Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Wow.

That is about all I can say. Today we got a packet in the mail marked "special handling" from USCIS. I expected that we'd get our approval before Christmas, but 3 business days after our prints? All I have to say is "Merry Christmas to us!"

We received:
Notice of Favorable Disposition Concerning Application for Advance Processing of orphan Petition
Notice of Approval of Relative Immigrant Visa Petition for Kim, Jeong Wook
Standard certificate that we hear was wired to Seoul, S. Korea

That means we are DONE with paperwork and all that is left now the final medical exam and for the Korean government to issue a passport and travel visa. It could be anywhere from as soon as 7 or as many as 12 weeks from now that we receive our travel call...only time will tell. I really have NO idea why it takes so long to do those things. But, I do know that Mrs. Kim is counting down the days of her last snuggles with him - and we are counting down the days we get to hold him in our arms forever. As much as we'd like him today, we wish for this time for Mrs. Kim to be very, very sweet.

The hardest part about the process now, is that we won't receive much info until we get that travel call, which comes about 48 hours before Levi will arrive (I know - not much time to prepare!). We'll pick him up at JFK airport in NYC. Many people have asked about our travel plans. We have a temporary arrangement that includes driving with our 2 kids, but I know LOTS of people that change that when they find out the dates & times.

After the holidays, we have LOTS of work to do. We have to assemble the crib, fill in his wardrobe, install the carseat. We'll stay very busy...for a while.

I'm finally headed to bed, but I haven't been sleeping so well lately...I wonder why? :)

Monday, December 15, 2008

A lot to report

We've had SO much going on in the last few days:

December 11: Fingerprinted in Boston! Yea! Are we EVER glad that it is done electronically! Steve's prints took about 4 tries each finger to get it right! He has such dry skin, the computer rejected the first of many, many tries! On a positive note - I was done in about 5 minutes! :) We are hoping to receive our I-797C soon. In short, this just means that we will be done on this side of the ocean and everything will hopefully be in Seoul before Christmas.

December 12 - 13: Traveled to Glens Falls, NY to go to the opening of a museum that Steve has been working on for that last 2 1/2 years. It was beautiful! I'd post pictures, but Steve downloaded them and deleted them off our camera before I could get them. I'll post soon! We stayed at a hotel with an indoor water park! (Didn't even know these existed before now - how cool!) We loved our time there. We have great memories!

December 14: Ben's 8th birthday! We had such a fun time celebrating. We took cupcakes to church, he opened his presents (K'nex and Lego Indiana Jones) and we had FONDUE (his request) for dinner. His "party" this year is a sleepover with 2 friends on 12/26, so we kept this day for our family. We had so much fun! Thanks for a great idea, Ben. :)

December 15th: Happy 8 months Levi! We hope you are home very, very soon. We'll keep you posted on any news....

Our Christmas Card Photo:


If you didn't get one and would like one, just email or post a comment! Enjoy!

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Fingerprinting and other news











We received news last week of our fingerprints being rescheduled. This time, for a date we can make - this Thursday, 12/11 at 9:00 a.m. in Boston. I breathed a sigh of relief when we got the date because our family is attending a library opening in Glens Falls, NY on 12/12. It's a big project that Steve's been working on and we are all excited about going - and I was nervous that it would conflict, setting us even farther behind. But no...we got a date we can make! Whew. One step closer!

I went to an adoption "meet and greet" time this past week. It was fun to meet other couples in the process and to talk with other waiting families. It's great to hear their stories about coming home, adjusting and enjoying their children. It helps us SO much. We hope to be a support to other adoptive families as we process through Levi's adoption.

In other news: We decorated our tree. The kids enjoyed it TWICE as much because we didn't put up a tree last year since we were in Bolivia for 3 weeks over the holidays. I love how kids ooo and ahh over every ornament before the put them on the tree. Funny thing is that I remember loving that when I was a kid!!! And Ella tried SO hard to reach the very, very highest she could...There were a few time I thought she might topple the tree over. The kids and I also decorated a gingerbread house to celebrate the start of the advent season. It turned out SO cute! Lest you think I'm crafty - it was a kit from Trader Joe's! :)

We had a really nice time in Philadelphia, PA for Thanksgiving with Steve's brothers. I'm WAY too tired to write more, so I'm just going to post photos. I'll let you know when we have more news!