Adoption Update

So, I know I haven't posted anything other than adoption updates lately and I might try to pump something more interesting out later but for now, take what you get. As of Monday, our P3 packet has been sent to Korea. What the hell is a P3 packet, you ask? Well, I'm not exactly sure but I think it's a packet of all Eunie's info and documents up to this point. Let's just go with that. Anyway, her stuff has been sent to Korea and had the permit gods bestowed an emigration permit upon us already, we would be traveling to get her in about 4 weeks. HOWEVER......

....we're still waiting on that permit. We are literally stuck in limbo right now, or as I call it, adoption purgatory. We can't move forward until this permit is issued but we have no idea when it will happen nor if we'll get one before they run out. It'll either be in the next couple of weeks or we have to wait until January. So in the meantime, I'm going to take up the tinwhistle like Picard up there and wait. The bright spot is that in a fit of energy last night, I dug up my old notes from Max's process and saw that his P3 was sent 10 days before they issues his permit so there is still hope. Play me out, Picard......

Adoption Update

So, Captain Picard and I are pleased to say that the National Visa Center has officially received our I600 and it should be on it's way to Korea either late today or Monday. THIS IS WONDERFUL, isn't it Captain? I still haven't gotten any word on the EP situation but I'm going to ignore that glaring fact and focus on this. Once it leaves the NVC (or 'NVC out" in adoption lingo,) we only have three more steps to go until travel call day. I am REALLY REALLY REALLY hoping we get word on our EP soon because if we do, we actually might get this kid home before her birthday. Stranger things have happened, right?

Adoption Update

So, we FINALLY got some good news this morning. Our I600 was approved!!! This was our last US approval and while we're still in the tangle of emigration permits, this is a big step. The officer at USCIS was so nice and asked me to send her a picture of Eunie to add to her "baby wall." I gladly obliged. Now we have to wait for the National Visa Center to do their thing, which means I get to start obsessively calling them today and then we're another step closer. I'm trying to be optimistic that our bad news from last week was overly cautious and that something kick ass will happen to make her come home sooner. WOO HOO!!

** I've decided to fly my nerd flag with Captain Picard up there. Don't judge.

Adoption Update

So, I had hoped to have some really awesome post this week about our paperwork being pushed through quickly but sadly we got the opposite news. In a nutshell, the Korean government only issues so many Emmigration Permits per year and it looks like their quota may already be filled FOR THE YEAR. Yes, I said for the year, as in we would have to wait until January for it to be issued and then wait even longer for the rest of the stuff to catch up which, as my email yesterday estimated, would mean we wouldn't travel until February. Mother. F*$&@r.

I'm so mad and I spent most of last night crying because I can't do anything else. It's not like we're the only ones, but how they've issued all they're issuing when it's not even winter yet is ridiculous and I REALLY hope that they are wrong but I'm done trying to figure this shit out. I know you might be sitting there saying "it's not THAT much longer and it's not like it'll make that big of a difference" but you know what, it DOES make a big difference. I'm not waiting on FedEx to bring me something. This is my kid who is getting more and more attached to her foster mom every day. I will not only be missing out on the first 14 months of her life, I'll be missing her first birthday, her first steps, etc. and just typing that started the waterworks again. If they're wrong, which based on what I've experienced they don't tend to throw this info around lightly so that's a long shot, she said we could travel in December/January, which is still longer than it should be taking but better than February I guess.

Either way this sucks.

Adoption Update

So, since things are starting to get kind of exciting, I've decided to post as many adoption updates as I can. As I mentioned last week, we had our fingerprint appointment on Monday. Because I have a disorder called nopatienceitis, I started calling USCIS yesterday to check the status which I'm sure they are thrilled about. Last time we adopted, I probably called USCIS about 378,440 times only to be told by a robot voice every single time to leave a message. I'm still waiting for a call back. This time, however, I left a message for the agent who has our file and she actually called me back and said that our I-600 should be approved by the end of the week. She said it takes 2-4 days for her to get the prints and that's all that she's waiting on. I imagine since I called, my file might get moved to the top so I'm hoping to get a call or letter at any time.

So, now what are we waiting for, you ask? Well, once they approve the I-600, it goes to the National Visa Center and then they send it on to Korea (or something like that.) However, we are also waiting on Korea to issue her Emigration Permit and those are done in monthly batches and they're doing a batch today. If she's in it, I will explode from excitement because that means we will probably be traveling fairly soon but if she has to wait until next month, we'll have a longer delay and probably not travel until late November, early December. I'm planning on the latter and hoping for the former.

And now you know.

That tiny violin is playing me a sad song.

So, I haven't really given an update on Eunie because we haven't gotten one in a while which is really frustrating but whatever. The last we heard, she was still teeny tiny but they were trying to fatten her up so I hope the next report (ANY DAY, PEOPLE) will hold good news. On the paperwork front, we have our last fingerprint appointments on Monday, which will facilitate the last bit of paperwork approval that we're waiting for on the US side. It's funny to me because this will be my FOURTH set of prints. Um, THEY DON'T CHANGE and why they can't use what's in the database already is perplexing but this whole process is perplexing so why am I surprised. Anyway, I recently read that our fingerprints could take a stupidly long time to process, like another 9-11 weeks, which sent me to the ledge but I have since read that it generally isn't taking that long and the fact that my forms have been sitting there for 7 weeks already, it's probably already approved and waiting on the prints. This makes me happy and I'm choosing to believe this person over the other. DON'T BURST MY BUBBLE.

So, if we get a speedy approval, our stuff will be sent to Korea next week where we wait for them to work their magic. Things seem to be either running really slowly or really quickly on that side and while it was slow for a bit, it seems to have picked up as of recent which means we could possibly get a travel call around the first (or so) week of November. Now, that's if things go smoothly and that's a big IF. That's all great, right? WELL, I also found out that the G20 Economic Summit is being held in Seoul in early November. OF COURSE IT IS. This sucks a big one and I hope our dates fall around it and not in it because there will be no hotel rooms and no flights and if there are, I will have to use her college fund to pay for them. Sorry, kid.

So that's where we are. I really hope I can tell you nice people that we got our approval next week so cross your fingers and toes.