We have I-600 approval!

When we did our I-600 interview last week on October 31, we were told it would take 4-6 business days to get it approved. When we called on Monday to check on the status, the embassy said it may be at least another week, because of a backlog in the CIS office. Needless to say, we were not excited of the potential that we would have to delay our homecoming, but took it in stride and emailed our travel agent with the news.

After checking on the I-600, we hung out in Hanoi and let the girls take it easy. The trip was tough on the girls’ schedules so Monday was a good recovery day. M went shopping during nap time. The girls made out well.

On Tuesday, we went to the Temple of Literature, which is the oldest university in Vietnam. It was founded by four of the original students of Confucius. It was a beautiful setting with ponds filled with water lilies. We took a cab ride over which cost us 30,000 dong (about $1.75). The cab ride over was an adventure. The cars in Vietnam all honk their horns when they pass another car. The cab honked its horn as it passed a car trying to pull away from the curb. The car came out and they brushed fenders. Our cab driver said something, that we are sure was unkind, but kept driving. The other driver just pulled out. The ride back was eventful in a different way. Although the cab was metered, the meter was spinning like a Las Vegas slot machine. By the time we reached our hotel the meter was at 85,000 dong, almost three times the fare over. P was livid. He was not going to pay it, so he gave the driver 30,000 dong and started to walk away. The driver explained it was a different route. P said the driver chose the route just to increase the fare. P gave the driver an additional 2000 dong (12 cents) and said that was it. The driver left, I am sure not very happy. The moral to the story is stick with the Hanoi Taxi company. Their fares are reasonable and always consistent.

On Wednesday, we started the day straightening up the room before we left. We had not seen the remote control for the TV for a couple of days, so finding that was part of the goal. We looked and looked, until we finally found it in the freezer compartment of our refrigerator. I guess the girls thought it needed to stay fresh. After breakfast, we spent the morning in a different part of the Old Quarter. We went over to the travel agent to pay for our hotel stay and then decided to walk back to the hotel. Along the way was the prison where U.S. prisoners of war were kept which was nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton. When we got there, they were closing for lunch, maybe tomorrow. We walked back to the lake. I went shopping and P and T room the girls back for their naps. The girls were great until they got back to the room. Then it was a tag team on who wanted to be cranky, happy, or just refusing to sleep. By about 3:00 P received a call from Thuy, a woman who works for a different agency, but was helping when we first got to Hanoi. She said the I-600 was approved and we had to go immediately to the embassy and drop off the visa paperwork for the girls. She said she would be at the hotel in 5 minutes. P woke Lily up and convinced Sophie that it was O.K. to go. He grabbed the paperwork and filled his pockets with goldfish crackers, dum dum suckers and the crackers the girls like. Thuy had a cab downstairs. She put P in the cab with the girls and said her assistant, Hao, would meet him at the embassy. Hao met P at the embassy and first took him to a photo place because they thought they needed more photos, but they later found out they did not. After the trip to the photo shop, they went to the embassy and turned in all the visa paperwork. The appointment is set for 2:00 on Thursday. When we got back, P called Hein to tell him of the developments and also ask that Hein accompany them to the appointment. It would be good to have an employee of our adoption agency with us. The girls had a long, long day and everyone was very tired by the time P got back with the girls. We had supper in the room. P slipped out with T to go to the French bakery on the corner and get some sandwiches. After supper it was bath time. The girls love their baths and getting lotion rubbed on before bed. It was all splashing and giggles. Another thing the girls love to do is brush their teeth. They ask to do this and are good at brushing all by themselves. The girls allowed P to finish up the brushing just to make sure they didn’t miss a spot. The girls are very accustomed to brushing their teeth. The night we stayed in Phan Thiet with the nanny I got to observe the bathing and teeth brushing ritual. All done by the nanny, but I’m sure they have done this many times before. I think this has helped to the easy transition to bathing and teeth brushing.

So why did it take us only 5 days to get I 600 approval? On Monday, the embassy told us there were some people waiting over 2 weeks for approval. My personal opinion is that we have an ethical agency because of the Hue, the program director. Our agency has had fewer referrals than other agencies and longer waiting periods for a referral, but I know that I will be able to look my girls in the eyes one day and say your adoption was ethical. No bribes were paid, no moving children from province to province to hide the identity of the children and where they came from, children are not warehoused in holding centers then sent to feeding centers to add weight before G&R, children are not bought in China and brought over the border to be sold to the highest bidder to unethical agencies. Our agency has had no NOIDs (notice of intent to deny an I-600) and I don’t foresee this in the future. The paperwork is clean and the embassy knows this. The orphanages are in good condition with 2 to 3 kids per nanny and the kids are in general healthy. It is very rare to see lice or scabies in our agency’s orphanages. Another reason for our paperwork going so smoothly is that we are adopting older children who have been in the orphanage for years. As I recall, the youngest referral coming out of our agency is at least 6 months old much older than the very young infants coming out of some provinces with less ethical agencies who are getting NOIDs. The embassy takes all this into consideration when giving approval. If your paperwork is in order and you work with an ethical agency you should not have a problem. I realize this is not what some of you want to hear but it is the truth whether you like it or not. So check your agency before you sign with them. The quickest, youngest referral maybe more trouble than what it appears to be.