Dear Friends and Family, June of 2006
Many of you have heard that we are in process of adopting again. You may have questions, and we welcome those questions. We thought a letter would cover a few of the basics. The exciting news is that our future children will be found in Vietnam! (Yes, I did type children.) We are hoping for a toddler boy and infant girl.

Why Vietnam and not Korea? We love Korea and respect our agency, Family Adoption Consultants. Within the last year the Korean government isn’t issuing as many passports. Families are waiting 9 months after receiving a referral for their child to come home. We only waited 3 months and a week for Ellayna after receiving her referral, and that was agonizing.

Earlier this year, I started researching countries all over the globe. We were again drawn to the Asian countries, and I soon found out that Vietnam had reopened their adoption program after a 2 1/2 year shut down. Throughout this whole process, I was praying for guidance. I feel very certain that God knows our children, and that they are in Vietnam.

Korea and Vietnam are very different countries in many ways.
Korea is a democratic country that is more on parallel to the US. Babies are given up for adoption primarily due to the culturally embedded stigma of unwed motherhood. After beginning life in an orphanage that looks like a US hospital nursery, Korean babies are sent to live with foster families. The Korean medical system is on par with the United States, and the babies are well cared for. Korea also recognizes and accepts an American home study, which eliminates additional paperwork.

Vietnam obviously is a communist country and is still extremely poor. The annual average income is $360. The lucky orphans live in orphanages while the others live on the street. In Vietnam, women give up their children at birth for a number of reasons including poverty, the stigma of being an unwed mother, and other circumstances. The orphanages are what you think it would be like in an impoverished country. I’ve spoken with a few families who have recently returned with their children from Vietnam. The caregivers love the children and the orphanages are kept clean, but the resources are limited. Things that we take for granted like diapers and wipes do not exist in Vietnam orphanages. Many orphanages depend on humanitarian relief organizations to supplement what the government issues them.

Who is VORF ?
VORF, Vietnamese Orphans Relief Fund is a non-profit adoption agency located in Cleveland. It was started by a group of adopted parents for the purpose of doing humanitarian work in Vietnam.
http://www.vorf.org/ One reason we choose VORF was based on their knowledge, but also of the focus of helping all the orphans, not just the ones lucky enough to find a family.

How long will the process take? Currently no one knows exactly how long everything will take under the new system in Vietnam. There are educated guesses. When we are paper ready, a referral (picture and info on baby/child) could come immediately or 3 months later. After accepting the referrals, travel could happen 3 weeks later or 3 months later. I am hoping that sometime within the first half of 2007 to be traveling to Vietnam to meet and bring home our babies!

When will you be paper ready? There are 3 components to the Vietnam Adoption Process.

1. International Adoption Homestudy: We found out that we could do a home study update, which had to be completed within 2 years from our last home study. We had 13 days to get everything completed, including all the clearances. Only with God’s intervention did all this get completed and cleared in 8 working days! Within that time, we completed a 3 hour CPR course, state level fingerprints, child abuse clearances, driving abstracts, physicals for all 4 of us, fire inspected, letters of references, home visit with social worker, and a stack of paperwork.
2. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services- In order to adopt a child from a foreign country, adoptive parents must file and receive approval form the USCIS or INS. We are fingerprinted in Cleveland on June 29 (2 years ago we received Ellayna’s referral on this date!) and once our home study is turned in, we WAIT. Approval could take up to 7 weeks.
3. The Vietnam Dossier- A dossier is a collection of documents that have been properly authenticated to meet the legal requirements for adoption in Vietnam as well as to meet the immigration requirements of the US government. All documents must go through an authentication process to be accepted as official documents in a foreign country. Each document must be notarized, then county certified, and then state certified, and then sent to the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington DC to be authenticated. We will do everything double, since we are requesting two children.

When all our documents are completed and we have USCIS approval, we are eligible for our referrals!!!!!!!! Translation: Jumping every time the phone rings! (We could have a 3-month plus wait.)

After we are matched with our children, VORF will send our dossier to Vietnam where it will be translated, and then logged in at the Department of International Adoptions in Hanoi. Then we wait for the travel call!!!! Translation: Have your bags semi packed. Call could come with in 3 weeks to 3 months, with just a week notice for travel. Jump every time the phone rings, again!

Travel ??? At least one parent must travel to Vietnam. If both parents travel, the adoption will be finalized in Vietnam. Matt and I both plan to travel with an estimated time of 2-3 weeks in country. VORF staff members will be accompanying us for the full time in Vietnam.

Who is GT Le ? GT and his wife, Joann, will guide and direct us through the adoption process in Vietnam. GT personally, oversees all adoption and humanitarian efforts in Vietnam for VORF. Mr. Le is a Vietnamese American who lives in California with his wife and children. He holds a degree in engineering and speaks fluent Vietnamese and French. We have already met GT and his wife.

Please Pray --- We have so many prayer requests.
Pray for the health, safety and care for our children in Vietnam.
Pray for our children’s birth families as they agonize over not being able to raise their own children.
Pray that both governments and individuals involved in the adoption process do their jobs correctly and efficiently.
Pray for us as we prepare for travel, even now with immunizations.
Pray for patience.
Pray for us to be prepared spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially to become a family of six.
Pray for more of the world’s orphans to find homes.

Help Spread the News
Help spread the news about adoption. Please, talk to people you work with, people in your church, your neighbors and friends and family. Tell them our story. You could have a part in helping a child find a home. This happened in our last adoption. The couple that I met through a friend’s relative now is starting their second adoption from Korea. There is such a great need worldwide for loving parents.

With love, Matt and Sarah, Wyatt and Ellayna

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not onto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” -Proverbs 3:5-6

"He took a child and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.” -Mark 9:36-37

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
-James 1:27

If you plan for a year, plant wheat.
If you plan for a decade, plant trees.
If you plan for the future, plant children.-Asian Proverb