Don't forget

My posts are still on US time, so while it says the first post was 5/24, that was in the US.  It's 5/25 here.

Lisa

We're in Korea!

I know, I never said we'd even left yet.  It's been crazy.  We had a vague idea Thursday afternoon and by the time I left the kids' awards assembly Friday I had a voicemail from the agency saying we had travel clearance and could leave Saturday.  So at 3:30 am we left home and by 4:00 am the next day we were in Korea....of course in Korea it was that afternoon...late.  That really throws you off when you miss a day like that.

Anyways, I'll try to post here and there about our travel so far, but not exactly sure how that will turn out.  I just happen to be up at 2:00 am Korea time and couldn't sleep so I got my pictures off the camera and thought I might post a little.

The first flight was exactly on time and then we had about 3 ½ hours to get back through security before the next flight, which was way plenty time.  Then, Lois went on MANY walks through that area with the girls.  By then, it was 8 hours after we’d left home and they had done really well.  But, on the first flight Kae ended up with a window seat and she REALLY enjoyed getting to see the ground beneath us and slowly going away.  She was pretty amazed by that.  It was actually pretty funny on the way to the airport too.  The girls both fell asleep and had been asleep for quite sometime when we arrived.  They both woke up right as we were pulling in to park and Kaelin got so excited (she was woohooin' the whole time to park) to find out we were already there and Chelsi promptly told us she almost fell asleep.  ;)

The first little flight was just an hour long.  It was American and Kaelin thought it was great just because it was a new experience.  But, when we got on the Korean Air flight she really thought it was awesome.  They love eating on the airplane, picking out movies to watch and listening to their pick of Korean kids songs.  Chelsi ate a hamburger and some other kids stuff for lunch, but Kaelin and I had bibimbop.  Lois had the pasta.  She was too hungry to try something new at that time.  All the girls did was talk about how much they loved the airplane.  They obviously don't remember their crabbiness after they had been awake for almost 24 hours and FINALLY fell asleep the last few of the trip.  We barely woke Chelsi up enough to get off the plane and get through the airport.

Incheon International was very easy to navigate.  We were out of there in about 1/2 hour even with collecting our luggage, going through immigration and customs and exchanging our money.  I guess people felt sorry for us and people were asking us as we got close to the doors where we were going so they could help.  We knew which bus line, so that helped and Korean Air got us on their limo bus and we took the 85 minute ride to NEAR the hotel and walked another 2-3 blocks to the hotel.  with two kids, two large suitcases and 4 backpacks, we decided we were taking a taxi back to the airport.  I don't care....I'm not dragging poor Jaemin through that.  Chelsi unfortunately thought we were seeing him right away.  It was nice to be able to tell her this morning it's tomorrow now.

We're staying at the Fraser Place Central serviced residences.  It's very nice.  Our reservations didn't go through from the agent, so we were worried for a bit.  But, it was on my eticket so the guy at the front desk gave us a little bigger room for the same price (160,000 won)...about $127/night including two adult breakfasts.  Really cheap for Seoul.  The room is very large.  We have a separate bedroom with a queen and single.  Chelsi and I slept in the queen, Kaelin slept on the couch and Lois slept on the single.  We have tons of shelves and closets everywhere!  Tons of places to keep everything.  We even got two bathrooms.  The floors are hardwood and we really like that.  We have a kitchen, so we're grocery shopping for some things today...just some basics to avoid some meals if we don't have time to stop and eat somewhere.  We'll probably still eat out a lot because we all like Korean (except Chelsi) and I heard it's very inexpensive here in comparison to eating American here.

It's getting closer to breakfast time and then we'll pack what we need to venture out.  Today is just shopping, so we're hitting the markets.

Some pictures of our trip so far are below.  Please continue to pray for our safety while here and the safety of our loved ones still at home.  I'm SO glad we decided to have a friend come with instead of Brian and I bringing all 4 kids.  We were exhausted with the 4 of us.

The trip from Chicago to Korea.  We flew Korean air from Chicago to Incheon (outside of Seoul).  It was a great flight.  I mean as great as a 13 hour flight can be.  The food was good.  There were tvs in the seats, so the girls could watch whatever they want or listen to music or track the flight.  I, sort of, watched 3 movies on the way.  I don't think the girls really watched any, but they watched some Korean kid shows like Pororo.  They listened to some kids music and Chelsi got really loud when she heard the Three Bears song start.  She started singing along.  It was great!



















