Paul Boin

Welcome to our "adoption headquarters."

We've recently begun the process to adopt a little girl from Vietnam. It's an extremely expensive endeavor, but one we've embarked on regardless. (No matter how you cut it, adoption doesn't make financial sense whatsoever -- it's a heart thing.) By the time we have our daughter home, we are likely to have spent $30,000!

If you care to give us a hand, you can use the links below to contribute some money via PayPal. At this point, we can't do much about tax deductions, so whatever you can spare would be a gift. Please think of it as helping to place another child in a loving home, not just helping us financially.

Please refer back to this page often for updates not only on our fund-raising efforts, but also to find out any news about our adoption process.

Thank you for considering to help us...and our daughter!

-- Paul and Angie

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February 20, 2008

We got our physicals done, and I had everything notarized. I then drove to Harrisburg to have the documents state certified. They were then express mailed to a courier in D.C. The same day I mailed off all our updated paperwork to our agency for our home study update. This was on a Wednesday.

The following Monday (the 11th) the whole family drove an hour to get PA state fingerprints which is a new requirement. We waited 50 minutes before getting printed! Thank God we have good kids! After coming home, I drove another hour to go to an agency meeting. We were told that many of the referrals coming in are for children older than 12 months. Fortunately, we had already decided to change our age range from 6-18 months to 0-24 months. We have not heard of any official referrals being handed out yet. The new date is supposed to be March 15th. As soon as referrals are accepted, that family will move from 1A status to 1B status. That will allow others to move into 1A status.

Friday we received our documents back from the Vietnam Embassy. I then sent them to our agency. They are on their way to VN to be translated and added to our dossier. Within a week or so, we will be totally ready to move to 1A status. We just don't know how close to that we are yet.

Yesterday I found out that our agency has received fingerprinting results for people who had them done the day before us. That is really fast. We thought that the agency would be waiting on them because they are part of our home study update. So, hopefully, within the week, our agency will call us to say the home study update is ready to be picked up. It gets notarized, driven to Harrisburg, express mailed to courier to take to VN Embassy. They send it back to us, and we send it to the agency. The agency sends it to VN to be translated and added to dossier. Whoo! This is not necessary for us to move forward, but it does tell them to change the age of our child. As far as we know, that is absolutely the end of the paperwork until we get our referral.

I left out all the emotional ups and downs. I had even thought about quitting. One day we feel so far away from the end and the next we are really positive and feel close. We thought fingerprints were going to take 4-8 weeks to process. They are back within 2 weeks. We thought our documents would take 2 weeks at the Embassy because they had a major holiday. They were back in a week. It is a totally indescribable experience!

January 30, 2008

The US government has issued a warning to Americans who are about to start the process to adopt from Vietnam. There is an agreement between US and VN that expires in Sept. If the agreement is not renewed, no one can predict what will happen to those in process. We are hopeful that we will be finished by then, but we also heard that there are over 2000 dossiers in VN now. I think we got in in the nick of time.

Also new is the announcement that Ho Chi Minh City is no longer referring children to singles. Almost all of our agency's referrals come from HCMC. So, this may bump us up in the "line." Once again, we were encouraged to get the paperwork in, or it cannot proceed. I'll be driving to Harrisburg next Wed.

January 25, 2008

At the last meeting we were told to renew our physicals and our police clearances and have them notarized, state certified and authenticated by the Vietnam Consulate. Well, it hasn't been a year since our last physicals, so we have to wait until the beginning of February to get them done.

We received our home study update information last week. We basically have to redo all the original paperwork since our home study expires in February. This didn't take too long, though, since it does not include everything we did for our dossier. All we are waiting for are our darn physicals!

So, now the agency is saying that they have 11 families in 1B status which means that Vietnam has matched the families to the assignments. We are all awaiting the official referrals which should be out in the next 1-2 weeks. Remember, though, that we know we are not one of them. We think that they are already trying to get more families started and into the 1A process. The social worker keeps reminding us to get our paperwork in because if others do not have the updated paperwork, those that do get pushed ahead. Going as fast as I can!

