Early Morning Meeting

This morning, we met with our new social worker to discuss our 171-H renewal, changing to Ethiopia and home study update. Our 171-H needs to be renewed this fall and we can renew it up to 90 days before, but the orphan officer has recently changed at our local USCIS office and many families who are changing countries and then trying for a free renewal of their old 171-H are being denied. Therefore, the best option was to stay in the Vietnam program and just updating our home study and getting our free renewal , which will be sent at the very end of July and then once we have received an updated and renewed 171-H, we will then file a change of country form and add an addendum to our homestudy for Ethiopia. This really allows us the best of both worlds, since if by chance Vietnam adoptions do continue we will still be in the Vietnam program and we will be able to just continue with it, but if it turns out that Vietnam will not be continuing adoptions with the United States, we will be already approved for Ethiopia. Since we already have our dossier in Vietnam, we will be able to continue the process to adopt, but at the same time once we have filed for a renewal, it will take some time for it to get through the reapproval process (hopefully, we'll get our approval at about the same time we find out if adoptions and the giving of referrals will continue after September 1st.) In the meantime, we might be able to start getting our paperwork together for an Ethiopian dossier. If we won't be able to continue with Vietnam, then at least we may have somewhat of a headstart when it comes to getting our new dossier ready and hopefully, it won't be very long thereafter until we can send off our dossier to our agency and then Ethiopia. In reality, this is the perfect option; more or less, it is a win-win opportunity. If Vietnam continues, we win in that we have not totally dropped out of the program, but if it closes for certain, we still win because we are ahead of the game on the road to Ethiopia. Not everyone will have this option, but since our immigration paperwork needs renewal and our USCIS office is so finicky about the order of renewals and country changes, it works on our behalf.

Also, since our home study was done in March, another home visit is needed and that is scheduled for Monday June 16th. Only one of us needs to meet with our SW at our home, so since I have a couple floating holidays that I must use up at work, I'll be the one to stay home. Plus it is easier since I work in an office to get a day off, then Kevin who works in a child care environment. They need people to cover and one of his co-workers is getting married around that time, so coverage will be limited and they'll need all the people they can get. Well, I've really babbled on and on, so I'll just end this post until next time.