*People do What?!

Yesterday marked the first day of Keith's one week vacation. It's not really going to feel like a vacation because he has a house project to complete, some Christmas gifts to help me make, a project for work to finish..... but hopefully we can have a day or two together as a family to enjoy.

The other day I surprised myself. When the phone rang I jumped up and immediately hoped it would be our agency. It has officially started - and way too early. We're supposed to have at least another 10 months before they said we could expect a referral. I guess it is good that my heart is hopeful it can happen before that, but it is going to make every time the phone rings a little more disappointing!

I have read some blogs lately of families who got their referrals very quickly. They were decorating the rooms, buying the baby supplies, and getting their shots to travel when they were still finishing up their paperwork. One of these families was with one of the agencies that has been suspected for unethical stuff (poetically put!), but I did find myself getting a little jealous. They only had to wait 3 months, and then one month to travel. That would put us at getting a referral in a few weeks. But, thankfully I know that our agency is doing all they can to do things right, and that is why they are not guaranteeing short wait times.

Another blogger that I have really enjoyed following adopted a child from Vietnam years ago. After having their child home for several years, they discovered that the person who arranged their adoption was arrested for bad adoption stuff (poetic again). She said it was heartbreaking to even have the thought that the birth mother had not wanted to give her child up. And that will be so devastating for her child when they learn about it as they grow up.

Apparently it is also a practice in some areas of Vietnam, with the help of some bad people, to refer a family a healthy child, and then switch the healthy baby for an unhealthy baby when the family arrives to pick them up. Medical records from Vietnam will show the baby is Hep B negative for example, and then when the baby comes home, gets very sick, and is tested again, the baby is positive. This can be bad testing in Vietnam, but it has happened many times, and in a few cases, the a child of a different gender is even switched out for the healthy one!!!

Please pray that the situation will improve in Vietnam. I know officials are working to clean things up, and more reorganization is taking place currently to have more people monitoring individual provinces.

You in the adoption world that are more educated in these things than me, please don't use me as a source. I have not done a lot of research, but have read several blogs that have addressed these issues. I want to share what I am learning with family and friends.