NEW YORK, June 21, 2011—  When seven-year-old Ciaran Long was told that he was about to welcome a baby sister, he had no idea that he would be waiting three long years and still be no closer to her than holding her photograph.  Neither did his parents.

Ciaran Long holding photo of his sister Ava/Image: Beth Long

“To say that he can’t understand all this is an understatement,” relates his mother Beth Long. “We can’t understand it ourselves.”

Matthew and Beth Long of Merritt Island, Florida received their approval to adopt a little girl they have named Ava in August 2008. She is living at Bac Lieu, an orphanage in a rural area in the southwestern part of Vietnam, about an eight-hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).

At the time of their referral, their agency told them that they would travel to Vietnam to bring her home within four to five months. Those few months stretched into more months and then into years. “We have kept our lives on hold, waiting and waiting for Ava,” says Beth. The family has kept a room for her, full of toys and clothing that she regularly outgrows.

The Longs are one of sixteen families, known as the “pipeline” families, who were given U.S. and Vietnamese approval to adopt orphans back in 2008, but who have been trapped in limbo as regulations in both countries shift and change.

The Longs, like the other pipeline families, are living in an absurdist, Kafka-esque world, with shifting political landscapes and maddening red tape, all of which has led to the suffering of their daughter, who has been condemned to life an orphanage with few nutritional, medical and educational resources in one of Vietnam’s poorest provinces.

“It’s unreal. These children have been there for two years, told they have a family, that their family is coming, but we don’t and they can’t understand it. They’re losing trust in adults,” notes Beth. “They are building up serious trust issues that will haunt them for life.”

Ava at orphanage in April 2011, holding photo of the Longs.

Although the United States began expressing concerns about possible corruption in the Vietnamese system as far back as 2006, it continued to process the applications of Americans seeking to adopt. In the spring of 2008 the Department of State announced that it would not renew its intercountry adoption agreement with Vietnam. American families already in process, the “pipeline” families, were to continue, but no new American applications would be accepted by the U.S government.

The Longs are stymied as to why their adoption has not moved forward after receiving all necessary approvals for the past several years. Although when their adoption was originally processed neither the United States nor Vietnam required DNA from the birth mother, when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) issued new regulations requiring it, the orphanage found Ava’s birth mother. She traveled to Ho Chi Mihn City and provided DNA that matched baby Ava’s. The birth mother also sat for an interview with CIS agents and explained to them that she not only was relinquishing rights to her child and that she had purposefully given her up for adoption, but that she also understood and supported the adoption by an American family. 

Soon after this CIS investigation in May of 2009, the Longs were issued their I-600 Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, a critical form needed to bring children into the United States legally.

As their cases dragged on, the pipeline families began taking turns traveling to Vietnam to visit orphanage, bringing the children food, toys, clothing and books. “We have become a tight knit group because we’ve been in the trenches together. It’s an intense bond,” Beth relates.

Matthew traveled to Bac Lieu in February and March of 2010. He and Ava spent every day together while he was there. Although the orphanage, which was previously a prison, had recently undergone some renovation, the paint on the walls was peeling and large ants swarmed the floors, biting the children and leaving welts. Additionally, Matthew reports, all of the children sleep, eat and bathe in a single room. Most of the children, including Ava, have contracted pneumonia while at the orphanage. Many have been hospitalized.

“Plus, these children are absolutely starved for love. The minute an adult comes into the room, they swarm. They rush up and want to be held and touched,” explains Beth. 

Matthew and Ava at Bac Lieu, April 2010/ Image: M. Long

Back home, the Longs were hopeful that their approval to pick up Ava was imminent. But they were wrong. After the U.S. signed off on the travel documents, the Longs were notified that their dossier—the packet of information necessary to complete an adoption—was found incomplete by the Vietnamese government. They were told the province was working to correct it.

Then in September of 2010 the Department of State notified the Longs that Vietnam had refused to process their adoption of Ava. Within two weeks, the United States revoked the Longs’ I600 needed for Ava to be brought home.

In a strange reversal, the Department of State in November notified the Longs that their adoption would be processed in Vietnam after all.

Then, the pipeline families were suddenly dealt another blow when, last December, they were told by the U.S. Embassy to cease all contact with their children and the orphanage, according to the Longs. Failure to do so would be detrimental to their cases as the Vietnamese government moved towards adopting the Hague Treaty, an international agreement between participating countries on adoption which prohibits distract contact between orphanages and prospective parents.  

Now it is six months later and no parent has been permitted to return to the orphanage to visit the children or check on conditions.  Further, there has been no movement forward on processing these adoptions.  “This is heinous, “ says Matthew.  “What must these children think now that no one comes to see them?  They don’t even know their parents are out here fighting for them.”

The Longs and other families have been in talks with the Department of State, but have repeatedly been told that there is nothing the U.S. can do to help facilitate the adoptions.  “In fact, we were told by one official we should just withdraw our petition to adopt Ava,” Matthew says. “That’s just not going to happen. We’re going to fight until we get her home.”

Officials at the Department of State have told the Longs and other pipeline families that they should reapply to adopt from Vietnam after it ratifies The Hague Convention. The problem is that there’s no date set for ratification. Although Vietnam is widely expected to sign the treaty at some point, there is no firm date in place. (Recently, the families were notified by the DoS that it could be this fall). Even if The Hague is implemented, children like Ava are likely to remain stranded. Under a new system, a central Vietnamese authority will match children and parents and the Longs will be unable to request a referral to their daughter. 

The irony of the Long’s case is that they have a Hague-worthy case for adoption and meet all of the major criteria established in that treaty. “The whole thing is preposterous because we are trapped. We adhered to the old rules. Then when the rules changed, we followed the new rules. And now we’re told we can’t apply with a Hague dossier because the Treaty hasn’t been ratified by Vietnam,” Matthew says. “There’s no path forward and in the meantime Ava is growing up without a family.”

Beth Long and son Ciaran with Ava's photo/ Image: M. Long

The Longs have worked with Democratic Senator Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio to work to bring attention to the pipeline cases.  Senator Rubio has gone so far as to place a hold on President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to Vietnam in hope of shedding light on the plight of the pipeline families and their stranded children.  (See Red Thread Rubio blocks Obama’s nomination)

“We are still hopeful that while Vietnam is constructing a new system for adoption, there will be a bilateral agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam that will allow us bring Ava home and allow the other pipeline families to bring home their children,” says Beth. “We need the U.S. and Vietnamese governments to understand that the children are the collateral damage here, that they need to be brought home before conditions get even worse and more damage is done to these children.”

Working towards that end, the Longs hired an attorney in the United States, and have recently engaged an attorney in Vietnam.  They have also started a petition to help move Congress.  “We will do whatever we have to do to ensure that Ava is safe,” says Beth. “We are not giving up. We will never abandon that little girl.”

Andrea is an adoptive mother and a journalist. She is at work on a book, "The Red Thread," a collection of stories told by families united through adoption. She is also owner of Media Branding International, a public relations/media consulting firm. Read more The Red Thread: An Adoptive Family Forum in The Communities at The Washington Times.   Follow Andrea at Twitter @ANDPOE and @WTCLifesOnline.  Andrea can be found at Facebook @ Lifes Online at Washington Times Communities and @Andrea Poe and can also be found on LinkedIn.

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