In Korea!!!









View from the room.

Now she's chanting

Chelsi has begun chanting/singing for her brother.  She was walking around tonight singing "bring home Jaemin, I want my brother home".  Oh, baby, me too!

Lisa

Memorial Day Weekend=Staycation

for us anyways.

Since I'm about 95% sure we're not getting our call this week to leave this weekend, we're going to enjoy ourselves.  Hopefully, the weather holds up and the kids will be able to swim.  Praying for 80s and no rain!  Then we can watch movies in the evening, eat out and other such luxuries.  While we're still prayin' for that 5% call (especially the boys so we're gone for a 3 day weekend while they fish the whole time), it's not likely and we're going to make the best out of this long weekend.  Shouldn't complain, it's one less day to work, but generally, if I'm at work a travel call is possible.  Double edged sword there, huh?  :)

Lisa

Another one of THOSE posts....

I'm ready.  I'm still ready.  I'm more ready.

Fingernails and toenails cut on two little girls.  ALL clothes packed.  Medicine packed.  Camera charged and packed.  Leapsters and batteries packed.  The only thing left to pack is one thing of my allergy meds that I can't pack until that day and this laptop...if it comes for sure.

As a back up plan the boys and I cleaned the pool up.  We rigged the pump to work as a vacuum on the floor of the pool and it's slowly warming up.  It's supposed to be pretty warm this week, so if we have a nice weekend, we'll be able to swim all weekend.  We're having a vacation weekend.  We're having a vacation at home.  If I'm not in Korea, I'm taking it easy and all of us are going to enjoy ourselves thoroughly, 'cause God knows if that call doesn't come I'm going to be upset.  So we'll have to make the weekend as fun as we can.

Lord, please, please send us that call early this week so we can leave this weekend.

Lisa

Dear God,

I know our son will come home in your perfect time and only you know exactly when that is, but please let that time be soon.  We're so ready for our son and we are praying hard that we get our call next week and can leave next weekend to hold him.

Please hear our prayer.

(Lois, thanks for lighting the candle.)

Lisa

Whine Whine Whine

Maybe I need a glass.  :0 )  Seriously...may soon.

I know we haven't been waiting long.  Not long at all in the world of waiting for a travel call for adoption, but now that everything's ready for Jaemin, I'm done and want him home.  It wouldn't be so bad if there were other travel calls going on, but there really aren't.  None that are close to ours to give us the idea ours might be coming soon.  Back in April when our I600 was approved the agency said Social Welfare Services (SWS) have been running about 3-5 weeks for travel.  This is week 4.  At this point, I don't even foresee next week getting a call.

Alright.  I give up!

Lisa

New Rooms Done!

Both rooms are done.  We still need some little things for Jaemin's room, but what's necessary to live is there.  The boys room is complete.  They've moved in and hung all their stuff back up.  KOREA, WE'RE READY FOR OUR BABY NOW!!!





Here's what I painted on the bulletin board attached to the mirror on the dresser.



And the big boys' room.

Another step down/P3

In the adoption world P3 means Packet 3.  It's a packet that gets sent from the embassy to the agency.  This packet contains what the agency needs to get a child's immigration visa.  So, now, everything is done on the US side.  There is nothing left.  Now we wait for the agency to get the visa and passport in order and he's ready.  Some people get a call two days after P3 and some wait up to 3 weeks.  It depends.  The agency can basically do what they want now.  If you're escorting and they don't have an escort lined up they don't need to be in a hurry to return it and schedule the visa interview.  If the passport isn't done yet they can't apply for the visa anyways.  Since we're not waiting on an escort, that will not be a problem.  We're probably waiting on passport though.  It's too early in the wait not to be.  So my guess, is we'll be somewhere in the middle to later end of the P3 wait to travel call.  I'm still hoping for the week of the 18th, but who knows.

Then, when we get the call we can leave anytime we want.  We must be at the agency on a Monday and cannot leave until at least Thursday that same week.  We hope to leave on a Saturday, but we'll see what fares are like and what day of the week the call comes.  No one knows.

