Referral

Hi all

It has been a while since I posted. What a year it has been. Mike and I have been in the process of adopting for about 9 months. It has been a very exciting journey. Taking parenting classes,Multi cultural classes and experiencing so many new things and meeting so many new people along the way. We were expecting a referral in late winter early spring but you just never know when that call is going to come. God had other plans for us.

On Dec 10th at 11:00 in the morning we received our referral call for a beautiful baby boy. He was born June 13th, 2007 in South Korea. He is about 6 1/2 months old right now. Mike and I did our acceptance signing on Friday so about 14 weeks from last Friday we should be travel to Seoul, South Korea to bring our baby home. It may be a bit longer because we do not have our I600-A approval yet. It has been about 4 weeks since we got fingerprinted. It takes between 30 and 90 days to get approval from USCIS. So, right know we are waiting for our I600A approval and Legals from Korea so our agency can file our I600. We need lots of prayers that our I600A gets approved quickly so it does not delay the paper work and we get our travel call in 14 weeks.

We have finally chosen a name for our new son. Follow our Journey to Seoul, South Korea to meet our son.

Garrett Joon Lee Scott


It going to be a long 14 weeks but we are really excited. We hope to stay at the agency in Seoul. We have been told they have computers so we should be able to update everyone while we are there. In the meantime we have lots preparations to do to bring Garrett home.

Welcome to the Jungle.. Or the Zoo

Mike and I went out shopping on black Friday to use some coupons we had and to do some Christmas shopping. We had a coupon to babies r us so we were looking around to see if there was anything we wanted to buy. We checked out crib bedding and found the perfect bedding set. Mike and I both aren't into the whole pink and blue room so when we saw this set we had to buy it. It could be for a boy or a girl. I'm excited to get started on the room now. I just have to figure out what color to paint the walls.

Fingerprinted

We'll one more step done. Mike and I went to the USCIS support center on Tuesday and got our fingerprints taken. Mike went first and he had no problems. Then I went. Well, when I was done the person looked over my prints and says "They look good but 2 of your fingers could come in to question." Huh? Well I guess two of my fingers have been used so much that my prints have worn down! Uggh! So she said the FBI has the last say. They may ask me to come back for a second set for a comparison. Just my luck. But, I think they just have to say that just in case. As Mike was waiting for me to get done he heard another lady tell another girl the same thing. So praying my finger prints pass and we get I-600A approval soon.

Have a great Thanksgiving

Annette

Back from San Fran and Moving up

Well Mike and I got a nice surprise this morning after checking in with our agency after a nice Vacation in San Francisco/Napa Valley. We found out we are #5 on the boy list and #16 on the girl list. Yahoo! We're moving up. I got really excited at work but had to settle down and focus on my project that is due.

I got an email from a girl that I have been talking to they got there referral last Friday. They had been waiting for 4 months 3 weeks. Mike and I are at about 2 1/2 months in our wait for a referral. For a boy they are quoting 6-9 month wait till referral. So referrals are pretty close to on track but more close to the 6 months wait and earlier versus 9 months for boys. We were added to the list on Aug 29th. There could be others on the list that would get a referral before us tho. We are matched based on a medical checklist. This list helps the agency know what medical issues we are open to. It just so exciting to hear were in the top 5 on the boy list.

I think the reminder of the year will fly by because of my projects at work. It would be so neat if we got a referral before Christmas. I'm being realistic tho. The end of Feb would be a 6 months waiting. I think things will slow down now because of the holidays. That and Korea will only allow so many Visa's issued in a year for adoptions.

Mike and I have lots to do now that were back from vacation. We have to gather up some pictures and other paper work so were ready when referral comes. I also have to find out about getting Hepatitis A and B vaccinations.

Well keep checking back.. I never know when were going to get that call. I think the hardest part will be the 10-14 week wait after we accept the referral to Travel to Korea.

Fingerprint Appt Notice

The last couple of weeks have flown by. Mike and I went to Korea night last Thursday. Most of the people there are people in the process of adoptiong. It was lots of fun. We learned about what things are like in the Korean society and why mother chose to place their children for adoption. We also learned a little bit about what to expect while we are in Korea. We also got to try some more Korean food. It was all very Yummy. At break time we went to the traveling Korean Market.

When we were at the workshop we were talking with a few couples that had recently got their referrals. They had both gotten their referrals in 5 months and they had requested girls. Things are looking good. They are quoting 9-12 month waits for girls. So it was nice to hear they got there referrals in less time. We are open to either gender. I hope things keeping moving along. I expect with the Holidays quickly approaching thing will start to slow down a bit though.

Mike and I have so many books to read before our little one comes home. Luckily winter coming so we'll be in the house more.

Mike and I got our notices in the mail from the immigration office. We have to go and get our fingerprints done for the third time on N0v 20th. One more thing to check off the list of things to do. Yay.

