We Have a Court Date

We have a court date! We are headed to Korea! We are meeting our little guy after 19 months of waiting, 23 care packages, and 16 updates! Oh my goodness this has happened a bit sooner than we had expected and caught us by surprise on Monday morning (Nov 11). Most families have waited 4-6 weeks to hear of their court date and ours came through in just 2 weeks!!!

It's been a crazy few days trying to look at flights and accommodations, seek out dog sitters, and run the budgetary numbers.  We wavered between one long trip (5 weeks) or two shorter trips. Back and forth and back again. In the end we've decided to take 2 trips since nothing in this process has been guaranteed and if the judge is having a bad day we could end up over there longer than 5 weeks!! Also, we would not know when we could take custody so not even sure we'd have him on Christmas. The safest and most logical bet became 2 trips.

TRIP 1

• Leave Chicago Sun, 12/8 
• Arrive Seoul Mon, 12/9
• 1st Meeting Benjamin and Foster Family Tue, 12/10 9:30 am; will last about an hour
• 2nd Meeting TBD; will last about an hour
• Court Appearance Tue, 12/17 3:00 pm; will last about 10-15 minutes
• Leave Seoul Thur, 12/19 
• Arrive Chicago Thur, 12/19 

Wait to hear of preliminary approval from judge.

TRIP 2

• Leave Chicago Fri, 1/3 
• Arrive Seoul Sat, 1/4
• Take custody of Benjamin some time that week 
• Wait to hear of final approval from judge (on average 18 days from prelim approval) 
• Visa interview with US Embassy TBD
• Leave Seoul With Benjamin Wed, 1/15 
• Arrive Chicago With Benjamin Wed, 1/15 

Second trip has the potential to change (push back) if again the judge is taking his/her sweet time. Overall though we're feeling good about these plans and super excited that we'll be meeting our little guy yet this year!!