Paperwork @ Court

Nice fast turn around.  Ours and 3 other families' files are now officially in the hands of the courts. 

And we heard today that a Dec 6 court date was given out to a family that had EP approval on Oct 1. So court dates are being set for Dec...yay.  There were about 6 families that I know of that had EP approval on Oct 1. Hoping they all get early Dec court dates : ).  Still thinking we'll be January.

Exit Permit (EP) Approval

So I guess 75 days waiting was our magic number. Received an email this morning from our Agency Director that Benjamin's EP had been granted on October 28 (Monday). WoooHooo!!

Now we anticipate about 4-6 weeks before were given a court date. And that date will probably be about 4 weeks out. So overall we're looking at another 10 weeks before we travel...but getting soooo close!!

75 Days and Waiting

Can't believe we're ending October soon and yet to receive EP approval. The other 3 families that I know of with the same EP submission date found out last Thursday that they had been approved. Well what about us???  Nope nothing yet. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Really trying to stay positive that this will be our week. The last couple have been tough (at least for me) as on top of waiting for approval we didn't get any pics or update. 

I want to see his sweet little face and how he's grown the last couple months while they weren't sending pics. I'm hoping they took some second birthday pics so we can have these for him in the future. Seriously how hard is it to get the camera out and snap a few. His Social Worker in Korea was so good about sending pics every month. Why has she not picked back up on this?  

So we sit and wait and wait some more through this tortures process. 

Corduroy's Halloween

October book buy and HOPING we're close to our last monthly book buy before he's home.  A very nice book with lots of pictures and flip ups. 

Where is Baby's Birthday Cake?

A little bit behind on the September monthly book buy, though I knew I wanted to grab a copy of the birthday book we sent over in his care package.  So we finally picked ourselves up copy and added it to his book racks, which are pretty well filled up. We definitely have no shortage of books to read with him, hopefully this winter.

Care Package #22

Care package stuffed and sent off to be delivered to our agency in Korea next week with a traveling family. Thank You Ronda!!!!  Benjamin will receive it in November when he comes in for his monthly visit with Foster Mother. Looking forward to this HOPEFULLY being one of the last ones we are sending over! 

• Long sleeve t-shirt
• Sweat shirt
• Sweat pants
• Fruit snacks
• Beanie Fish Ball
• Dinosaurs
• Recordable book: Good Night, Little Engine
• Duck Whistle
• Finger puppets
• Quilted table mat/pad

Wisconsin Dells Duck Whistle 

I took some time to include a handful of questions to the Foster Mother with the anticipation that we can discuss them when we meet.  Many families have said the short time you have with your Foster Mother is typically spent playing with your child and often little time is spent on questions and transition information.  Therefore, I thought it would be nice to get her these ahead of time so she can start thinking or even jot some notes down.  

• What is his daily schedule?
• What types of food does he eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
• What are his favorite foods?
• What does he drink and how much each day?
• Is he allergic to anything?
• Has he had any potty /toilet training?
• Who is he most attached to (mother, father, big brother)? 
• Does he have a nickname?
• What are his sleeping habits, where does he sleep, who does he sleep with?
• Does he prefer to be warm or cool?
• What is he afraid of? What upsets him?
• How does he soothe or calm himself?
• What makes him happy?
• What are his favorite games, music, television shows?
• What are his favorite toys?
• Anything else we should know or you want us to know?
• Any of his firsts, special dates, or memories (smiled, rolled, crawled, first word, pulled up, walked)?

EP Approval Lookout

Well the end of September brought about frustrating news yet again as they announced that the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare was moving their office from Seoul to a city about 2 hours away. This move is to occur sometime between Oct and Dec and could cause more delays. No once can confirm what the Ministry's plan is to continue accepting or approving or what types of delays could be coming?!?  

It would be great if they purged a whole bunch of files so they don't have to pack them up and chance loosing bits & pieces.  It would also help to keep the court dates moving without a lull because they didn't have any families to meet with. But that's just my logical brain thinking about and making a plan. This was a hard hit of news and pretty much put me in a funk for a few days wondering if January/February was even within our reach. 

So then October 1st rolled around and WOW, we saw much needed good news including a few court dates and EP approvals! These approvals were for the remainder of March and part of April 2012 referrals. YES..YES..YES!! This means we should be in the next batch of approvals. Though we are not sure when this will occur, at least I feel like we are on the cusp of something GREAT again! 

As I type this we have been waiting 52 days. The last group waited 67 days for approval, the overall average wait is 60 days, and the longest a family has waited is 84 days. So REALLY hoping in about 2 weeks we'll hear something. Something positive and not, "you need to redo your fingerprints for FBI clearances." Sadly this has happened to a number of families and so disappointing this late in the game. But my chin is up, thinking positive and anxiously on the lookout for our file to be approved!!!

Just Makes Me Smile

We finished up the art/craft/play room downstairs with an art wall.  My design and Fred's handy work of course. Added a few extra pictures of Benjamin we had laying around and paired them with some artwork that was given to us by the sweetest 4 year old I know.  Thank you Jason for the beautiful picture of a big blue plane (Korean Air) with Benjamin, Sarah and Fred coming home : )