In November we got the news that we are officially LID, or “logged in dossier!” Having LID is a HUGE deal in international adoption. It is probably the biggest milestone to celebrate while you are in process until you finally get that date that you get to go get your child.
A dossier is the stack of documents required to be sent to the country you are adopting from to show them who you are, and essentially every detail about your life. Ours was somewhere around 70-something pages, I think, possibly more. It includes marriage license, letters from your doctors stating your in good health, financial documents, your homestudy, photos of your family and your home, immigration paperwork, police clearances, and more. It takes months to compile and everything has to be done exactly right and must have multiple certifications. The Department that handles adoptions in that country receives your dossier and then reviews it and either approves or denies your family. The adoption agencies here in the U.S. know the requirements and thoroughly check everything before you even get close to the point of sending a dossier, so it’s not so much a matter of will we get approved or not (although they can reject your dossier, but I’ve never heard of it happening) it’s more of a matter of when will we get our letter of approval back!
Each country has different procedures and steps that go along with their approvals process. For Vietnam, your dossier is received, and if you have already been matched with a child through your agency, then a formal police background clearance check for the child is started. The Police clearance during the adoption process is unique to Vietnam. Many countries had a lot of issues with child trafficking come to light in the early 2000’s and as a result, Vietnam closed their adoption program to the U.S. In the years it was closed they re-designed how the process would work to ensure the children’s needs were put first and that birth families would not be taken advantage of. When the program re-opened, they made it mandatory that when a potential family requested to be matched with a child, another background check would be done, with the real intent being to find the birth mother and make sure that she understands that she is signing away her parental rights and that she understands that the child will not be returning to her. There were many cases where birth mothers gave up their children not understanding that this was permanent and this gives them the chance to be reunited with their child if they desire to.
From what I understand, if the child was abandoned (found somewhere with no information regarding birth parents), then advertisements are put in the paper and due diligence is done to find the birth parents, but after a certain amount of time (which can be very, very long) the police check is closed and the process moves on. If the child was given up, and a birth parent is known, then they work to locate the birth family for how ever long that takes. The birth parent can then decide to sign the paper forfeiting their rights or can choose to get their child back. If they choose to get their child back, then their child would return to them and their family would be reunited. If they sign the paper, then there is a 30 day waiting period in case they change their mind, and if that time passes, then the adoption process can move on. 
Once the police clearance is complete, the dossier is reviewed and as long as nothing went wrong, a Letter of Approval is issued! Because the background check can be very quick (birth parents are located quickly and sign the paper right away) or very slow (birth parents cannot be found, police look for 12months+), it is impossible to know, or even guess, when you will get your Letter of Approval (LOA). The dossiers submitted from the U.S. to Vietnam this year (2018) that we know about all got their Letters of Approval back within 5 months, with the exception of one family who is still waiting. If we follow the average timeline for the 2018 families, we are already 1/3rd of the way through our wait for LOA, which is exciting and terrifying all at once! It seemed like the beginning of our adoption process took so long, and if we do hear back quickly, then it will feel like the end part of our adoption process is flying! I lie in bed most nights just wondering what it will be like seeing him for the first time, meeting his nannies, and just the all-around experience of being in Vietnam and getting our son. The magnitude of this big event for our family and for our little boy is not lost on me, nor is the great amounts of loss that have happened and will happen in order for our little boy to become ours. Adoption is beautiful, but it is hard. I have prayed many times for his birth mother as we go into this police clearance knowing that what might have been a very painful time in her life is all being brought back up and she has a very hard decision to make. 
We are all anxious to turn this family of 3 boys into a family of 4 boys!
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