This adoption process never ceases to amaze me. I am use to everything taking much longer than anticipated but this process is reverse! We are still waiting on our 1600 approval but we had a travel call with our agency and they said once we get approval we could be in Korea in 2-3 weeks from then! That's amazing. They are guessing it will be around March 21. WOW!
We are busy doing things that need to get done but might be a little harder with 2 kids. Milon is putting up our zipline for Davis this weekend. Because of the slope of our lot I am slightly nervous about the kids going too fast and being too far up in the air! He isn't done yet so we haven't tested it out to see.
I ordered a jogging stroller this morning since I don't have one and anticipate Emma taking a lot of naps in it while we are at tball games, the park, etc! I am also trying to do a bit of spring cleaning!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
I Have Become a Stalker
I am officially a pain in the butt. I check several Korean adoption websites everyday and have noticed a lot of posts about the United States Citizenship Immigration Services (USCIS) being very slow...imagine that. Apparently, forms wind up sitting on officers desks for weeks without an officer even being assigned the case. This comes as no surprise to me since we waited 4 months for our 1600a approval. We are now waiting for our 1600 approval so Emma can come into the US. I did receive a letter saying they received our form and are processing it but I have heard it could take up to 9 weeks! That is nuts! So, I found the phone number and email address and have been calling and emailing to make sure it is assigned an officer and not left to collect dust. They were gracious and sent me several emails back asking for our case number, etc but haven't heard anything back regarding my last email to see if it has been assigned an officer. Let's just hope they haven't responded because they are working on it!
Big changes have happened around here. Leah now sleeps soundly in her big girl bed. Once we got the referral I decided to move her out of the crib to minimize as many changes as I could before Emma arrives. She has done fabulous and never comes out of her room. It helps that the door sticks so she can't really open it :> Although at night I leave it cracked so she can get out in case of an emergency.
She is also now 100% potty trained, even overnight. She has been trained since about 26 months during the day, but I took away the diapers for naps and nightime and she has done great.
She is also sitting in a big girl chair at the table. I bought this great devise called "Kabbost" which lifts your chair up so the kids can sit in a regular chair at the table. I love them. I even found one for Davis on craigslist. He doesn't like it very much because he thinks it's for babies.
Let's see, we have also established a no getting up from the table rule which has been the best thing ever. If they get up they lose dessert. I think it's more the idea that they will lose something because we generally don't even have dessert! Strawberries and whipped cream are dessert around here.
I have to say kids get easier around 2.5 yrs. Leah will be 3 in April and I see such a difference in her. I can now reason with her and she gets it! She even tells me the rules now. We are still working on the whining but I pretend I can't hear her if she whines and she has to ask for whatever it is over again in a big girl voice. We will see how long it takes to sink in! She can be stubborn.
I really haven't done much to prepare for Emma. I went thru all of Leah's old clothes and separated them by season. I still need to move somethings around in the babies room but other than that we are just waiting on the call. Of course, nothing can happen unless the USCIS sends our 1600 approval!! Hence the harassing!
Big changes have happened around here. Leah now sleeps soundly in her big girl bed. Once we got the referral I decided to move her out of the crib to minimize as many changes as I could before Emma arrives. She has done fabulous and never comes out of her room. It helps that the door sticks so she can't really open it :> Although at night I leave it cracked so she can get out in case of an emergency.
She is also now 100% potty trained, even overnight. She has been trained since about 26 months during the day, but I took away the diapers for naps and nightime and she has done great.
She is also sitting in a big girl chair at the table. I bought this great devise called "Kabbost" which lifts your chair up so the kids can sit in a regular chair at the table. I love them. I even found one for Davis on craigslist. He doesn't like it very much because he thinks it's for babies.
Let's see, we have also established a no getting up from the table rule which has been the best thing ever. If they get up they lose dessert. I think it's more the idea that they will lose something because we generally don't even have dessert! Strawberries and whipped cream are dessert around here.
I have to say kids get easier around 2.5 yrs. Leah will be 3 in April and I see such a difference in her. I can now reason with her and she gets it! She even tells me the rules now. We are still working on the whining but I pretend I can't hear her if she whines and she has to ask for whatever it is over again in a big girl voice. We will see how long it takes to sink in! She can be stubborn.
I really haven't done much to prepare for Emma. I went thru all of Leah's old clothes and separated them by season. I still need to move somethings around in the babies room but other than that we are just waiting on the call. Of course, nothing can happen unless the USCIS sends our 1600 approval!! Hence the harassing!
Thursday, February 3, 2011
We Have a Name!
"Emerson Dabin"
although we will call her "Emma"
We heard from our agency on Monday that our paperwork from Korea arrived transferring custody of Emma to our agency The Barker Foundation. They will have temporary custody of her until we have completed our 6 month post placement meeting with a social worker at which time we will gain custody. This is something different for us because with Leah we got custody in Kazakhstan. What is nice about Korea's process is there are only 3 post placement visits- 1, 3, and 6 months after getting home. For Leah we have had a million social worker visits and we have to continue to give Kazakhstan update reports until she is 18!
I am not very familiar with what happens next. I know our agency sent our paperwork for 1600 approval and that will take 4-5 weeks. Not sure what happens after that! Maybe that's a good thing. I am having a travel call next week so maybe that will clear things up!
I mailed a care package to the foster family yesterday. I included a blanket, PJs, undershirts, pacifiers, shampoo, 2 disposable cameras, a family photo album, some chocolate covered peanut butter filled pretzels, and clover spun honey (apparently they don't sell it in Korea). The box I mailed cost $50 to ship! Wow, I didn't realize it costs so much!
I have also been working on gathering gifts for the foster family. I got the foster mom a sterling silver bracelet, the dad I got a northface type fanny pack, and their children (ages 16 and 18) I got Yankee hats and shirts. I still have to buy a little something for the social worker in Korea and a token gift for the driver.
I dug up our old Kazakhstan packing list to help me start planning for the trip. It was quite funny how long it was and how much I deleted off! It is SO nice to only have to pack for 1 week!
I am also starting to gather clothes for her. I don't have any 6-12 months clothes and am not sure she will even be in them. Unfortunately, most of Leah's 12-18 month clothes are winter. I imagine she will be in 12-18 summer clothes. It's so hard to guess!
Oh well, I am going to try to do a better job at blogging so she actually has something to read! Leah's blog turned into a long novel! I am hoping she will at least have a magazine worth!
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