January 10, 2008

Not much new. The meeting last month was just to go over procedures, etc. The 6 month wait for children in Ho Chi Minh City will be over in a few more weeks. The January update from the agency said that 8 families have their first approvals in Vietnam (There is a total of 3 before travel is allowed. I think the 1st one means that a child has been matched w/a family. After that, the child's paperwork has to be sent, etc. There is a lot of back and forth between orphanage and the government departments.) That is all good news, but the fact still remains that there still have been no referrals handed out. That's the part we really want to see start happening. We have heard of these potential children for months now.

The agency also has a license now with a province outside of the city which does not have the 6 month wait. There are supposed to be 5 assignments waiting there. I'll say it again - it is all very confusing. Bottom line is that we are still not at the top of the list. We will not get a referral before Spring. Once we do accept a referral, though, we now are required to apply for her visa instead of waiting to do it while in-country. That means we have to wait 30-60 days for that to be approved before traveling. I am starting to think we will not be going before late Summer.

Paperwork. Ours is starting to expire because we are approaching our 1 year anniversary. Next on our to-do list is to go get new physicals and police clearances. Can't do that though until it has been 1 year or insurance will not pay for it! Those papers all need to be notarized, state certified in Harrisburg, and authenticated by the Vietnamese Embassy. Our home study expires in February. It is $600-$800 to update and renew, but, then again, if we move for Paul's job, we need a whole new one! This is such a joyous process!

December 13, 2007

Today is supposed to be the night of our meeting at the agency, but the weather is not looking good. I am betting that it will be postponed. Figures. Anyway, we did receive an email update. It was more upbeat than in the past. Due to a new regulation in the Ho Chi Minh City orphanages (children must remain in the orphanage for at least 6 months) which is where our agency works, they are hoping to hand out some referrals in January. Those families (not us) will then have to file for the child's visa, and so travel is not expected until March. The agency is still working on a 2nd province to work out of. Once that is finalized, though, the children there have to go through the clearance process which is usually 2 months. That all happens before a referral is given. So, we are still thinking our time will be sometime this Spring for a referral and closer to Summer for travel.

December 6, 2007

This is all getting very complicated and confusing, even for us. Well, we got over the fact that there really was no chance in fighting to get the in-country facilitators back on the scene. It's out of our hands.

We went to a meeting at the agency about a month ago. We gave them the money for translation fees and also signed our new financial agreement. They were still in the process of getting clearances for the 6 "assignments." The Department of International Adoption (DIA) in Vietnam is restructuring in order to centralize the adoption process and lessen corruption. That means referrals will come through them although no one knows when. So, we also have to get another document certified from Harrisburg and authenticated in CA. We just got that back and sent it off to the agency. It will become part of our dossier that is in VN.

There are also some other changes happening with Vietnam, the Hague Treaty, and on and on. I just heard through the grapevine that the referrals the agency was working on have to be relinquished to the DIA. Hmmm. No wonder we have not heard anything from our agency. I have also heard that children must be in the orphanages for 6 months before being allowed to be adopted. We do know for a fact that we must apply for the child's visa before we are allowed to travel. That means we will get our referral, then apply to the embassy in VN for her visa. This will take 3-6 weeks so they say. Not that we really anticipated to travel that quickly after referral, but it is something else to deal with.

There is a "mandatory" support group next week to go over changes, give new instructions, etc. Should be interesting. Will post sometime afterwards!

October 30, 2007

I didn't post anything after getting our October update because it was very upsetting and left a lot of things in the air. Long story, short, there have been many changes made by our agency and some by Vietnam. As you can imagine, change in an adoption usually causes stress! So, after many phone calls, emails and prayers, we have decided to move ahead and see what God has in store for us!

We now will have new in-country facilitators helping us while we are in Vietnam, as well as the new coordinator/liason who handles all of the contacts with the orphanages. The VN government is also working towards centralizing their adoption program which means that all referrals will be assigned to the agencies through their Dept. of Int'l Adoption. This should cut down on some unethical practices. So, we have had a few paperwork changes. These changes are to happen sometime in 2008, so in the meantime, our agency is moving ahead with being licensed with additional orphanages.

That being said, there have been 6 "assignments" to our agency that are going through clearances before they become official referrals. If those referrals are given out in November, it is not expected for those families to travel until January. You have to remember, also, that VN's biggest holiday, Tet, is in February. Nothing happens there for about 2 weeks.

