More Good News

We were notified this week that our request for an Emigration Permit (EP) was submitted to Korea on May 22, 2009.  It takes 3-4 weeks for an EP to be approved/issued.  This is the document that says its OK for Alexander to leave the country without returning.  And, today we were notified that Alexander's I-600 (Visa) was approved by the U.S. Immigration Dept... Another big step!  

There is still no sure indication of when we'll be able to travel to Korea, but the paperwork seems to be moving fairly quickly! I am hopeful that we can meet our little guy in July.  

Mr. Handsome

We received some new photos from Korea today!  I assume they were taken at his well-baby visit on 4-28-09. 

We are in love.  I can't tell you how much it warms my heart to see Alex smile.  I can only imagine that behind the camera there is a loving foster mom or foster sister making monkey faces at him to get him to grin like that.  And the hair... he's taken his Elvis look to a new level now.  :o)  I have also realized that I completely misjudged how "well-nourished" this child is.  I need to get out some larger clothes! Its so great to get new photos, but also so hard to see them and know that we are a million miles away.  Come 'on summer!   

Things are moving along!

Today was an exciting day for us.  I received a call from Holt this morning telling us that Alexanders "legals" had arrived from Korea.  The legals basically show that Holt has guardianship of the child.  This paperwork is needed to file the next important form (I-600) with U.S. Immigration.  I picked the legals up from the Holt office and immediately got the I-600 mailed off this afternoon.  So, now we wait again.  Every few weeks (or days, hopefully) we will be notified of the next step, or form, that we need to complete.  Its a long process, but also nice to see each step reach completion - knowing that we're one step closer to meeting our son.  

The next exciting thing that happened today was our updated medical report from Holt Korea.  Alexander will have a well-baby check each month and the results come to us via email.  His visit on 4-28-09 went well, and the doctor noted that he was "cute and smiling". I love to hear that he's smiling!  He weighs 20.2 lbs and is 27.2 inches tall.  He's still eating formula about every 4 hours.  He's rolling over and standing with support, but not crawling yet.  He can grasp objects, smiles responsively, coos and laughs.  Sounds like he's a healthy, happy baby and we are so ready to meet him!      

Alexander is 6 months old!

Our baby turned 6 months old today.  I thought about him a lot on Mothers Day and hope the next few months fly by!  Nothing new from our agency, we'll keep you posted! 

And We're Waiting Again...

Thank you for all the nice comments, emails, and phone calls!  We were even surprised with a bright blue cake and a giant balloon! Referral day will always be such a wonderful memory for us!  We were so surprised to get that phone call - its been sort of a whirlwhind since then.  

Once we learned about Alexander we told our social worker "Yes!" and celebrated by having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  After that, we came down from cloud 9 long enough to begin all the paperwork needed to officially accept the referral. After lots of drafts, proofreading, copying, notarizing and two trips to Fed Ex, we overnighted the paperwork to our agency and were notified today that its on the way to Korea.  

The 3-5 month wait begins now... there will be more steps along the way, approvals, etc.  We'll keep you updated.  In the meantime, we have plastered Alexanders photo all over the house! I've started looking through all that baby stuff that's been tucked away in the basement for 4 years and am wondering where we will put the trains once the "train room" becomes the baby's room!  Lots to do!  

Below is Adam and his "Its a Boy!" balloon (Thanks, Susan).  Adam refers to Alexander as "his baby" and will tell anyone who will listen that he's going to be a big brother.  What fun.