One Step Closer!

We are so excited to tell you this latest piece of news on our adoption journey--we were approved by immigration! This was the step we were unsure of as far as the time frame, and it happened faster than we were expecting. What a great early Christmas present! On Monday we will be sending our letter of immigration approval, more paperwork, and a photo album and letter to the birth parents to our agency in New York. If everything is complete, they will send our paperwork to Korea on Friday!! We will then officially be waiting for a referral. Since referrals are coming in about 8 months and travel is 4 months later, we are looking at about a year from now. Which means that next year around this time we may be planning a trip to pick up our baby!

Our photo album and letter to the birth parents

Even though a year seems like a long time, we have many plans for our wait. We'd like to...

*Learn Korean (at least enough to feel comfortable traveling there)

*Build our collection of children's books about adoption and Korea

*Read as much as we can about attachment in adoption, raising adopted children, and the Korean culture

*Find a circle of adoptive parents in the area to get together with

*Knit a baby blanket or make a quilt (maybe both!)

*Prepare for what we will send as a care package to our child once we get our referral

*Apply for as many grants as we can

*Save lots of money! :)

*Enjoy our alone time as a couple.

As you can see, we'll keep ourselves pretty busy! Please keep the birthparents and our child in your thoughts and prayers.