Lisa

Passports and Visas and Emigration Permits

Okay, so the passports are ours and the Visa is just an approval so Jaemin can receive his Visa in Korea.

We all received our passports two Mondays ago, except the girls'.  So I called for a couple of days to check on the status and then finally asked to have someone call back.  The lady who processed our other 4 passports called back Friday.  But, by then I had already received the denial I was expecting asking for the girls' adoption decrees to prove they were US citizens.  The lady admitting our paperwork at USPS at the beginning of April refused to take the documents.  So I ran to get the documents mailed that night and sent a check to expedite their passports so we didn't run into any other snags.  But, I did write a note to cancel the checks if they could since it was not our fault.

When the lady called me Friday I told her I had already mailed them to her attention and told her what happened.  She said she would call when everything arrived so I could rest easy.  She just called yesterday to let us know that she had everything and was sending them out to be printed and we would have them in about a week.  AND she voided our checks!  Federal government being nice?  That was awesome!  Saved us $120.

Now for Visas.  As you know we were approved by USCIS for our I600 on 4/20, which is really quick!  NVC (National Visa Center) received the approval on 4/27 and by 4/29 we were logged out of NVC and it was sent to the embassy in Korea.  All this is is an approval saying we're okay from the US' side and telling the embassy that as soon as the Korean agency applies his Visa can be issued to come home.  This doesn't mean we're done.  First a packet is sent from the embassy to the Korean agency to make them aware we're done on this side.  Then, if our son has his passport or approval (emigration permit) the agency can schedule a Visa interview and submit the packet back, get his passport and send him home.  Sounds easy, but it still takes sometime.

I watch other family's posted timelines and for this SWS (our Korean agency) we shouldn't have longer than 2 1/2 weeks left, BUT our home study just left for Korea this week, so I don't know if this will hold us up or not.  The placing agency in NY didn't know either.  She didn't think more than a week, but really didn't know.  Those darn EPs (emigration permits) are a huge mystery to all adoptive families.  So, regardless of the fact that our agency told us travel calls are usually about 4-6 weeks from I600 approval, but have been running 4 weeks, we will just have to wait and see.  I'm still holding out for the 4!  :)

So pray for us.  Hope we can leave that last week of May so Kaelin doesn't have to miss school or summer school to go.  That would be perfect timing in my perfect little world.  :)

Lisa

Still working on passports

We finally got the girls' denials for passports.  It's been so frustrating.  We applied on 4/4 and I brought their adoption decrees and Korean passports because I knew I was supposed to.  I insisted they go with the applications, but the lady working passports at USPS that day refused to at least humor me because she knew better.  Well, now I had to pay $14 to send that stuff plus I'm paying $60 each to expedite.  They do not know what they're doing.  The info line decided to let our USPS know that they were wrong so they'll know how to process these from now on.  I'm glad someone else won't have to deal with this headache!

So, if you have an adopted child, out of country, and want to get their passports, insist the proper documentation go no matter what!

Lisa

I600 Approval

So we know have another step down.  USCIS approved our I600 application.  This means the state side is just about done.  Our agency is applying for the interstate compact this week too.  That the last state side deal.  That shouldn't take very long, maybe a couple of weeks.  The Korean side still has a lot to do.  They have to issue his passport and visa.  They cannot even begin his visa until our approval arrives in Korea through the National Visa Center.  That should be next weeks sometime.  It's hard to estimate the amount of time Korea will take for their portion yet, but we're fairly sure he'll be home before my birthday at the end of June.  We're hoping for a call in May, but it's iffy.   We'll see if we can be one of those super speedy process people like a few people get lucky enough to be.  :)

Lisa

I'm sooooo tired

Kaelin and I have been shopping all day.  We were looking for chairs to go in the kitchen that we could match up to add to our table for Jaemin and a dresser for his room.  I finally found a dresser for a reasonable price and the chairs weren't bad either.  Once we get the boys moved we'll get a mattress for the big bed that will go in his room.

I finally let my guard down enough to really buy him some stuff.  I've been buying right around 9 month.  Thinking he should fit in there pretty well.  We got him a Cardinal's romper to start him off right.  Lois, you'll love it.  I got him a sleeper to wear on the plane and a few other things in case he has some accidents on the plane.  We don't have near enough clothes yet, but we have another month or so.  Only other thing, besides clothes, is diapers, wipes and formula to buy.

