Program Updates

December 7, 2007

Families Begin Receiving 1-600 Approvals!

Children’s Hope is delighted to report new referrals! This week a family received a referral for a 2-year-old girl from the Go Vap orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. Two referrals were received the week prior: a 4½-year-old girl from Tam Binh 2 orphanage and a 2½-year-old boy from the Go Vap orphanage, both in Ho Chi Minh City. And in mid-November, Children’s Hope received the referral of a 6-week-old boy, born with a cleft lip/palate, from the Kien Giang province. Congratulations to these families and this great news of Thanksgiving!

More referrals are to come, but they may not be received before the New Year. Some children recently came into the orphanage and will need to have medicals completed before we will receive their referral information. With this in mind, we look forward to the New Year!

Travel: We were blessed with seven of our families receiving their I-600 approvals this week. Three of these families traveled to Vietnam on December 6, two more will travel on December 11, and the two remaining families will travel once they receive their Giving & Receiving dates from Vietnam. The I-600 approval for these families took anywhere from 2 ½ to 3 weeks to obtain, within the US estimation for approval.

Our four families traveling in Vietnam in mid-November finalized their adoptions a little earlier than anticipated and were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families in the US (one family decided to stay on their own and keep their original tickets). 

Anticipated Vietnam Adoptions Completed in 2007: Seventy-eight adoptions have been completed through the month of November for 2007. Last year was a banner year for the Vietnam program, completing 60 adoptions in 2006. With families traveling before the end of the year, Children’s Hope will have completed over 80 adoptions in 2007. It has been one busy year! This is fantastic and we are so thrilled for all the children that have been united with their loving families this year. Congratulations to our families! 

News: Maura Harty was in Vietnam last week to visit with Vietnamese officials to discuss the re-signing of the Memorandum of Understanding agreement between the US and Vietnam. Her full interview with a Vietnamese television station can be read online, here: http://vietnam.usembassy.gov/harty113007.html.

 

November 15, 2007

Eleven Families Especially Thankful This Thanksgiving

Referrals: In the past month, the Vietnam Team received eight referrals for Children’s Hope families. In the first week of November, two families received their first photos and medical updates on their child, one family for a referral of a 3 ½-month-old boy from Phu My orphanage and the second for a 2-year-old boy from Tam Binh 1 orphanage, both in Ho Chi Minh City. The families waited 15 months and 12 ½ months for their referrals.

Children’s Hope referrals in October included a brother and sister, 10- and 8-years old, a 3-year-old boy from Tam Binh 1 (this family waited 4 months for their referral), and two infant girls, just 3-weeks and 6-weeks-old from the Kien Giang province (both families waited 16 ½ months for their referral). Three waiting children were matched with their forever families—a 1 ½-years-old boy from the Phu My orphanage, a 2.5-month-old girl from Picasso, and a 3-months-old boy from Kien Giang. A big congratulation to all of our families!

Traveling: Seven Children’s Hope families traveled to Vietnam in late October and have now all returned home after completing their Vietnam adoptions. Four more families traveled to Vietnam last Friday and completed their Giving & Receiving ceremonies on November 13. Congratulations to all of these united families and welcome home!

Watch the Traveling Families Blogroll on the Children’s Hope blog to encourage families during the excitement of their travel and meeting their children and also when they return home!
www.childrenshopeint.blogspot.com

 

October 15, 2007

Celebrations: Both in Vietnam and in the States

Twenty-seven families welcomed our in country representative Thuy and a Vietnam delegation in St. Louis October 4. Each family came with a great spirit to meet and visit with several instrumental officials who made their Vietnam adoptions possible.

"Thank you for giving these children a better and happier life, with your love and your care," Le Thanh Tam, the Director of DOLISA, greeted the families.

From St. Louis the group traveled to New York City for the weekend with a reception on Saturday afternoon, before concluding their trip in Los Angeles and flying home to Vietnam.

