In March.....

so we found out at the end of last week that our program packet will be going over to Korea in March.  This means that 5-7 months after that we'll get our referral.  It all seems so real again.  John thinks we'll get our referral early,  I am thinking the longest time so if it comes early that it will be that much better.  

So I have this application on my phone where i get a new Korean word to learn everyday.  And the day after we found out when the packet would be going over my word of the day was daughter, maybe its a sign.......

hopefully by the end of the summer we'll know what we are having!!!!  

Program Packet and I-600

Well we finally finished our program packet.  paperwork wise it was easy, just a few forms to read and sign.  A medical checklist of possible conditions we will or will not accept for our future child.  the one thing that was holding us back was the classes we have to take.  as mentioned before we need 30 education credits before our adoption can be complete.  one of the classes we had to take was called With Eyes Wide Open.  It touches on all aspect of international adoption and what it might be like for the parents and the child from the time we come home all they way up to teenage years.  it goes over questions we'll hear out in public b/c we wont look alike, to questions or child will probably ask us someday, like why Korea, why me?  well it was 19 PowerPoint Presentations with about 25 different written assignment to go along with it.  but we got it done, it was a little bit time consuming but i know it will be well worth it in the end.  so i finally sent it off today to our program coordinator in NC.  She had been pushing us for the last couple of weeks to complete it because the agency in CT which sends the packets to Korea once a month was pushing her.  Anyway, i hope all of this means that our number is up and our packet will be going over to Korea soon!!!!!!  Hopefully I'll know by the end of the week when they expect our packet to go over. 

The program packet is really the last step until we get our referral for our baby! 

We also received our I-600 approval from the CIS, i have passed this information on to our agency and i believe it will be included in our program packet.  

so that's it for now.  like i said above hopefully I'll have more information by the end of the week.  

so many things at once

well after nothing really happening since our last post, 3 things have happened in the past week.

1. our home study was sent to the CIS to be matched up with our I-600 application.  Great news and another thing to be crossed off the list.  We also received our appointment to get our fingerprints done again for this application.  Jan. 6th at 8:00 AM in Alexandria, VA.  

2. We received our Fee Agreements from our agency and have signed off on them.

3. After signing off on our Fee Agreements, and sending in a payment we will not get our 'Korea Packet'.  This will be the information that goes over to Korea.  My coordinator tells me it is much of the same information we have pulled already but now it will be in the way  SWS wants to see it.  So it seems the hard things are over since we have copies of everything we have done so far.  Hopefully once we get this packet and send it back we'll find out what number on the list we are to have our paperwork sent over to Korea. 

Everything kinda slowed down there for a bit, but now it seems it is picking back up again.  I guess that is just the way this process goes.  We are excited to be one step closer, it still looks like we'll be home sometime in 2009 with our baby.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone!

3rd and Final Home Study Complete

We had our final home study visit last Thursday.  All went well and our SW will start writing it it up now.  There are still a few pieces of information she needs and then she will send it to CAS for review.  Once CAS reviews the home study report and we approve it, it will go to CIS and get matched up with our I-600a so we can get a pre-approval to adopt a child from another country.  We will have another finger print appointment with the CIS.  

Our next step is waiting for our fee arrangement to come from CAS and for us to agree to them ad then we will be sent another packet of information called our 'Korea Packet'  We will be required to gather more information that will be sent to Korea once complete and sent up to FAC in CT.  We are currently in line to have our paperwork sent over once complete but we just don't know right now what our number is.  Packets from FAC are sent to Korea once a month.  I imagine we'll be able to find out once we send back our information the approximate date our packet will be sent over.  Our agency did tell us that FAC will not hold back our packet if a couple above us is not ready yet, which is good news.  After the packet goes over, the wait begins.

So far things have been going rather quickly, I think the hardest part will be waiting for the referal to come in after our packet goes to Korea.   We will have to find things to keep us busy durning that time.  

We have also started our required 30 credits of education.  Once class we are taking on our own which is worth 3 credits and the second class we just completed was given online by CAS.  Of course we don't get credit for the class until we turn in our homework,  but we'll get that done soon.

Thats it for now

2nd Home Study Complete

We had our second home study visit last week, it went great!  We all meet together for a 1/2 hour and then our Social Worker meet with us one on one.  John was first since he had to get to work and then I was next.  All in all the visit went very well.  We have also started our first adoption class called AdoptPrep.  We have only had one class so far and it seems to be an overview of what we will be going through during the process as well as when the child comes home.

Our next and final home study is this Thursday.  Our Agency and our SW would like to have everything finalized by Mid-November.  so far it looks like we will be able to meet that goal.

We had our 1st Home Study Meeting

Our Home Study Social Worker made her 1st visit to our house on Tuesday. She needed to document that we have running water with indoor plumbing and electricity; I think we passed that part. 

She went over the paper work we had already submitted and what we would need to have finished prior to her writing the Home Study for our dossier; we're hoping the dossier will be complete by the end of the year and off to Korea. In the meantime  our checks have been clearing from Homeland Security, Virginia DMV & the Virginia State Police so our backround checks are in full swing!

We only need to meet with the the social worker 2 more times; she lives in Fredricksburg which is an 1 1/2 away, thankfully there is another family in our area she is supporting so we are going to try and piggy back our meetings so we can split the expense.

We leave for vacation later this week so we'll have plenty of time to start reading our educational materials while we're sitting on the beach.

Until next time.....John

 

Our First Baby Gift

We got our first baby gifts today.   2 books, one is baby names from around the world, different then most baby name books this one is broke down by country.  The other book we received was a Korean/English dictionary.  I can't wait to learn some of the language.  

Well they are not really for the baby they are more for me and John, but I consider them our first baby gift.