So, where does that leave us? Our dossier has been translated along with 25 others. Usually that means that referral is close behind, but due to changes, all dossiers will be translated as soon as they get to VN. So, that means nothing as far as where we are in the process. Our home study and some other paperwork will be expiring in February, so we will have to get new clearances, medical reports, references, etc. Major pain and a bit pricey. We do not expect to see a referral before May, and then it will be about 2 more months after that before we travel. Please pray for God's timing. If He wants her to be with us sooner, then He can make it happen.

There should be another update in a week or so, but I don't anticipate anything new in it. Until next time...Thanks for reading!

September 16, 2007

It's been about two more months, but there has been very little news. So little that I felt I had nothing to write about. Our agency has been finalizing the move of their office in Ho Chi Minh City, and they have replaced the person on their staff that is their liason between themselves and the Vietnamese government. These changes and the fact that they are trying to be licensed in more orphanages have produced delays. There have been no referrals for several months. Every month I pray that referrals will start again, so maybe October will be the magic month. We are still looking at sometime in 2008. Now you know everything that we do! One more quick thing is that we got a anonymous gift in our mailbox a month or two ago. That was awesome!

July 18, 2007

Sorry everyone for not updating. I know I'd be annoyed if I were reading this stuff! There is little to report, though. The agency has moved their office in Vietnam, and they are still working on being licensed in other provinces and orphanages. A few families are traveling this month to get their precious little ones. Please pray that referrals pick up again and become more regular. We've made it to a total of $8,000 raised/saved towards our costs. Thanks again, everyone. I will post again after I receive our next update from the agency which will be at the beginning of August.

June 12, 2007

Here are a few interesting stats: 1) Our agency has about 30 families waiting on referrals (we are just about at the end of the list!), 2) Only 5 of those families are waiting for boys, 3) From July 2006 - Dec the agency placed around 30 children, 4) From January 2007 - May around another 30 children were placed.

There is a little more positive news. Our agency is in the process of expanding the number of orphanages they are working with in Vietnam. This, theoretically, should enable them to receive more referrals. The agency has also acquired space at the apartment complex where we will stay for the majority of our trip. They will have a computer there for us to use and some sort of free phone service via Internet. They have also streamlined the process in country, and our trip will probably be more like 2 weeks rather than 3.

The yard sale we were going to have fell through twice, so we are trying again for this weekend. I am also going to sell snacks and drinks.

Ebay is on break again. Will resume maybe next week. We still have a huge pile of stuff!

May 17, 2007

Let's see if I can remember everything that has happened in the last month...April 16th I went to the agency, had our dossier notarized, then went to Harrisburg and had those documents certified. Someone from our agency was going to travel to Vietnam shortly, so our social worker said to get everything into the mail to the Vietnam Consulate ASAP if we wanted the dossier hand carried to Vietnam. So, I was able to stop at our bank for a bank check, but since the post office was closed, I went to a UPS Store to mail. While I was there I realized that I got the check for the wrong amount, so I had to hustle back to the bank. Made it back to UPS before the mail was picked up. THEY packaged everything including the postage-paid return envelope and off I went. Next morning I get a call from our PO saying I have a package. The UPS store sent everything to me! They got the envelopes wrong! What a mess. I had to go repackage everything!

The consulate authenticated everything and had it back within a week. We photocopied everything, got yet another bank check and shipped everything off to the agency. It was hand delivered to Vietnam. I got a refund from the UPS Store, by the way.

So, now the waiting really starts. We were told at the beginning to expect 6-9 months for a referral. We found out a few weeks ago that the wait has changed to 9-12 months for girls. I of course freaked out. I'm not a patient person. This isn't what I was planning. I want the kids closer together. A whole year from now? A lot can happen in a year! So after annoying our social worker and telling her we may consider changing our age range (this requires a lot of document changes, etc) so Sarah and Noah are not so far apart in age, we decided to leave it all alone. God's timing is always perfect whether we agree or not.

Needless to say, we have so many things we want to do around here that the wait really isn't bothering us - yet! I haven't had time to breathe, and summer is always busy. Fall is busy, too, and then there are the Holidays. Well, I guess every time is busy now except maybe the dead of February?!

So, now we just have more time to save money! Having a yard sale this weekend. Ebay is still going and doing well. Our total money raised is about $7000, maybe a little more.