Referrals: Eleven Children's Hope families adopting from Vietnam received referrals in the past month. Just last week Children's Hope received four referrals: two for healthy infant boys, 4 -months-old and 2 -months-old from the Go Vap orphanage in Ho Cho Minh City and the Kien Giang orphanage; and two waiting children, one boy and one girl. On September 20, three healthy referrals were received for a 3-month-old infant female, a 4 -year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, and two waiting children. On September 28, two additional healthy infant girl referrals were presented to families. These two girls are both from the Vinh Long province; one is 4-months-old and the other is 5-weeks-old. Congratulations to all the happy families!! We are so thrilled for all of you.

Traveling: Seven families returned home after completing their Vietnam adoptions in early October. Children's Hope received travel dates for seven more families, all of which will travel in late October for Giving and Receiving ceremonies on either October 22 or October 25.

Children's Hope is now working with a new orphanage in Ho Cho Minh City, Mam Non 6 or Phu My orphanage. This orphanage is very large and cares for approximately 400 children. Ninety percent of these children are either mentally or physically handicapped. One third of the children are older and also handicapped. This orphanage employs exceptional doctors and physical therapists. Children's Hope is not the only agency working with Phu My, as there are agencies from all countries working there. This is one of several orphanages in which Children's Hope is developing programs. We hope in the future to add even more orphanages.

 

September 15, 2007

Wait Times Increase with Applications on the Rise for Vietnam

The wait time to adopt a boy from Vietnam is continuing to increase slowly, as applications continue to rise. New applicants should expect to wait 18-24 months for their referral. For those currently in the process for their adoption, families are being matched for infant boys within 13 months; this wait will gradually increase. The wait for a girl continues to be 2+ years. Please remember these wait times are predictions and current patterns may change at any time.

Children’s Hope currently has three families in Vietnam, just as three families arrived home in the second week of September. Congratulations to these newly united families! Seven families received news of their travel dates this week and are set to travel to finalize their Vietnam adoptions on September 21.

We are also pleased to announce the placement of the 12-year-old girl that was available on the CHIFamily.net waiting child page. Congratulations to the family! There are still 2 sibling boys available on the web site, 14-and 8-years-old! If you are interested in learning more about them please contact Vietnam program director, Nicky Losse.

 

August 31, 2007

Children’s Hope received a healthy 4-month-old male referral for a family today from Kien Giang orphanage! His family waited 13 months for their referral. Congratulations!

There are currently three families in Vietnam traveling; an additional three families will leave next week for their own Giving & Receiving ceremonies in Vietnam which will complete their international adoption.

We are happy to announce that our Children’s Hope representative from Vietnam, Thuy Nyugen, will be visiting the US in October, making stops in St. Louis, New York and Los Angeles. She will be accompanied by Tam Binh 1’s orphanage assistant director and representatives from the Ho Chi Minh City government All three cities will host receptions for this delegation in the perspective cities. Most details to come…

 

August 15, 2007

The Vietnam team is happy to announce three new referrals the first week of August. The first was for a family who adopting a healthy 14-month-old boy and the other referrals were for the Children’s Hope Waiting Child list: 3½-year-old and 4½-year-old boys. We expect to receive more referrals this month. There is a chance for some infant referrals soon but some are still too young to be taken for their medical check-ups.

Three families did receive travel notice on so far for travel at the end of August. We expect to receive more travel dates soon for a few families!

In July, two of the top adoption officials from Vietnam visited Children’s Hope in St. Louis. To read more about their plans for changes in the adoption procedures in Vietnam, link here: http://childrenshopeint.blogspot.com/2007/07/vietnam-delegation-visits-childrens.html

Completed Vietnam Adoptions in July: 12

 

July 20, 2007

Vietnamese Delegation Visits Children's Hope

Children’s Hope families who adopted from Vietnam attended a reception at Children’s Hope for two top adoption officials from Vietnam on July 19. Dr. Vu Duc Long, the Director of DIA (Department of International Adoption) and Mr. Dang Minh Dao, legal expert for the DIA, made Children’s Hope their first stop in a visit to the United States. The 25 families showed off their children adopted from Vietnam and heard the two men speak glowingly about the Children’s Hope Vietnam adoption program.

Friday, the Children’s Hope development /sponsorship team met with the delegation to explain current and projected development aid projects in Vietnam in addition to working at establishing a strong orphan sponsorship program.

Although Children’s Hope was their first stop while in the United States, Dr. Long and Mr. Dao, will visit one other adoption agency before meeting with adoption officials in Washington D.C.

