RANCHESTER - As her little sister enjoys her naptime bottle, 5-year-old Fiona Wallop lowers her head and kisses the baby's cheek. Pausing from her milky meal, 11-month-old Lila gives a sleepy smile. It's just a fleeting moment, but it's there: sisterly love.

It's not a love bonded by blood. It's a love built by adoption, a connection that Matt Wallop and Kathryn Flitner Wallop were aiming for when they started down the adoption path several years ago.

"I talk to my sister Ellen every day," Kathryn said. "I can't imagine not having a sister, and I can't imagine going through life without a sister."

Unable to have more biological children but wanting Fiona to have a younger sister, the couple began filling out stacks of paperwork that eventually determined they could adopt a child. As "adoption is a journey of the heart," Kathryn said that international adoption seemed to be the best option for them.

They first filled out paperwork for China, but after hearing of three-year waits, they turned to Vietnam also. Just names on long lists of potential adoptive parents, they waited patiently. They talked to Fiona about adoption, telling her that soon she would have a playmate, a sister for the rest of her life.

"She's been told since she was a year old she was getting a sister," Matt said.

Last summer, they were able to show Fiona her sister - Lila, just 6 weeks old, bleary-eyed and tiny in a referral picture they received from their adoption agency. Though they ached to hold her instantly, Lila was thousands of miles away from their home in this Sheridan County town. Unknown to the Wallops, they still had months and months to wait.

Red tape fiasco

Less than a month old and wrapped in blankets, Lila was abandoned at an orphanage in July 2007. Her dried umbilical cord still attached, she was given the name Bui Thu Tra - part of her name representing the director of the orphanage.

"She was at the gates of the orphanage in a bundle," Kathryn said.

She was the perfect match for the Wallops, who were excited that their long wait to have another baby was nearing a close. Or so they thought.

Though Lila was abandoned, the U.S. State Department had to verify and double-check that she was legitimately left and not a victim of child trafficking. And the Wallops were also caught in the middle of publicized bureaucratic wrangles between the State Department and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

"In the middle of our battle to find out when we were going to get Lila, the two (departments) were not in good relationships with each other," Matt said.

It was an agonizing, challenging and aggravating time for the Wallops, who were eager to add Lila to their family. They knew they were not alone. Connected to the adoption community via Internet, the couple found others amid the same struggle.

"There were a lot of people waiting, and some still are," Kathryn said.

While they were supposed to have Lila in their arms by February, the months ticked by, and the only contact they had with their baby was through pictures. They heard reports of the orphanage running out of formula and not having hot water.

Unsatisfied and disturbed by the process, Kathryn and a group of others in the process of adopting orphans from Vietnam started "Bring Our Children Home," formed to inform and educate the public and media of the adoption issues in Vietnam.

They also turned to Vice President Dick Cheney and U.S. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo. Kathryn, who is the daughter of David and Sue Flitner - who have been active in Wyoming Republican politics for generations - and Matt, who is the son of former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop, R-Wyo., are certain the influence of Barrasso and Cheney helped speed up the process. In fact, Kathryn said Barrasso's staff was often up in the middle of the night placing calls to Vietnam to check on the status of the adoption.

"One of the first questions he (Barrasso) asked is if anyone else from Wyoming was adopting from Vietnam," Kathryn said, noting that they did not know of anyone else in the state going through the same struggle they were.

After months of waiting and advocating for the completion of the adoption, everything was finally in order. In April, Kathryn and Matt made the long flight to Vietnam. And on their second day in a country that soon would no longer be foreign to them, the Wallops met their daughter.

A daughter to hold

It was a day of many shed tears. And not just for the Wallops. Several other families met their children for the first time, a reception of new relationships. But for the orphanage nannies, who were each responsible for only two children, it was a time for a difficult goodbye. And for Lila and her nanny, it was an emotional parting.

"She was very attached to the nanny and the nanny to her, which made for a difficult separation," Kathryn said. "She cried most of the first day."

After the tears stopped, Matt said Lila was "very guarded" and would just stare at them. But eventually, she started to accept them, and became extremely attached to Kathryn.

"Lucky for us, she had great care in the orphanage and didn't have any attachment issues," Kathryn said.

The Wallops spent several more weeks in Vietnam, waiting for Lila's visa. During that time, they fell in love with their daughter and with the country.

"It was really a life-altering experience to be in that culture," Kathryn said.

As they walked around the villages, Lila often crashed out on Matt's shoulder, worn out from the change in her life. They took dozens of photos and bought art, dolls, trinkets and outfits for Fiona and Lila. And they talked about when they would bring Lila back to the country where she was born.

"We've been trying to think of the best time to take her over, when she will appreciate it and it'll be fun," Kathryn said. "We'd go back every year if we could. We love it."

With the paperwork finally cleared, the Wallops returned home on May 2 and were finally able to introduce Fiona to her sister.

Most big brothers and sisters have months of pregnancy to get used to the idea of a crying infant that only sleeps and eats coming to their homes, Fiona instead had to adapt to a little sister who pulls hair or chews on her books. But Matt and Kathryn said Fiona was up to the challenge.

"She was instinctively a great big sister," Matt said.

'Like a flower blossoming'

Vietnamese art now hangs on the Wallops' walls, displayed as a staple in Lila's life to help her become proud of her culture. Though people comment that Lila is "so lucky" to be taken out of the poverty of Vietnam, Kathryn said they instead are the fortunate ones.

"We have been given the privilege of raising this beautiful child," she said. "In the process, we'll each learn about another culture, cuisine and art. We hope to push the boundaries of who we are and see the world through different eyes."

