why is it taking so long?

When we decided to adopt from Vietnam last September, adoptions were fairly quick. It was only taking approximately two months from a log in date to receiving a referral, then only another two months or so before travel.

Since November, this process has slowed down tremendously. The U.S. government is investigating each case and denying some adoptions if they can't get the information they need to believe the baby is a true orphan (according to the U.S. immigration department's definition of an orphan). If there is no approval, the family goes through the referral process again. There are many families who received their referrals in December that are still awaiting approval to travel.

We learned this week that four families from our agency did receive their approval to travel. This is great news, but there are many more waiting!
When we started this process, we thought we'd have our referral by now and would be planning our trip soon. Now it looks like a summer or fall trip to pick up Baby Wieds is more realistic.