Emigration Permit...WhAt?!?!

Warning:  I did not proofread this, so don't judge the grammatical errors and incomplete sentences!  I'm sleepy!!!

You my friends and family are some patient folks!  I see that the blog gets views almost daily and yet no one hassles me to update it.  I am super blessed by the obvious desire of those we know to know what is going on but the graciousness to not ask me to write it all out.  Because prior to today this is what it would have looked like:
Title: Adoption Update
Body:
Closing: Chris and Connie

But oh no, not today my friends, not today!  Let me start by saying when my heart gets heavier than I can carry, something happens with the adoption.  When adoption emails come in they always come in between 1pm and 3pm.  Our agency is on mountain time so their morning emails are sent in our afternoon mayhem.  On July 16 I receive what felt like *another* endless email from our adoption agency about a webinar we can be a part of.  With a flutter in my heart I checked my phone at the chime and saw that this was not what I call a 'meat and potatoes' email.  It was in fact a webinar email.  I was so frustrated and on the verge of tears I sent Chris an email that read word for word:

"I am so sick of these <explicit> adoption emails from our agency!"

I was so flustered about it I couldn't even form an adjective of any kind to explain what I thought of the emails so I literally wrote <explicit> as if that were the business of adjectives.  Looking back, I find that hilarious.  My sweetest friend (who I also have the joy of working with!) immediately noticed my tear wiping in the office and came in to console me.  Her emotions towards our adoption are so sentimental and genuine.  I literally can't get enough of it.  On July 19 I received an email asking for our I600 forms to be filed.  This is not a time sensitive thing to do.  It's completion does not slow us down or speed us up.  Regardless, that dud was sent via 2 day mail to ensure it's timely arrival.  I was pleased to have something productive to do with the adoption so no complaints here.  Right before I crawled into bed that night it occurred to me that July 16, 2012 was the day we received our referral.  The first time we saw our son's picture, heard his name, and called him by his new name.  No wonder I was having a melt down over an email from our adoption agency!

Prior to all of this in May we received notice to complete our second acceptance packet.  My phenomenal friend, former student, and former colleague came to our rescue and notarized about 50+ pages so we could send the info off.  That was a difficult experience and I will spare you all the details.  But boy do the ladies at work know about it!  I didn't blog about it because I didn't feel like it was blog worthy.  The experience was stressful to say the least and I didn't want to relive it.

Bring us to today.  This day was mayhem at work.  This week has been stressful in my life and at work.  So, because I wasn't expecting any adoption emails and had no idea what time of the day it was, I didn't even notice the chime of the email.  Then next thing you know I see an email from one of our social workers and the subject says "EP Submission!"

Insert ear to ear grin, a super happy heart and me busting into the front office to interrupt the 6 people who were in there having work related conversations.
"Everybody!  Hello!  Everyone!  I have a really important announcement!"
Lane knew.  She always knows.  Anytime I am excited she says, "What just happened?" or "What did they say?"
"Our EP has been submitted!!!"
Lane of course is excited.  The boss is highly confused along with the 4 other ladies in there.  Then it hits them that I am of course talking about the adoption.  Excitement begins to flourish but not to my standard so I boldly state, "Uhh, can I get an excited 'Yay!?!?!'  Then the loudest YAY!!!  bellows through the front office!  Lane is near tears and I'm pretty sure my boss is having a minor freak out about maternity leave.  He never said it, but I could see it in his eye.  Hehehe!

So, what is an EP and what does it mean, you ask?  The EP is the emigration permit which essentially allows us to come into the country for the reason at hand.  The estimated time frame from submission to approval is 4-5 weeks.  After the approval is received Holt will submit our travel certificate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  This takes about one week for approval and we will not be notified of it.
Once the above happens then we will have our paper work submitted to the courts.  There are four judges that do adoption and one will take the case and then assign us a court date.  A COURT DATE!

I'm sorry...A STINKIN' COURT DATE!!!

Once the court date is set then Holt will notify us to get things together to travel to Korea!!!!  During this first trip we will meet Isaiah for about an hour.  An hour.  A lousy, stinkin hour.  BUT, an hour!!!  A whole stinkin' hour with our baby!  Our son!  And truly, our first born!  We will then spend the week out there going to court and doing some paperwork and sight seeing.  It's not by choice that we are there for a week, it's required because things don't happen one day after another.  There are days of down time with nothing to do but sight see.  This is going to be a great opportunity for us to learn about the culture of Korea and experience without Isaiah and take in a lot of the history and culture.  After this trip and all that it entails we will then return home.  Childless.

About 3-4 weeks later, after all the appropriate paperwork is completed and approved in Korea they will call us to go back to Korea.  We will get our son permanently.  He is ours.  We again have to spend another week out there and we will then have the opportunity to sight see and experience the culture with Isaiah.  Once we get everything completed we will head home.  Once we hit US soil Isaiah will be a permanent US citizen and 100% ours!

All of that leads me to this:
He could very well be home by Christmas.  I'm confident that he will be home by Christmas.  I'm claiming that to God and have complete faith that he will make this happen.
This also means that we may be with him on his second birthday in November.  Holy Cow!

I will update you all again in the next week or so with a random list of things we have to do, his bedroom plans, and the endless list of questions regarding what a person needs for a toddler?!?

Please, keep praying for a speedy approval in the courts and God's provision and perfect timing!

Thanks!
Chris and Connie