That's all for now. Mike and I can't wait for Vacation :-)

Last couple of weeks

Wow mid Oct already! Mike and I have been keeping busy the last few weeks. We filed our I600-A at the beginning of the month and got our receipt that they received it on Wed Oct 10th. We are now waiting to receive the letter that will tell us when we need to go get finger printed. Yup, we have to get finger printed for a third time. Things are moving along with the Korea program with our agency. They had 15 referrals last month.

Mike and I went to Explore Korea at CHSFS on Oct 11th. We had lots of fun. We got to try on and get our picture taken in a Hanbok. Mike's was a little small. We also got to sing some Korean children songs and try some Korean snacks and we made a toy. It was so fun to see all the families and meet some people that have already been through the process. On Oct 25th we are going to Korea Night at CHSFS. This is for families that are in the process of adopting. We will learn more about the Korean Culture.

We have so much planned for the next several weeks time should really fly by. We are taking a trip to San Fransisco In November for our 5 year anniversary. We are really looking forward to to.

Well that all for now.

1 month

It has been 1 month since we have been waiting. Time is really flying by since I have started my new job. There is lots to learn. I found out about a week ago that we can now file our I600A. After we send that in we will have to wait about 6 weeks to be finger printed again. I talked with one of the Korean country specialist and she said it will be about a 6 month wait till we get a referral for a boy. We are open to either boy or a girl. The girl wait is 12 months. Because we don't have any children in home we could not specify gender. I'm going to stick with the original estimate 6 - 9 months. Then I won't be disappointed when 6 months comes and goes. I was telling mike this weekend that if we got out referral at 6 months which would be February. He/She would be born Sept/Oct. With Korea new rules effective this year, children have to be in foster care for 5 months. Korea is trying to promote more domestic adoptions.

Mike and I are keeping busy so I hope the time keeps flying by.

Hoban

Mike and I had our first taste of Korean food. It was soo yummy! On Tuesday Sept 4th. Mike and I went to a Korean restaurant called Hoban. It is located in Eagen off sliver bell road. We had no idea what to expect. They give you so much food. Mike had a chicken dish and I had a beef dish (I can't remember the names). We ordered some dumpling and then we were surprised and they bought out side dishes. We had no idea. So were were sitting there with a table full of food. We got to taste Kimichi,Potatoes,Celery,Radishes and more. This was all served in their own unique sauce. Our waitress was so nice. She explained what every thing was and helped us figure out how to hold the chop sticks right. It was a great meal. Now that Mike and I are working closer to each other we are going to try and get to their lunch buffet to try some more foods. Yum-o!

Approved!

Our morning got started very early on Wednesday Aug 29th. I woke up and took the pups for a very long walk to wear them out before the social worker arrived. We went twice around Parker's lake. I think Bella could have gone a 3rd time she is like the energizer bunny. Daisy was worn out.

At 10:00 our social worker arrived things went really well far less stressful then what I had anticipated. The pups were well behaved. They played outside while we talked more with our SW about parenting and cultural stuff. After we were all done talking she took the tour of our house and then we were officially approved. We had to sign some paper work and she gave us our CIS paper work then she headed out.

After our SW left mike called his eye doctor to get his eyes checked and get his letter. He got lucky and got in that afternoon. For now that is the last doctor letter needed. We may need to get more. The Korea specialist will let us know.

We are now just waiting to hear from the Korea team. Our SW worker said we should hear from them within the week.

We are very excited but we do have a long wait ahead of us. To celebrate mike and I went to the state fair and pigged out on pronto pups,fries,deep fried pickle chips. Yum -o

Have a great holiday weekend

First Visit

Mike and I had our first visit with our social worker today. Mike and I thought things went pretty well. We had a 3 hour visit at Childrens Home. We were both pretty nervous before hand but settled down when we got talking. We mostly talked more in depth about our childhoods and how we were raised our marriage and Gavin. We will have to get more doctors letters. One for Mike's lazy eye which is corrected with glasses and maybe his back problem that he had when he was younger. I will probably also have to get yet another letter from my oncologist. uggh! How many ways can one say I deem her cured! Hee Hee. Oh well it just part of the process. We will have our home visit Next Wed Aug 29th. The day after my last with Christopher and Banks. I'm going to really have to wear out the pups that morning. I think it will have to be a 2 lap day around Parkers Lake. We have a few more books that our SW suggested we get. She is checking on the process of getting pre- approved to adopt from Korea. This will help so that we don't wait until referral to find out that we can not adopt due to my cancer history. Korea has a 5 year remission rule. I'm way past that starting my 10 year.
That all for now:-)

Welcome

Welcome to our adoption journey.

We have had quite an exciting spring and summer. Mike and I started the adoption process in April. Our agency is Childrens Home Society and Family Services. We are hoping to adopt a boy or girl from South Korea. We handed in our application on May 24th and about a month later we got our invite to attend our Pre Adoption Classes. On July 19th and 20th we went to PAC. After PAC we had to write our self studies which took about a week and half. After we were all done we each had about 10 pages written. We turned our self studies on Aug 2nd. On Aug 10th we got assigned to our social worker. Our first meeting with her is Aug 22nd at Childrens Home. Things have been going pretty smoothly. Mike and I are looking forward to our first meeting with our social worker.