We have officially been on the wait list for 2 months now. Given the 6-9 month estimate for waiting for a referral, this means that we are 20-30% done with the first wait. Wow – that’s the first time I thought of it that way and it makes me kind of excited to think that we could be a third of the way through! Our social worker let us know that we are #27 on the boys list and #45 on the girls list as of July 1st. This will be the last number update we will get as we were told this past week that they will no longer be able to give us numerical updates because the referrals all go by medical checklist (where we tell them what we are willing to parent) not by number in line. Apparently, they had some difficulty with people at the top of the list understanding this concept. While initially we were frustrated with the idea that we won’t know how we are progressing, we are now thinking that this will just make the wait all the more exciting!
So far we have passed the time by staying busy with our jobs and summer activities, traveling to visit friends and family, training for RAGBRAI (an annual 7-day bike ride across Iowa – we are just doing the first day), and finding time to relax and enjoy life BC (before children J). The two months have really flown by. Our list of projects to do before we bring our child home hasn’t gotten much shorter, but we have started working out. After babysitting our friend’s 10-month old last week, we realize we have a ways to go before we are ready to carry around at 20-25 pound baby all day! (It’s good to be reminded and stay motivated!).
We have also continued to learn more about Korean history and culture while we are waiting. Abbie has started checking out books by Korean authors, and one of her recent favorites is Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park. It is a children’s picture book about a common Korean meal of rice, mixed vegetables, and meat. The best part is that there is a recipe in the back, so we are looking forward to a good time to try that out. We also attended the CelebrAsian festival in Des Moines back in May. It was a day-long event celebrating many different Asian cultures, including Korean. There were different cultural performances, cooking demonstrations, and Asian games to watch.
.jpg)
Playing Sepak Takraw, a sport native to Southeast Asia that is similar to volleyball, but uses a rattan ball.
.jpg)
This weekend we are hosting the first meeting of an Adoption Support Group through our church. We have already connected with a few families that have children who are adopted, so we are starting with a small group and hoping to reach out to others as well. Our main goal is to create a network of people involved in all stages of adoption so that we can be a source of support to each other during the tough times and a group to celebrate with each other during the joyous times. Getting that organized should definitely be a fulfilling way to pass some more of the wait time.
We do have one official thing to do while we wait: file our I-600A form with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition which allows us up to 18 months to bring home a child from another country after it has been filed. The paperwork is all submitted and we have appointments for our official biometrics (i.e. another set of fingerprints) at the local CIS office here in Des Moines on July 20th. We are hopeful that these fingerprints will be processed much more efficiently than the first set we did for DHS!
We thank you all for your interest in how things are going. While we won’t know our number in line anymore, we will keep you posted if we find anything out and will definitely let you know when we get our referral! Our secret hope is that we would hear something by Christmas, but we do our best to keep our expectations realistic.
So far we have passed the time by staying busy with our jobs and summer activities, traveling to visit friends and family, training for RAGBRAI (an annual 7-day bike ride across Iowa – we are just doing the first day), and finding time to relax and enjoy life BC (before children J). The two months have really flown by. Our list of projects to do before we bring our child home hasn’t gotten much shorter, but we have started working out. After babysitting our friend’s 10-month old last week, we realize we have a ways to go before we are ready to carry around at 20-25 pound baby all day! (It’s good to be reminded and stay motivated!).
We have also continued to learn more about Korean history and culture while we are waiting. Abbie has started checking out books by Korean authors, and one of her recent favorites is Bee-Bim Bop! by Linda Sue Park. It is a children’s picture book about a common Korean meal of rice, mixed vegetables, and meat. The best part is that there is a recipe in the back, so we are looking forward to a good time to try that out. We also attended the CelebrAsian festival in Des Moines back in May. It was a day-long event celebrating many different Asian cultures, including Korean. There were different cultural performances, cooking demonstrations, and Asian games to watch.
.jpg)
Traditional Korean drumming at the CelebrAsian Festival (5/16/09).
.jpg)
.jpg)
Playing the janggu, an hourglass-shaped drum, and the kkwaenggwari, a small flat gong.
.jpg)
Playing Sepak Takraw, a sport native to Southeast Asia that is similar to volleyball, but uses a rattan ball.
.jpg)
Players can can only use their feet, knees, chests and heads to touch the ball.
This weekend we are hosting the first meeting of an Adoption Support Group through our church. We have already connected with a few families that have children who are adopted, so we are starting with a small group and hoping to reach out to others as well. Our main goal is to create a network of people involved in all stages of adoption so that we can be a source of support to each other during the tough times and a group to celebrate with each other during the joyous times. Getting that organized should definitely be a fulfilling way to pass some more of the wait time.
We do have one official thing to do while we wait: file our I-600A form with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. This is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition which allows us up to 18 months to bring home a child from another country after it has been filed. The paperwork is all submitted and we have appointments for our official biometrics (i.e. another set of fingerprints) at the local CIS office here in Des Moines on July 20th. We are hopeful that these fingerprints will be processed much more efficiently than the first set we did for DHS!
We thank you all for your interest in how things are going. While we won’t know our number in line anymore, we will keep you posted if we find anything out and will definitely let you know when we get our referral! Our secret hope is that we would hear something by Christmas, but we do our best to keep our expectations realistic.
No comments:
Post a Comment