Referrals: Due to their visit to the US, families waiting to travel could be affected while the Vietnamese delegation travels. They are set to return in early August.

Two families received referrals in mid-July, one for a healthy infant boy from Vinh Long orphanage that is 6-weeks-old and, the second, for a 3 ½-year-old female waiting child from GoVap orphanage in HCMC. Congratulations to all the new parents!

Four families are traveling in Vietnam currently to complete their Vietnam adoptions. Two of the families have travel journals.

The Paulsen family travel blog: www.lennahabigailpaulsen.blogspot.com

The Crow family travel blog: http://www.vietnamjolea.blogspot.com.

Please feel free to follow along with them as they take their wonderful journey to Vietnam.

These traveling families waited 2 months, 3 months and 7 months from referral to travel. As you can see the wait times for travel approval really vary. Those families adopting healthy children with no special needs are still waiting approximately 4-5 months to travel.

One additional family will travel in the beginning of August, hopefully with more families joining them.

 

May 31, 2007

Referrals: In the last two weeks, Children’s Hope shared in the happy news of three healthy referrals and the placement of two waiting children. The referrals were for a 13-month-old male, a 3-month-old infant girl, and a 4-year-old boy—all from the TB1 orphanage in HCMC. We placed two waiting children—a 20-month-old boy and a 17-month-old girl, both also from the TB1 orphanage.

A new waiting child has been placed on the waiting children website on CHI FamilyNet; he is an adorable 3-year-old boy. For more information on this boy or any of the waiting children, please contact your adoption coordinator.

Traveling: Ten families traveled during the month of May to finalize their international adoption in Vietnam. Children’s Hope also received one family’s travel approval. Five families are currently in Vietnam adopting from Vinh Long province and TB1 and TB2 orphanages in HCMC. For those readers addicted to family travel journals, two current families have public travel journals on the Journey to Me site: Journey to Grace Willow Flanagan and Journey to Jadon Vo Phuong Hale.

The Vietnam Program does expect to receive more travel approvals for more families to travel through June. For 2007 thus far, 35 children have come home to their forever families! Congratulations to all the new families!
 

May 09, 2007

Seven Families will Celebrate Mother’s Day in Vietnam

The first week of May was Mother’s Day and Father’s Day all wrapped up in one for seven families who held their child for the first time shortly after arriving in Vietnam. Once their entire Vietnam adoption process is complete, all seven new families will travel home shortly after the official day (Sunday, May 13) set aside to honor moms. 

While that group is jetting home, three more families will be boarding flights to finalize their adoption from Vietnam. The waiting time for these three families was from three-to-five months.

The Children’s Hope Vietnam program had a referral in the early May for a healthy 2-month-old boy from Tam Binh-2 orphanage. His new parents had a 9 ½-month wait for the referral. They will travel in about four-to-five months.

 

April 19, 2007

Referral news!

Children's Hope is happy to announce the referral of a 3-month-old infant boy from GoVap orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City. Congratulations to the family! We do expect more referrals in the next few weeks. Several children are having or have had their medicals and blood tests but we are just waiting on the results.

All families that were traveling in Vietnam are home now with their wonderful children. Seven additional families will leave to complete their adoption from Vietnam the first week in May, with a Giving & Receiving ceremony date of May 4. We do hope to receive more travel approvals for families to travel in May. Currently there are 33 families with referrals waiting to travel to complete their Vietnam adoption, 154 families on the dossier list waiting for a referral and 203 families that have applied to Children's Hope working on their home study and waiting for CIS approval.

If you have any story ideas or would like to see something in the Vietnam E-newsletter please send your ideas/articles and pictures to Pam at Pam@ChildrensHopeInt.org.

 

March 22, 2007

Referrals, travel and more travel!

This week we received two referrals of boys and one new waiting child. The waiting child has already been posted on CHIfamily.net. She is 2 years old and HIV and Hepatitis C positive.  The boys were 15 months and 3 years old respectively and both from HCMC orphanages (TB2 and GoVap). The family referred the 15-month-old waited 7 months; the family referred the 3-year-old, 3 months. Congratulations to the new families!

