Good news in the adoption world today   We got an update from our agency today that let us know there was another batch of EPs submitted to the Korean Ministry and quite a few people from our agency were submitted….enough to move us to the #3 spot (I think).  This makes me so hopeful that we might be submitted in May!  It doesn’t even sound possible when I say it out loud, but I am so hopeful, we’ll see what happens.  This adoption world never brings the expected, so we’ll see.  But, if we were to be submitted in May, we would be approved in June and possibly traveling by mid to late June.

Such wonderfully, unexpected news!

It has now been 5 months since we received our referral and I never posted information on how our referral day went.  I LOVE reading these stories on other people’s blogs, so I thought I would post mine for others to enjoy.   Here it is, a letter from me to Ollie about his referral

On a chilly, fall afternoon, I had just dropped my first graders off at their buses to go home. Back in my classroom, I was cleaning up and our school secretary called into my room to tell me that your daddy had called. I was supposed to take Molly to the vet after school, and he told her to let me know that I didn’t need to do that anymore and to just come home instead. I thought right away that something bad had happened to Molly and I began to worry about her. I packed up my things quickly and headed out the door.

On my ride home, I thought for a second that maybe your daddy was trying to trick me and that maybe we had gotten our referral call. But, that was too good to be true, so I went back to worrying about Molly. When I got home, your daddy was in the garage waiting for me. He had stayed home from work that day to take Hatter to the doctor because Hatter had not been feeling well. He looked a little grumpy and said something like, “Man it has been a LONG day. Hatter has been yelling at me all day and then we got this…” He was holding a folded piece of paper. I grabbed the paper and opened it up to see the sweetest little baby’s face looking up at me. I looked up at your daddy and his fake grumpy face had changed to a half smile, half cry. And I just remember saying something like, “Are you kidding me?!”

You see, we had been waiting for a LONG time for you. For days and months and years before this day, we had been imagining who you were and praying for you daily. We had seen other people’s babies come home and read their stories and just imagined who our baby would be and what it would be like to finally get the referral call that we had waited for…and let me tell you, it was surreal. I was in disbelief for awhile, like walking through fog, not quite sure what was happening. People had told me many times that as hard as the wait was, when we got your referral, every second of the wait would have been worth you. And it was true…in all my dreams of you, I had never pictured a YOU as precious and perfect as YOU turned out to be!

We went inside and your daddy told me about how our social worker had called that afternoon and he was home to get the call. Normally, we would both have been at work and the call would have gone to our voicemail. But, your daddy got to answer that very special call and our social worker told him that she has recieved our referral for a beautiful baby boy. You were nine months old at the time. She wanted to email your file to us so that we could check out your cute pictures and read all about you. Your daddy had her email the file to his work email so that he could surprise me when I got home.

When I sat down at the computer that day, it was the first of many hours lost staring at pictures of you. I remember we were just thrilled and I felt like the world was moving in slow motion.  We called friends and family to share the good news.  And I remember that Hatter crumpled up the first picture we showed him of your…not because he wasn’t thrilled to see your face, but because he was three and that is what you do when you are three and want control.  He talks about you all the time and talks to your pictures to show you things he is excited about.

That day was like turning a corner.  We still are waiting for you to come home, but we know who you are and that you are ours.  I can’t wait to hold you in my arms!

love you so much, mommy

We got a letter in the mail today from the National Visa Center letting us know that our case has been forwarded to the Embassy in Seoul, Korea.  So, as far as I know, that means we are NVC Out!!  I am incredibly excited, even though I know that it means little in our situation with the EP wait.

So, here is the break down from before…notice that nothing is left to do on the US side…all on the Korean side:

(Thanks to Amber for the timeline)

NVC OUT –> US EMBASSY

Now that we are logged out of the National Visa Center, our file is being sent to the US embassy in Seoul.

US EMBASSY –> KOREAN AGENCY (Holt)

The US embassy receives our file and sends a packet of information called the P3 to our Korean agency, Holt.

The P3 packet remains at Holt until all the information needed to complete the packet is available and the necessary documents can be filled out and returned to the US embassy. In order to complete the packet, everything on both the Korean side and the US side has to be done including the I600 approval, EP (emigration permit), Korean travel certificate issues, visa physical completed, class b waiver returned if needed, etc…

KOREAN AGENCY (Holt) –> US EMBASSY

Once everything is done, Holt then submits the completed packet back to the US embassy. Then the visa interview can be scheduled and the visa can be issued. Then they will call us with our travel call!!!

Since many of these things happen simultaneously, you really never know exactly when that travel call will come. It is harder to track now. We can call D.C. and check the status of things like when our P3 has been sent out or when our visa physical has been scheduled, but they are often weeks behind having the information logged into their computers.

Word on the street is that EPs will be submitted once March rolls around…let’s just say that we are all hoping for early March and not Late March because we have heard these plans before and been let down for the month of January and February.

