietnam or who have accepted a referral and are awaiting a Giving & Receiving date (the official adoption ceremony). In addition, they are advocating that families currently in process be allowed to continue their adoptions after September 1st. We will continue to monitor the process and to advocate with DIA to issue their decision as quickly as possible. We anticipate that it may be several months before we have their final decision but we hope that it will happen sooner. Because we have been hearing conflicting information about what their decision will be, we are not comfortable making a prediction."

Our estimated travel date should put us over there before Sept 1. I hope and pray that if our case does drag out past the Sept 1 deadline, they will allow us to finalize the adoption since our case will be so close to completion. This is not only a major disappointment to the parents waiting for children, but also for the children that are waiting for a family. Hopefully we can slip onto the subway just as the doors are closing and bring Gianna home.