Stepping over the latest hurdle!

Today Baby E is 8 months old. It's one of those sad days....I just wish he were here. His I600 was finally approved- it took the US government 7 weeks and 2 days to process and approve it! Now, the document goes on to the NVC (National Visa Center). Once it is processed, it is wired to Korea for processing over there. The paperwork really never stops moving. It is always somewhere being processed and approved. Of course, there are NO time frames for any of this, so we really have no idea...The Holt web forum mentions 4 weeks wait for baby from I600 approval, but I don't know what that is based on, or if it is wishful thinking :) At least going into Christmas, we know that we have crossed a very big hurdle having the I600 approved.

As for the picture, thought some of you might enjoy my Mom's latest work...Fernando has no idea how his world is about to change!!!

Time keeps ticking away....

Time keeps ticking, ticking, ticking away....We are now waiting for I600 approval from the US government. This is the US Approval form that Baby E can be adopted! It was submitted on 10/31 and should be processed in 6-8 weeks....but, we all know how the government works!

We are also waiting on more paperwork from Korea- which include: Class B Waiver (formal acknowledgement that we are aware of medical conditions), NVC (National Visa Center permission for E to come to the USA with a one-way visa), Packet 3 (Packet 3 is sent out to your agency once your I600 approval arrives in Korea. It is returned by your agency to the Embassy and then the Visa appointment can be scheduled.). VI (Visa appointment in Korea), TC (Travel Certificate, official Korean passport). We have already received notification that his EP (Emmigration Permit, which is the Korean governments permission for him to leave the country) was applied for on 11/23. The "word on the street" is that it roughly takes 8 weeks from the application time to baby......We should get some type of notification when each piece of the puzzle is finished, but sometimes the notification part falls through the cracks.

In the meantime, I had a AMAZING shower...you can see the picture above of me passed out after opening all of the gifts! It was truly everything I had imagined and a confirmation that our son is SO loved.

We have decorated our tree in "baby theme", since this truly is his first Christmas! We have decided to leave the tree up until he comes home :)

Baby E is now weighing in at....drumroll please.....15.4 pounds! Not bad, since he started off at 3.8. He will be 8 months on December 22nd, and believe me, we are celebrating every month!!!