Now home for a little more than a month, the Wallops are adjusting to life with a baby.

"The first week, she was on her (time) schedule, which was very difficult," Kathryn said. "We were like zombies for the first week. When you haven't had a young child for a while, you forget."

But it gets easier each day, Kathryn said.

The Wallops still remain on the China adoption list, and probably still have another two or three years to wait. That gives them ample time to decide if they want to continue to expand their family, Kathryn said.

Now that Lila has been introduced to family - including Kathryn's 23-year-old son Blake Spiegelberg, who is a member of the Wyoming National Guard - it's hard to imagine life without her. More accustomed to the sounds and sights of her new home, Lila has become a smiley, happy baby. Fiona loves to entertain her little sister, and Kathryn and Matt are amazed at the progress that Lila makes daily.

"It's been like a flower blossoming … It's been an amazing thing to watch, to see her open up," Kathryn said.

Just months from a deadline that will end U.S. adoptions from Vietnam, adoptive parents Matt Wallop and Kathryn Flitner Wallop continue to hope that a new agreement will be reached between the two countries.

Though the United States has said it will not renew the "memorandum of agreement" that expires Sept. 1, adoptive parents across the nation are pushing for a new deal to be made between the two countries. Adoption applications from American families will no longer be accepted after July 1, and effective Sept. 1, any adoption in which a child has not yet been matched with a family will terminate.

"It's heartbreaking to think of those children who could be in homes instead of lying in an orphanage," Kathryn Wallop said.

With termination of the agreement creeping up and amid a published report of fraud and baby selling, the future of Vietnam adoptions by American families remains uncertain, with no timely solutions on the horizon.

The U.S. State Department has expressed concern about corruption connected with adoptions between the United States and Vietnam, including hospitals selling infants whose mothers could not pay their bills and brokers scouring villages for babies.

But some say overzealous immigration investigators are responsible for the pending adoption shutdown. Irene Steffas, an intercountry adoption and immigration attorney in Georgia, said the United States has offended the Vietnamese, conducting culturally insensitive investigations and accusing them of fraudulent activity.

"We are in a country as their guests. They are giving us their most precious commodity: their children," Steffas said. "We have insulted them."

'A critical problem'

Months ago, while the Wallops were being delayed in their adoption of their Vietnamese daughter, Lila, Kathryn Wallop turned to Internet discussion boards for advice and guidance. Via computer, she became connected with several other families who were also in the midst of delays. And as they chatted about U.S. immigration officials turning down visa requests and learned of scores of Vietnamese adoptions hanging in limbo, Kathryn Wallop said they knew they had to do something.

"We realized there was a critical problem," Wallop said. "People would go over there and end up being there six months before their kid could get a passport to get home."

Aiming to inform and educate the public about the adoption issues happening in Vietnam, Wallop and a group of other prospective adoptive parents started "Bring Our Children Home." The Web site united adoptive parents.

The group states that it respects "the right of the United States to conduct their due diligence before accepting an adoptive child into the country," but adds that "the lack of communication and significantly extended timelines leave us very concerned."

The group forwarded nightmare adoption stories to U.S. senators and Vice President Dick Cheney, hoping to speed up their own adoptions.

"The letter-writing campaign went on for months from people all over the U.S. who had been to Vietnam and had problems," Wallop said. "A huge truckload of information went into letters by e-mail to Vice President Cheney."

Because of these "red tape hold-ups," Wallop said, hundreds of orphans in Vietnam are spending extra months in institutions even though they have families in the United States waiting to welcome them.

Every day a child spends in an institution creates a greater risk that the child will develop reactive attachment disorder, Wallop said. Some children are rarely held or touched. And others sleep on mats on the floor of unheated orphanages.

"We were very fortunate because the orphanage where Lila was had great care," she said. "But not all are like that."

Though Lila was abandoned at an orphanage, U.S. investigators had to clear that she was legitimately abandoned before she could leave the country, Wallop said. That scrutiny took four months longer than originally expected, which the Wallops think was unnecessary.

The couple said they understand the government has to scrutinize cases to ensure child trafficking is not occurring, but they believe legitimate adoptions are being held up for months.

Waiting for Sam

Through the "Bring Our Children Home" Web site, Wallop met Sarah Bickley, who was undergoing a heart-wrenching experience as she and her husband struggled to bring home their son, Sam. Though he was less than 6 months old when they were first matched with him, their adoption kept getting delayed, and Bickley said the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services made paperwork mistakes that it blamed on the couple's adoption agency. The months continued to tick by with no answers.

They were initially told Sam could come in November, then December. But it was April before they were able to meet him face to face. And because of four extra months of delays, 15-month-old Sam is now going through physical and occupational therapy to catch him up on all the developmental milestones he missed while paperwork was pushed around, Bickley said.

"He lay in a crib without any toys, without anything to grab. He should have been in a family where we could have been teaching him every minute," she said.

Bickley said she knows of other couples who have children still in that same orphanage, waiting for paperwork. Now with Sam at home, Bickley continues to advocate for parents who are struggling as they try to complete their Vietnamese adoptions.

"I'm concentrating on helping those people that are under a block to get their babies home," she said.

As September approaches, many families remain in limbo, hoping and waiting for the green light to take their children home. With the termination of the adoption agreement between the two countries just on the horizon, the letters are still flowing in to Cheney's office and to U.S. senator offices. Bickley said she cringes to think of all the babies like Sam, who now face months or even years in cribs when the Vietnam and U.S. agreement terminates.

"They are taking away the chance of a child having a family, and what more fundamental right is there?" Bickley said.