Celebrity Power

Well, it has been reported that Angelina Jolie is in Vietnam finalizing her adoption. I guess the estimate of three months was really more like...well...three weeks...see International Herald article.

The adoption list serves are buzzing, because there are many families (including families that have asked for toddlers) that have been waiting longer.

I have made a conscious decision not to get upset over the clear advantages associated with fame and money. I really think that Angelina is certainly doing great things in the international community...lots of people with fame and money do not do half as much. Also, it is great that she has chosen to grow her family through adoption. So, as long as all is ethical (and I do not think that there are any reasons to assume otherwise)...best wishes to her and her new child!

The Sneetches

My parents (future grandparents) came into town this weekend. We had a good time shopping, and we bought a couple of new items for the nursery. One is a white chest of drawers that seemed very inexpensive, but we found out that that was because it was more of a kit than a piece of furniture...all assembly required. It was a huge box of many many pieces that Nate and Dad put together for us. It turned out great! I added some drawer pulls in the shape of green stars. So, I think that we are finished buying nursery furniture!

In addition, my parents also bought us an original framed Dr. Seuss print for the nursery (it is 119/1500 of "Star Belly Friends"). We love it! You can see a picture of it at the Dr. Seuss art website.

In other news, we read that Angelina and Brad had identified a particular toddler to adopt on their trip to Vietnam, and so they are estimating that because a child is alreday identified in their case, that it will only take them about three months to get through the process. So, it will apparently not be comparable to our timeline even though our documents got their around the same time theirs did. (Actually, since they are not married, I read that the the application is in Angelina's name alone.)

Adoption in the News: Angelina and Brad on the Journey to Vietnam as well...

CNN just posted a story that states that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt filed papers to adopt from Vietnam about the same time that we did. See CNN article. It appears that their application arrived in Hanoi this week. Guess we will see how their journey goes (and ...I am really curious about how quickly it goes).

All the celebrity attention has spurred news stories about international adoption. National Public Radio's "Justice Talking" has a radio broadcast on international adoption that you can download at: www.justicetalking.org (it is a pretty interesting overview).

The Wait Has Officially Started...

Well, our dossier is in Vietnam as of 2/26. Our agency tells us that, unlike China, Vietnam does not have a log in date or such a mechanism for tracking the progress of the dossiers once they reach the DIA.

At this point, our agency is predicting the following time frames:
Wait 4 - 8 months for referral (picture and information on the child)...plus...
Wait 4 - 6 months after referral before the child is home.

That means we are looking at hopefully getting a referral sometime in the months between July 2007 and October 2007, and we hope the baby will be home with us between October 2007 and June 2008.

As you can see, time frames are pretty up in the air...hard to plan!