I can’t wait to see some movement, I just want my sweet baby boy to come home!

This adoption process has taken us so long from the start until this point and throughout the process we have had so many more days of no news/no good news than good news, so I absolutely love to share the good news when it comes!

And today we had great, big good news!!

Today we got our approval letter in the mail from US Immigration!  Our social worker sent it off on the 24th of January and it has already been processed and approved!  What great news!

Just for a little prospective, I have a friend who just finalized her adoption through South Korea.  Last May she got her i600 approval and 11 days later got her travel call.  Obviously we are working under much different circumstances and our process will not match hers, but it is nice to dream and think that in a different world, I would be packing and preparing for travel at this point.

When will that happen?  I wish I knew!  Here is a brief overview of what is left to happen before we do get that lovely travel call:

US side:
Our paperwork goes to the National Visa Center where they do some processing
Once that’s done they send our info (P3?) to the Embassy in Seoul (NVC out).

Korean side:
Next step is usually his Visa Physical. They do this a little before they expect to submit for his EP.

Then our paperwork gets submitted to the ministry to be approved for our Exit Permit (EP)
Once that is approved we are very close to travel.

He will then have his Visa Interview (VI) – which probably isn’t much of an interview since he’s one, but he has to go.

And then his Embassy Appearance? I think.

Once both sides are done they will issue him his passport and say that he is ready to travel and we will receive our much coveted Travel Call (TC).

Right now we’re praying that the ministry allows the agencies to start submitting for EPs. We’ve heard that’s going to happen this week and that once that happens things should start moving normally!

I can’t wait to see some movement that will allow these precious babies to come home!

Thanks to 3 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed for the timeline

Our LEGALS have arrived!

Our next step is to get Michigan court approval. Our legals are being submitted from our agency and they will be submitting  to the Michigan courts asap. Once they are signed by the state, then they will be sent to our local county courts.  And from there, we get submitted to immigration for our I600!!  This process takes just a few weeks for the state approvals and then 4-6 weeks for immigration approval!!

Let the paperwork fly!

I got the sweetest phone calls and even a birthday card in the mail yesterday all devoted to wishing Ollie a happy first birthday!  I have been blessed with such sweet friends and family members, I am just so thankful…I could cry!

And to top it all…toward the end of the day, Ira made it back from North Carolina early and just as he was driving in, we got a wonderful email from our SW with an updated picture from when Ollie got his care package.  He is just so sweet and we got to see the face of the wonderful foster mom who is loving our sweet, sweet boy while we cannot.  What a true blessing!  Hatter and I just stared at Ollie’s cute face and oohed and awed over how big he is getting.  I told Hatter about the foster mom and how she is taking care of Ollie until we can bring him home.  Hatter said, “Once we bring him home, then he’s ALL ours and we don’t have to share him.”

We celebrated together and ate a yummy dinner and a birthday dessert, which Hatter valiantly volunteered to blow the candle out for Ollie since he isn’t here yet.  Plus, (he told me) Ollie is a baby and babies don’t know how to be safe around candles.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!!!

Our big guy is one!!  What a wonderful day to celebrate!  I’m sure Seung-jo is so busy walking and playing and getting love from his foster family.  I can’t wait to have him in our arms…we miss you sweet boy!  We’ll celebrate without you today, but you are in our hearts and we love you so much!

He’s WALKING!!!

We got our Well Baby Clinic report on Monday and everything looks great and…he is a mover now!  I can’t believe it!  Hatter was a late walker, but not this little man, he is ready to move!  I can’t wait to see this sweet, sweet waddle.

How many days until the new year?  Come on EPs!

I was really hoping to get an update of some kind this week!  I thought for sure we would get pictures from our care package, OR a well baby check up, OR maybe our legals would have come…but, no such news this week.  It has been 6 weeks since our paperwork was sent to Korea and I know that there are varying time lines with legals…I am not near as antsy as I will be once the new year hits.  I would really love to get the ball rolling on the US side of things.  I hope that we hear lots of good news next week!

But, in cute Hatter news…We had my school’s music program last week and Hatter got to come with me.  I was worried about how he would do with the crowds and sitting quietly when I had to watch over my class.  But, no worries, he did just fine and he really LOVED when the first graders sang about a hippo for Christmas!   He has been singing it since…check it out!

Hatter singing

Yesterday was our little man’s 11 month birthday.  He will be celebrating is Dol in the next month!

We were able to celebrate his 11th month by sending out his care package.  I know that it will take awhile to get there, but my heart is warmer knowing that some part of us is on its way to him (I wish it were me!).

We sent him a few pieces of clothing, some puffs, his green elephant blanket, a toy car, some diaper cream and lotion, and some tea, chocolate, and Jelly Bellies for his foster family…plus a few other things. 

Care Package