April 13, 2007

Wow, I never thought I'd have such huge gaps between postings. Life has been very busy. We attended a required adoption class at our agency a few weeks ago, and we went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch! Along the lines of Chinese food but with it's own twist, of course. Very delicious. We fell in love with the iced coffee!

Anyway, our U.S. Immigration approval came Saturday, the 7th! Due to vacations and scheduling issues, we are not able to move forward with paperwork until Monday, the 16th. I will be going to our agency and Harrisburg to push more papers through. Will report back after that!

March 23, 2007

Whoa, almost a month since the last post! Not too much has been happening in the adoption area. We did get our finger prints done on March 5th, so we are hoping to get our Immigration approval sometime around Easter. That will put us around May for getting the dossier to Vietnam.

The most exciting news by far is our total amount of money raised. By selling stuff that we have or that others have given us and by donations, we have a whopping total of $6500 raised! It is amazing to see how God works when you are doing His will!

That brings me to another point worth mentioning. Recently we were told by someone how adopting was an honorable thing for us to do. I guess people may have different ideas of what honorable is, but we think it is when you do something above and beyond what is expected or needed. The UN estimates that there are 143 MILLION orphans around the world! James 1:27-28 says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Adoption is not right for everyone. There are many other ways of helping them, but we believe that we are called to add to our family in this way. So, we see ourselves as merely being obedient to our heavenly Father, doing what is expected of us and needed by another.

February 26, 2007

We received in the mail confirmation that the Department of Homeland Security (more specifically Immigration) has received our request to be approved for adoption. We have been instructed to get finger-printed next, so we are going this coming Monday. I am plugging away at the dossier paperwork. It mostly requires us to fill out multiple copies of documents which is very tedious and makes your hand hurt! I, of course, ended up making mistakes without first making extra copies. The agency must get tired of people like us! But as Paul says, "That's what we are paying them for!"

We also need to get 12 passport pictures EACH, so I decided to get mine done while I was at Wal-mart today. It only costs $10, but what I discovered is that it is $10 per set of 2. Luckily, she was having trouble with the camera, so I said I'd come back. Paul wants to take them himself and save us the $120!!

February 20, 2007

Lots to report! First, we received $1200 more in gifts! Amazing! God is so faithful!

Second, we had another meeting with the agency today. Because of the bad weather last week, we did not get our home study report until today. So, we sent our package to Immigration today, and we should get their approval in about 6 weeks along with appointments to be fingerprinted.

In the meantime, we are to gather and fill out all of the items that are required for the dossier. It sounds like a big deal, but it really is not a lot of work. We are fortunate to be adopting from one of the simplest countries as far as documentation goes. Then we will be waiting to get our approval from Immigration. When we receive that, we will be back at the agency to review our dossier and notarize everything. The dossier then gets shuffled through a few more approval processes before it goes to Vietnam. More on that when we get to that point!

February 10, 2007

We received our first donation via Paypal! THANK YOU!

We had the home visit portion of our home study last Monday. The social worker is writing her report about us, and we should be getting that in the mail later this week. As soon as we receive the home study, we have to send a copy to Immigration along with some other paperwork. Our next meeting with the adoption agency is next Tuesday to go over our requirements for the dossier (the group of documents that will be sent to Vietnam).

February 4, 2007

Our physicals are completed, and we got our first round of Hepatitis A & B shots. We get two more shots in a month and another one in 6 months. We have all of our forms, copies, documents, and certifications finished for the home study. Our social worker is coming Monday for our home visit. Then she will write her report which will complete the home study. I am sure she will be giving us more paperwork to work on when she visits. Gotta go clean!

January 21, 2007

We've gotten to tell more people about the adoption which makes it much more real and exciting. In the last week, I have set up appointments for our physicals, answered questionnaires and written my autobiography for the home study. We've gotten new marriage certificates, sent them to be state certified, and tracked down our birth certificates. We got our first monetary gift towards adoption costs! Thank you!

January 12, 2007

The process is official. We had our first meeting with the adoption agency, Adoptions From the Heart, which kicks off our home study. We were given lots of paperwork, of course, to get working on. Once we have that completed and sent back to the agency, we will get a visit from the social worker who will check out where we live. This is so exciting!