I've been starting to pack today a little bit.  It's such a big trip and so much to think about when you're bringing little ones.  So, after Kaelin and I bought the gifts for the foster family and workers at the agency we came home and bagged them up and organized gift bags, etc. so we can easily get them ready once we're in Korea.  I now know I AM going to overpack.  That's me by nature.

Oh well.  Done for now and probably until we get the call or at least a room to spread this stuff into.
Lisa

Introducing...

Jaemin William.

Our papers have all gone to Korea now, so we can show him off.  We've done our thing with immigration and now we just wait for both countries to issue a visa and passport.  Sounds easy, but it does take some time.  The agency is saying, on the long side, June/July, so we're hoping May/June.  Of course, late May.  We're not done with the bedrooms yet.  :)  Anyone want to come over and help us paint two bedrooms soon?

These are my favorites of Jae.

Another step taken

Our agency has Jae's legals.  So now they will file our I600 with immigration.  Problem is we haven't even filed our I600A and been fingerprinted.  So we're going to try to carefully coordinate this.  We already had an appointment to do our part and will do that this week.  They will, meanwhile, fed ex their portion and we'll try to see someone to put the two pieces together so they don't get confused down the road.

Approval could take 30-60 days...according to USCIS.  Generally, our offices is a couple of weeks or so, but I'll be happy with a month.  This keeps us in the realm of possibility of June.  I'd even settle for late June.  ;)
Lisa

Baby, baby, baby

Nothing like a labor that's very short.  Problem is you don't know how long it will actually be, so what do you do?

So far, I've spent the last month, since finding out we have a son, doing plenty of paperwork.  Signatures, notaries, copies of birth certificates, you name it, we've done it!  Tomorrow, I'm sending our official acceptance Fed Ex, back to the agency.  It won't leave for Korea until 4/20 due to their schedule, but this will give them plenty of time to check it for errors.  I got it all scanned and copies tonight, which felt really good.  After we go to immigration next week, we should have no more paperwork.  We will have officially done about 3-4 months of paperwork in 1 month!  This paperwork ends up being about 3 inches thick when you're through with it.  Really amazing when you get through it all.

As far as getting ready for Jaemin, we're getting there.  We're still working on the big boy's new room.  We're going to have to pay to get some help so we can get it done in time.  Only so much you can do when you both work and have 4 kids.  We have the basics of what we need, so we'll be okay.  Our friends are letting us borrow their crib mattress.  We still, amazingly, have the crib.  I was just about to sell it at this month's rummage sale.  I left a booster with tray at mom's, so we're getting that back until Brian can make a bench to go with the table we have.  We're slowly getting some clothes.  I have a whole rough tote now.  I went rummage saling for some and some girls at work have brought in some.  He has PLENTY of toys!  Another girl at work is having her son bring home some clothes from her niece's 2 year old in May.  Someone else at work bought us a diaper bag.  It was actually the one I'd been eyeing at Kmart, so that was pretty cool.  She filled it with receiving blankets, socks, bottles and nipples.  We have enough to get by now.  I think the only thing I'll have to, eventually, get is clothes that will fit at this age, more socks, diapers, wipes, blah, blah, blah.  :)

Once we get the boys moved out, paint and carpet Jaemin's room and buy a dresser or chest for Jae we can get the clothes out and figure out what we still need.  We should have around 2-3 months to do this.

We'll get it done......eventually.

Lisa

We have a referral!

It's the official referral.  They expected it by 5/1, so this was great news!  We're getting everything taken care of this week, hopefully.  Then the paperwork will be off to Korea.  Once we get his legals and can finish up with immigration we'll really be on our way.  Could be as early as June or as late as September.  We're hoping for July!

We got a picture too and he's too cute!  I'll post that after we get our acceptance off to Korea.

Thanks to one of the local bank employees (who's staying late), we're getting our papers notarized quickly.  Hopefully, I have enough time after work to really go through the paperwork and get things in order and ready before we get notarized.

We're getting closer Jaemin!!

BTW, you know what's super funny is I called my mil for something and also told her we had his referral and I was in the middle of packing things up to send to him when I told her what we'd gotten him.  We'd gotten him a little blanket animal and then I bought a 2nd to keep at home in case his foster mother didn't send this one back with him.  She told me how she'd already gotten him and then was telling me about it.  We bought the exact same one.  So now Jaemin has 3!  One for Korea, one to bring home and one to keep at daycare.

