Finally, we’re on the last step of the series of posts detailing each step of the Viet Nam adoption process. Of course, this isn’t really the end. Adoption education for us as parents, and for our children needs to continue and post placement reports only mark the end of the process in terms of paperwork and working with outside agencies.

When you adopt a child from Viet Nam, you agree to send post placement reports to Viet Nam for eighteen years to let them know how your child is doing in their new home and with their new family. Viet Nam requires only one post placement... more

We are continuing on with posts detailing the steps in the Viet Nam adoption process. Once your child has been adopted and you’re settling in to life at home, you will move on to the step dealing with the post placement medical exam. Shortly after coming home with your new child, you will need to take them for a complete medical exam with their new pediatrician. It’s a really good idea to find a doctor before you leave, so you can just call and make the appointment once you’re home. There are many pediatricians who now specialize in international adoption, but that doesn’t mean that’s who you need to, or should, go to. Any physician who you are comfortable with and is good with your child... more

We’re going through the steps in an adoption from Viet Nam, and now that you have traveled home, you’re onto the step of adjusting to life at home with your new child. It is a surreal and amazing experience to leave Viet Nam and step back into your life pre-child. Some family members and friends may expect you to be “back to normal” right away, but it will likely take a period of adjustment to get used to being a family in your home environment. Being in Viet Nam, with the house keeping, restaurants, laundry service and nothing to do but dote on your new cutie gets quiet addictive and it can be hard to... more

Now that you have had your Giving and Receiving Ceremony and have spent a couple of weeks in Viet Nam, your child’s visa will be issued and you will all be free to fly home! Traveling home with an infant, toddler or child will be a unique experience, and has the potential to be lovely and shockingly easy or so horrid and difficult that you will wonder how you can arrange it to just stay in Viet Nam.

Now that your hands will be occupied with a child and all their paraphernalia, try to check as much luggage as possible. It’s very easy to buy luggage in Hanoi if you need more space.... more

After the Giving and Receiving ceremony, your son or daughter is now officially adopted and your child in all contexts of the Vietnamese law. Your life together as a family will begin in Viet Nam, and the time you spend in country will be an extremely memorable experience. Hopefully your adoption agency will take care of all the paperwork and appointments necessary for you all to be able to come home, and you can spend your time bonding and getting to know each other.

If possible, try... more

In continuing on with our detailed posts about each step in the Vietnamese adoption process, we’re now on to the Giving and Receiving. The Giving and Receiving ceremony is one of my favorite aspects of Vietnamese adoptions. It is essentially the giving of a child to their new family. The Giving and Receiving, or G&R as it is often called, is when your child legally becomes your child in the eyes of the Vietnamese government. You will walk away from your G&R ceremony with your child who is now officially adopted.

Giving and Receiving ceremonies vary... more

The next step in the Viet Nam adoption process is traveling to Viet Nam to adopt your child. Boarding the plane that will ultimately bring you to your child is an amazing experience. But once that euphoria wares off and you have over a dozen hours left in the air, the travel can be a bit grueling, but it doesn’t have to be. Your positive or negative experience will have a lot to do with your airline carrier and the amenities provided to you.

We flew on Thai Air and it was a good trip, for the most part. The one negative was that my husband and I were seated in the middle of a middle row, so to... more

This post is continuing on with our series of Steps in the Viet Nam Adoption Process.

Most adoptive parents share the sentiment that the wait from referral to travel is the hardest part of the entire adoption process. Now that the I600 petition submission policies have changed and that wait time has been extended, there will be many families trying to positively bide their time when they’re feeling completely impatient and fed up inside.

I wish I had some magic secret that I could share that would make this wait easier, but no such thing exists. If it does, someone really needs to share it with all of us here! What helped me was reminding myself that the wait was a means to... more

The links that follow this post outline the steps in the Viet Nam adoption process up to this one; and this one is a BIG one! Getting your referral is an amazing, surreal experience that can have a variety of emotional impacts on one’s life.

Things have changed recently in Viet Nam adoptions and child-family matches are now being made by Vietnamese officials instead of the American adoption agencies. Once your paperwork has been processed and approved by the seemingly trillions of people who will pass it along, you will be matched with a child who fits the criteria of child... more

After you have completed steps one through five (see below for links) in the Viet Nam adoption process, you will begin to compile your dossier. Most adoption agencies will advise you to hold off on collecting documents for your dossier as many have expiration dates. Getting documents too early could force you to start over again on them if they do expire; this causes much more of a headache and financial strain than you need this far into the process.

A dossier is the set of documents that will be sent to Viet Nam and essentially be your family’s file for your adoption in country.... more