EP Approved!!!!!

EP APPROVED!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY. So so so happy. I got an e-mail from our agency this morning letting us know that our EP has been approved. I am so happy (but sad for those submitted with us who weren't, I DO NOT understand how this process can be so RANDOM!)
I hope that our agency, SWS, gets us submitted to court very quickly. I am so ready to have my little boy home!!
Now everyone say with me, "Tuesday Judge, Tuesday Judge, Tuesday Judge..." This is the fastest Judge and their can be four-five months difference between them. That is the four to six months of my sons toddlerhood I would miss, so a pretty big deal!

EP Submitted Yesterday!!!

I got confirmation today that we were submitted yesterday for our Exit Permission!!! Whoop whoop!!! So happy the timeline is shrinking! Now the annoying thing is some form our agency used was wrong so it was a mad dash to have the right one signed, notarized and fed ex overnighted 10am delivery. When the woman from our agency called she said is was so important to get this out today because "They are trying to rush this group through quickly" I hope this is true but suspect it was said to light a fire under my behind to get the new notarized form to her. But I can hope. I e-mailed her asking who this "they" is that is trying to rush it and an estimate for a timeline. I expect her usual vague wish she had a crystal ball response.
But we are closer!!! Maybe 4 months? Maybe 6? Just praying we don't get the five month to schedule a court date Friday judge! So excited about going to Korea and meeting our guy. So glad to know our EP was submitted.

More changes in Korea

Korea has added another requirement to those in process. The new requirement is three notarized reference letters. I feel like the goal post keeps moving even though this is not that strenuous of a requirement, delays of weeks at this point are excruciating. This requirement has to be met before EPs will be approved by those already submitted, so it doesn't apply only to those starting their adoptions. Also the home study has to be less than a year old in order to be submitted for EP which is the first I've heard of this as here they last 18 months. At least we updated ours earlier this month but it just seems like one more thing after one more thing. First we learn not one but two trips to Korea then psychological tests, I just want to get through this without new and urgent things popping up which must be done.
We are hoping that we were submitted for EP this past Friday though our hope is based on FB rumors, not our agency. I'll update when we have confirmation of submission. So ready for this journey to be over and to have our son home!

EP Submission

This week has been a great one in terms of news from Korea. We recieved our legals on Monday, so I sent off our i600 yesterday AND we were informed our EP would be submitted at the end of this month! So excited to have news from Korea (they know we exist!) and now I am mapping out possible travel scenarios based on how long it takes for approval, then court submission, then court date. Getting very excited!! We are off to England tomorrow to visit family so hopefully that time will fly by and we will be submitted by the end of the trip.

Everything is Expiring

It is that time and...all of my adoption related stuff is expiring. It seems the past week has been filled with (unreturned) messages to USCIS for fingerprinting (did finally get someone), filling out SLED and sexual offender registry checks, updating references, updating the home study and just generally feeling stressed with a too long to do list. Almost have it done and going to get it sent off tomorrow by golly, just need a few things notarized.

In fun news I have been outfitting Grayson's bedroom. I realize I have a crazy amount of time before he is here but it is one less thing to worry about and has been fun. Here is a pic of the room so far and the crazy tall tent!

The stickers placed randomly on the wall are my daughter's doing, but so far I am loving the room!

Finding the wait hard!

Well I just found out that the care package that I sent to Korea May 21st was delivered yesterday! Can't believe it took so long and I guess the main lesson I learned was don't mail USPS from the UPS store, according to the tracking it took them NINE days for them to drop off my package at the USPS store (usually I love UPS but I did go to a different branch than usual). I am very happy to find that it arrived but I am thinking of holding off a bit on the birthday care package since this one just got there. Another thing I learned was that while my super cheap (well over $100 but less than the $300 UPS wanted) shipping would not let me track by the USPS receipt number I could track through the customs ID on the customs declaration form. I found this out after putting in basically every weird number/letter combination on the USPS receipt and custom receipt I could find.

I wonder when the foster mother will come to the SWS office and pick it up.
I wonder when we will be submitted for our Emigration Permit.
I wonder what day in July all the July birthdays at SWS celebrate their birthdays out at a restaurant together.

There is just so much I don't know and it is getting frustrating. I know we have a long time to go and I need to just relax but I am finding it hard.

Feeling very ugh today and feeling bad for it as I know how lucky I am and how much I have to be thankful for it. Hopefully I will wake up feeling positive tomorrow.

Books!

This past weekend I went a little Amazon crazy with adoption related books and today they arrived! 

I bought three books for Grayson (two recordable ones to send to Korea and one that I will keep here for him). I also bought myself two books. The first is Parenting Your Internationally Adopted Child and the second is Toddler Adoption by Mary Hopkins-Best. I am going to try to read both this week.

I am really glad these arrived today because I just signed up with various learn Korean websites and I am sort of dreading it so now I have a reason to procrastinate. Yay!

I hope I made good book choices, I went mainly off of Amazon reviews.