Mom

We're getting closer to the money to finish the adoption.

We have been trying our best to come up with every way to pay for this adoption without putting our family at risk. We know we're probably in better shape than some families, but we had not planned on a fifth child or third adoption. And, of course, we'll do anything to bring our son home. We have some money in savings today, we're getting more out of our home by refinancing and cashing out what we responsibly can.  Today we received some additional assistance from someone.

We had already hoped to go to Korea when the girls were older, just the girls and I. Now that someone has to go anyways to get JaeMin we felt this would be our one and only trip to Korea. We cannot leave the girls behind. They've had their hearts set on Korea for a long time. After we decided to go, we realized we couldn't leave the boys behind either. This alone will cost approximately $10,000 if we can get inexpensive tickets and some rooms at SWS' guest house. We expect the adoption to cost almost $41,000 with everything, including finalization afterward. Some money has to be spent to build a small bedroom in our basement garage for the older boys and JaeMin will have a room of his own; the girls share a room as well.  Some money we'll need because I don't have enough leave time to take what I need with JaeMin and will need money to cover the leave without pay I'll take for him.  The adoption alone, will deplete our savings, monetary gift we received and equity out of our home with nothing left.

Even with this...nothing left....we know there have been too many signs for this to be wrong.  I tried to ignore them the first couple of days or so, but everytime I thought there was no way we could God showed me differently.  It was me who had to be shown.  Brian believed all along.  God really did work in this.  We can both see it.  And now we're just a couple thousand $$ short of being able to do everything we need.  That's amazing!

Lisa

More Baby Stuff and Paperwork Fury

Today Chelsi and I went rummage saling.  We found a lot of clothes for Jaemin.  We still don't really have any summer stuff, but that's harder to buy until he gets home because that's what he'll wear right away.  Of course, we got him a Cardinals shirt at one!  He's got some shoes to grow into too.  Chelsi picked out a bunch of Baby Einstein and Usborne toys and books.  They were all .25 and in great condition!  So excited, but we missed out on the crib mattress we really needed.

After that Chelsi, Kaelin and I put together the little scrapbook we have to send to our agency with pictures of us and our life.  The girls colored it and designed the pages.  It looks great.  I have done at least two months of paperwork in the last week.  Fast and furious we're preparing as quickly as we can and anticipating what pictures, forms, letters, etc. anyone may need and getting them ahead so we can get our son here.

Lisa

Let the papers fly!

I have spent the VAST majority of the week filling out papers, scanning them, copying them, you name it.  Working with two different agencies is so much harder.  The coordination alone is hard, but then you also have to fill out twice the papers.   But, after a lot of paperwork and calls we are well on our way.  We should be beginning our home study update this weekend and she hopes to finish next week, maybe the week after.  If that happens it will be the quickest home study in history.  :)  This week we have fingerprinting appointments and physicals.  As soon as that is done and our references return their questionnaires the homestudy can be turned into the placing agency.  At that point, we just wait for the official referral to arrive from Korea.  Once that arrives we can accept our son's placement and Korea will begin moving him through their process to get him a Visa and Passport and permit to arrive.  Once Korea sends his legals (praying they come with his referral), we can file our papers with the United States government.  When all of this is complete we will get the call he can come home.  No sooner than June could this possibly happen and hopefully not long after either.

We're still working on money.  We've turned in the preapplication for one grant.  We have to follow up with our new home study once it's complete in order to be considered, but we didn't want to miss their deadline since we're kind of in a special situation.  We have another we need to finish applying for, but we're waiting on our placing agency to send us a letter to send with our application confirming we're in the process for our son.  We need a good $7-10,000 to be okay.  I was really amazed once I sat down to look at the cost, how much it's gone up since our last two.  It's almost $10,000 more than the other two combined.  Crazy, huh?  Some of the expense is travel.  This agency requires at least one of us travel to Korea.  I can't go and leave the girls.  They're wanting to see Korea so bad.  Since the three of us are definitely going we really don't want to be split up as a family and not receive our Jaemin together, so we're praying we can get enough in grants for all of us to go.

Please pray with us on this.

Lisa