At this time we are on the "waiting strip". Not waiting for a baby, but waiting to wait on a baby. Ya, you read that right. There is an identified waiting to wait period. I learned today that we need to complete the I600A form to petition the US government for approval to adopt internationally. There is a new fee with that (which I don't recall knowing before) and the processing time of that application is 8 weeks. Once we get the approval from the USCIS then we will be on the waiting for a baby list. The official wait list! Our USCIS application and payment will be express mailed tomorrow and our US processing fee was mailed out today. I was really hoping to be on the waiting for a baby list by May 1, but it could be July 1 or so. I suppose we will wait longer, there is a baby that needs a home so we are okay with that! We still hope to have our baby home by Christmas, but more and more that seems unrealistic.
I've been answering a lot of questions in person so I felt like I've shared this with everyone but I will post the following for those I don't talk to often or ever.
Korea requires their babies to be available for domestic adoption for 6 months, once they have been for 6 months then they are open for international adoption. So for those people (us) who want to adopt a baby 2 years or younger have a bit of a longer wait because we have to wait for them to turn 6 months old. We could adopt older and not wait as long, but we really believe that adopting age 2 and under is what we need to do right now. Thus, the average wait is 6 months.
Once we have been given a referral we have a few days to pray about accepting the referral, take the records to a pediatrician (we don't yet have one, or even have one in mind!), and consider the implications of the health issues at hand. During the application process prospective parents indicate what illnesses they are open to in a mild, moderate, or severe fashion. By not answering you are indicating that you are not open to that particular illness. Our social worker told us that perhaps our wait won't be as long as the usual (18 months total) because we are open to a lot of illnesses.
Ummmm....we are?
We indicated that we were open to illnesses such as: cleft lip, minor heart defects (I think), food allergies, webbed hands/feet, abnormal sonograms/scans of certain kinds, etc, etc. There is no guarantee that a naturally born baby will be free of medical issues. I have a second cousin with significant food allergies, one of my dearest friends had a scare that the little girl she is carrying was going to have Down's Syndrome or another significant illness. My sister was born with birthmarks that looked like strawberries and were about the same size, too! I was born with a hole in my heart. My husband brother was born ugly! (Hahahahahaha! Just kidding Luke! :)) But seriously, we simply marked illnesses that natural born babies could be born with and could be corrected on its own or by minor surgery or medical intervention as well as concerns like food allergies. Things that aren't life shattering, but may just require some life adjusting. We decided not to accept babies with major illnesses like Down's, HIV, Hep C, etc because we simply aren't equipped to voluntarily take that one. We wanted to be responsible in this opportunity and ensure that we could provide an appropriate environment for our baby-to-be. My gynecologist told me of a person she knows who only adopts children that will die prematurely. How tearfully amazing, she and her husband are burdened to provide happy and loving homes to deathly ill children!!!
So, after waiting an average of 6 months for a referral, we then accept the referral and move forward into more paperwork, the EP process. I'm not sure what that stands for, I have a lot more reading to do in the manual, but I'm getting there. Nonetheless, once the referral is accepted and paperwork is completed we then wait for the Korean government to issue us our visas. The average wait for this is 1 year. Korea has been limiting and reducing the number of visas they give out to people for international adoption. They have not revealed why or even how many they issue. But if your paperwork isn't processed by their cut-off limit, then you wait for it to re-open. It's not done by calendar year, either so there is really limited guessing. I believe, however it was mid February 2012 when they reopened visa granting. I'm hoping that is in our favor. Once we are approved we then get a 2-4 week notice to travel and we get our baby! We will stay in Seoul, Korea for about a week and make a 14 hour flight back home to begin our new life of bonding and learning...that's exciting and scary at the same time!
So, I believe for now that is it. All-in-all, it will probably be 8 weeks before there is a major update to share, but I'll try to post updates on the baby's room, designs, and maybe baby names. We talked again last night about baby names. Chris is stuck on a boy name that I haven't fully fallen in love with and naturally he doesn't like my picks. We have a significant list of girl names but he refuses to talk about girl names because 99% of the babies from Korea are boys, but maybe since we are open to more illnesses that makes more girls available to us. We really want a girl, that was our original request but then found out Korea doesn't allow requests. All of my siblings have girls and Chris' sister just had a GORGEOUS baby boy. I think since the idea of having a girl is so far out of reach we are silently yearning for one more and more while eagerly awaiting a precious baby boy!
Until then we will be waiting...on the strip of course.
Thanks for the support and prayers!
Local readers, don't forget to look for me at the Mayfest on May 12. I have a booth for the crafts I've been making and to take orders. See you there!
Chris and Connie
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