We also received many travel notices for families to complete their Vietnamese adoptions. One family which waited four months for travel is leaving this weekend with a Giving & Receiving date of March 27. Their child is from Kien Giang orphanage. Two additional families will have their Giving & Receiving date April 2 for their children, currently receiving care from Tam Binh 1 orphanage in HCMC (families waited 4 months). Four families will have their Giving & Receiving date to complete their international adoption on April 6. Each of these children is from one of four different orphanages in the HCMC (families waited 3, 4 and 5 months). We are excited to have so many families traveling to bring their children home. We hope the good news keeps coming!

DIA fee: The dossier submission fee has gone into effect for families submitting their dossiers.  Anyone that submits a dossier after March 15, 2007, will be required to pay the new DIA (Department of International Adoptions) fee of $125. Please submit a check of $125 when you submit your dossier to Children’s Hope. 

Fee reduction: We have implemented a $2000 fee reduction for the four boys on the waiting children list who are all Hepatitis B positive. This reduction is an agency fee reduction to encourage the adoption of these young boys who have been on our waiting child list for some time. We would love to find homes for them. 

E-newsletter: We are currently working on the April E-newsletter. If you have written a family story or would like to, email Pam at Pam@ChildrensHopeInt.org if you are interested in featuring your family/child in our newsletter. Families love to read about your stories! 

Also, if you know of anyone that is not receiving the Vietnam E-newsletter please let us know that as well! Lastly, if you have a referral and are waiting to travel and have a travel journal please let Pam or myself know. With your permission we would like to send the link to all families during your trip to Vietnam as it really helps the other families who are waiting!

 

March 2, 2007

We are starting out March with six families who are flying into Hanoi this week to complete their international adoption. We hope to receive more referrals soon. Currently, 40 families matched with children are waiting to travel. 

February was a great month for Vietnam adoption. In the middle of February, we received two healthy referrals and six waiting children were placed. The healthy referrals were an infant boy and an infant girl (8-months and 6-months), both from Tam Binh 1 orphanage in HCMC. The family adopting the girl waited eleven months; the family adopting the little boy, eight months. A total of 13 orphans were placed in February. Congratulations to all the families who received referrals in February!

One new waiting child, a 2-year-old boy who is Hepatitis B positive, was added to CHIFamily.net last week and may be viewed by approved Children’s Hope families.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!! (Happy New Year)  Children’s Hope families living in the St. Louis area gathered at a Vietnamese restaurant to celebrate the Tet holiday on February 18. Pictures of this and other branch events will be made available in the March E-news. May all of our families have much luck and happiness in the coming year!

 

February 15, 2007

One happy couple was thrilled to share their Valentine’s Day with a third wheel—their Vietnam referral! The family’s referral is for a Vietnam adoption of a 6-month-old girl from the Ho Chi Minh Province. Vietnam has had six referrals so far this month from three different orphanages: Tam Binh1, Picasso in HCMC, and Kien Giang. The five earlier referrals were for three boys and two girls ranging in age from six weeks to two years old. Congratulations to all the families that received referrals!

Our next group traveling to Vietnam will not leave until after the Tet holiday. We have travel dates for six families to travel the week after Tet already and hope to receive more travel dates for families soon. Welcome home to all of our traveling families!

In addition we are very excited to announce several new waiting children. If you are a family with an approved form I-171H, you will be able to view these special children.

 

January 18, 2007

At the beginning of this month, six families learned of their travel approval and scrambled to obtain visas, plane tickets, and pack for HCMC to adopt from various orphanages. Three other families arrived in Vietnam to adopt on January 19. We do not expect any more families to travel before the Tet holiday on February 17, 2007. Congratulations to our traveling families!

We do expect to receive more referrals in the next few weeks, as the children are currently having their medicals and blood tests completed.

The wait time is getting longer for adoption of boys and girls. For girls the wait time is 18-to-24 months and for boys 12-to-15 months. I know everyone is very conscious about the wait and anxious to get referrals as quickly as possible. Please know we are here to support you during the long wait. Once you receive your referral and travel you are in the best hands possible. Our in country staff is the best and our families are not having problems in country like many other agencies are. Please know that the Children’s Hope staff is here for you while you wait!