Care package #3

Happy Choesuk everyone! We had a great weekend celebrating the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival. It falls the same time as Choesuk every year so from now on we will incorporate Choesuk traditions as well!

Today I am sending off our third and maybe final care package to our son in South Korea! I found lots of fun gifts for his foster family while in England and Paris this summer so I was glad to not have to send more random soap type stuff to them. I am so ready to not have to mail things to my son half way across the world, ready to have him home.

Last week we received updated pictures of him and even a video of him at his first birthday party. He is such a handsome fellow, I wish we could share the pictures but it is against the policy of the South Korean government. It was amazing to see how he has grown! Thankfully he was recognizable from his previous pictures.

Here are some photos of the things we sent in out care packages. We sent a gift to our social worker (teas and chocolates), chocolates and nuts for the SWS staff, gifts for the foster family and for our son. We even recorded a video of us introducing ourselves to our son (my four year old stole the show) and put it on a USB drive. Anyway here are the pics:

Working on my Korean

I have been working on learning Korean over the past few months but really only started a big effort yesterday. I had been using iPhone Apps, I have a few but so far most like this one: http://www.codegent.com/apps/mobile/learn/korean/. Well yesterday my Elementary Korean book came in the mail so I started in on the first chapter and 30 flashcards later I feel like I am making progress. I have come up with ridiculous ways of remembering words, but hey it works for me, here is an example:
Please / boo ta kam ni da. For the life of me I could not remember this consistently. Until I started thinking ok boo, like boo I scared you, Please don't scare me. Please = boo. And once I remember the boo the word comes to me. Ridiculous I know, a peek into my weird mind :)
When we get Grayson home he will probably be around 18 months so he will understand a lot of Korean (and no English) so I am trying to learn all that I can! My goal is to study Korean one hour a day/ five days a week. Not looking forward to lesson three which is the Korean written alphabet, Hangul.
One of the good things (the only?) about the very long wait is that it has given me time to really research Korean adoption and adoption in general. After reading the adult Korean adoptee blogs I feel like I will be a better adoptive parent. I have also researched and learned more about transracial adoption and Korea in general. If the adoption had only taken six months (as opposed to closing in on two years) I never would have had the time to all of this. So thanks for that Korean MOHW but I think we can get this show on the road now :)

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!