Special Delivery

For the past 2 weeks, I have faithfully called the Consulate General of Vietnam's office in San Francisco. We know they received our dossier on the 8th of this month (because we sent it Fedex with a signature required), and we had been told to expect a 1-2 week turnaround time. I didn't mind if they were not yet finished with our adoption paperwork. I simply wanted to know if they were working on it. Very quickly I found out that I needed to speak with someone at extension 106. The only problem was that "106" never answered, nor did he or she return my calls. I was patient, and I simply called extension 105. That person answered on day #6 of my endeavor. She told me politely that I needed to speak to "106", but I begged her not to transfer me, explaining that they never answered. She assured me that she was "looking right at him" and that he was not on the phone at that moment, so she transferred me. He didn't answer.

On day #10, I got someone else to answer (I believe it was extension 107). I explained in great detail that I wanted to check on the status of my adoption paperwork. After an almost 5 minute explanation, she said "You speak Vietnamese?". I answered "No. You speak English?". Her response: "No. I transfer." You guessed it; no answer.

Today is day #14. I have called numerous times this morning, leaving a message for old time's sake. I didn't get a return call, but I didn't really expect to so that was okay. Tonight, though the infamous "extension 106" answered!

I will get to the good part. Our dossier is authenticated, and according to "106", on its way to Vietnam as of late yesterday! This is INCREDIBLE news, and we are thrilled about it, to say the least.

We don't really know what the next step is. We know that our dossier is headed for our agency's Vietnam office, but after that, we are clueless. What we do know is that this puts us one step closer to having Ellie here at home with us, and for that we are tremendously thankful!