[tinkerbell11599]

Hi All,

This group has been quiet lately so I figured that I'd post the question where you are in the process.

With us, we have finalized our son's adoption and are working on our daughter's (keep your fingers crossed that it is this year). We after our daughter's finalization, we will be working toward our son's and daughter's N-600 forms at the same time.

We gave a photo album to our kids' foster mother with pictures of our son so that she could have her own baby book of him. I'm working on another one for her of our son (with the last photo album which held 100 pictures, I only got up to his first birthday and we got him when he was 10 1/2 months old!!). I need to also print out photos of our daughter and send off another photo album of her as well. Ryan has been working on artwork to send to Korea as well. Katie is more interested in eating crayon than coloring with it so Katie's artwork won't be sent to Korea anytime soon.

We're also going to submit a letter for both our kids files requesting the birthmom to keep her address up to date with Eastern. I'm working on pictures of the kids to give to her as well as a letter (I have started this one so many times that I had to take a break from it for a bit to gather up my thoughts).

So where is everyone else in the process?

Jen

[sussgirl]

We have US visa approval and have been waiting on THE CALL since September 11th. I hate waiting and I hope soon I won't have to worry about it! Two of my friends got THE CALL within days of visa approval - bu they were both traveling and I have to believe that made a difference. We are waiting for an escort.

I'm always intrigued by people who send photos, etc to Korea. While we are also with Eastern, our US agency doesn't allow us to send anything to Korea. It has something to do with the taxes they would have to pay on gifts? I would have loved to have sent gifts to them all or pictures or scrapbooks in the future!

Michelle

[Joyful1]

We finalized with our son in May and need to work on his N-600 next. He will have been home one year in October so we are planning our little celebration! We also are sending gifts to the foster family in Korea - a photo album and a few other small trinkets.

Even though we can't begin to update our homestudy for a few months, we are planning to go ahead and send a pre-application to our agency for our daughter! With all the changes going on, I don't know if it helps to have your name "on the list" or not, but it will make me feel a lot better!

I wasn't aware you could send a letter to your agency to ask the birthmother to keep her address up to date - - do you think any agency would accept the request??

[sslgdl]

We are still waiting for our referral!!! With how quickly things were moving the first of the year with our agency I never expected to wait this long for our referral. We are told that we can expect it anyday. I am so hoping that we get it in the next few weeks so we can have our little one home by Christmas!

[cara620]

We are just trying to get our homestudy started. Our finger prints are done..and we are working on the Med.papers and the biographies (Uhg!).

[SPD]

Hi! We just received our referral on 09/15. We sent our acceptance paperwork to our agency on 09/25, so I am waiting to be able to post a picture. I am starting to fill out the I-600 so that we are ready when we have to mail it in. That's about it.

Sandra

[Amymomamie]

We received our referral Sept 1 and are now awaiting our 171H approval and call for our travel. We're not counting on anything earlier than late January 2007.

[hopeful2adopt]

Sammy came home on July 7th. We had our first post placement visit and are waiting on our second. Also, I just wrote a letter of gratitude to his foster mother. I also sent her some recent photos of our little man.

[cthy757]

Our first son came home in November of 2003 and is an active, curious, funny, and smart three-year-old. Our second son came home last February and is now 13 months old. He is a chunk who is walking EVERYWHERE!!! Our boys sometimes even share clothes ! We finalize our younger son's adoption TOMORROW !!!!!! We are so over-the-moon happy with our two boys...They are the JOY of our lives.

Cathy

[allenkaren]

Our son Jack arrived home one month ago. We could not be more thrilled and the sleep deprivation is slowly improving!!

We had our first post-placement visit last week. Our next meeting is in mid-November. I've started a letter to Jack's foster mom, but I'm constantly interrupted by my busy and awake little boy! I'm also putting together a small photo album for her. The one she sent us is just so lovely. I plan to send a few pictures to SWS with a small note to our son's birthmom.

Currently, my biggest project is getting my son to take his naps and sleep through the night!
Karen

[hscvt95]

Our son just came home on July 25th! Boy has the time flown by. We had our first post placement visit two weeks after he came home..and have our second visit on this coming up Tuesday. I am hoping to get a letter written to his foster mother..but it's hard to get much done.

So glad he's home!!!

[ahfdragonfly]

CJ has been home for 15 mos, now & I am currently planning her 2nd birthdday party. We finalized last June & just got her birth certificate a couple weeks ago, so I just have to plan on taking a day off with DH, so we can get her citizedship & social security stuff done. Hopefully I can get appointments for both on the same day! And for everyone who remembers my complaining about CJ's horrible sleep issues ..... it's still not a pretty picture. Maybe 2 or 3 nights a week, I'll get 7 - 8 hours of sleep straight. But ... she's my biggest bestest girl in the whole wide world, & I wouldn't give her up for anything!!

[mmcool]

We received I-600 approval for our daughter on June 9, and now -- nothing. There's not even a semi-firm date for when she will be home. We're hoping she'll make it home before Christmas, but I'm not sure how realistic that is. It may be into 2007 (which is not so fun considering how fast everything went the first few months of the process).

Sorry this post is not more encouraging. Her birthday was on September 25th, so this has been a hard month overall.

I truly hope others are having a quicker process.

Melissa

[tinkerbell11599]

Originally Posted by Joyful1

We finalized with our son in May and need to work on his N-600 next. He will have been home one year in October so we are planning our little celebration! We also are sending gifts to the foster family in Korea - a photo album and a few other small trinkets.

Even though we can't begin to update our homestudy for a few months, we are planning to go ahead and send a pre-application to our agency for our daughter! With all the changes going on, I don't know if it helps to have your name "on the list" or not, but it will make me feel a lot better!

I wasn't aware you could send a letter to your agency to ask the birthmother to keep her address up to date - - do you think any agency would accept the request??

It was a suggestion from a friend of mine who adopted two daughters from Korea years ago. It would be a letter that would go into your child's file is my understanding of it. I've left a message for our social worker for more info on it.

I'm excited that you are putting in your pre-app for a daughter. Hopefully things will go smoothly for you and I look forward to reading updates on this in the future.

Jen

[tinkerbell11599]

Originally Posted by cara620

We are just trying to get our homestudy started. Our finger prints are done..and we are working on the Med.papers and the biographies (Uhg!).

Cara,

I remember trying to get an appointment with my physician for a physical for the adoption and for the finalization. When trying to get a physical for the finalization, I learned from the first time around...I told them that it was a court ordered physical and the judge needs to have me get this done. I got a date for the physical 2 weeks later versus more than a month like with our son.

The biographies were hard. I remember spending so much time on working on mine. It drove me a little crazy at times...with my husband, he had an easier time. And trying to figure out all the addresses that I've lived at since 1973...ooh if I had only known in college what I learned last year while trying to remember all of them. I would have written every address down.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Jen