Travel Call

On Wednesday we got the call we have been waiting for! Our Travel Call!! We were so thrilled to finally receive it. By Thursday we had our travel arrangements made, printed out our needed paperwork and put to rest the disappointment that we will not have Shea home by Christmas.  We leave for Seoul on Jan. 6th and return on Jan. 12th. We are watching CNN religiously and praying for peace between North and South Korea. I can't believe on top of everything I have to stress about a WAR breaking out! Really??

Shea's Room

So the last three weeks have been torture. Our paperwork sat on a desk for 4 months and we are mad as hell about it. Our paperwork has made progress in the last week, which we our thankful for. In the meantime we have been busy putting together Shea's room with all the wonderful gifts we have received from family and friends. We are a potpourri of emotions right now, sad, angry, frustrated, hopeful, grateful, revengeful (that's mostly me) and anxious. Still praying everyday to bring our baby girl home, whenever that may be.

Holding On and a Poem

It's been a rough week, our paperwork is still stuck in Texas! This devastates us, especially with the holidays coming so quickly. Gene, of course, is being strong for the both of us and will now be in charge of calling all U.S Immigration workers for fear of my Sicilian/Irish temper.
On a positive note I have had two baby showers over the last few weeks, spoiled me. Shea has the most amazing aunties! My mother in-law wrote this beautiful poem and said I could share it with you.
To our Baby Sister Shea:
 We wish you were here on this beautiful day. We can't wait to kiss you, hold you, and play with you everyday.
We have an awesome mom and dad who will love you a lot,
And aunties, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, a tutu, nonna, and a papa,
You'll think you hit the JACKPOT!
So here is a bag of stylish clothes, 
Because when we go to Truckee or Aptos you'll have to have those!
We've changed our baby boy room from blue to pink, 
We can't wait to see what you'll think,
When you come home, our family will be complete, 
With the sister-patter of little girls feet! 
Your big brother, Franke and A.J. 

Bummer News.

So I got my hopes up and was thinking we would be headed to Korea before Thanksgiving, silly me. After waiting 3 months for US immigration to process our paperwork I discovered it still had not been done. I talked to our case worker in Texas and she could care less she was the only thing keeping us from our daughter. So we wait. I have to keep reminding myself that God's time is perfect and patience is the only thing I control.  Still praying to bring her home by Christmas which is her 1st birthday.

Undated Picture

We were thrilled to get two updated pictures of Shea today. I actually received them as I was shopping for gifts for Shea's foster family, adoption agency and other's who have worked toward caring for our daughter when we couldn't. Now if the Giants could win today.....

Update

     Sorry for the late update but we've been a bit busy with our travels, work and the boys.  Our last Well Baby Check for Shea was dated August 24 which means she was just a day shy of 8 months old. She measures  in the 25 percentile but I am not sure if that percentile is the same for US and Korea?? She is 2ft 3inches tall and weights 18 lbs 7oz.  The doctor seems to be happy with her progress and notes that she has good sitting balance, creeps or crawls, imitates speech and can transfer objects from one hand to another.  We are so proud!
     Of course we are always wanting updates and pictures though we know there are few during this time.  We received some wonderful news on our paperwork. Shea's Emigration Permit was accepted and we were able to get re-fingerprinted a week earlier then scheduled.  In MOST cases but not all, after EP has been accepted most families bring their children home in 4-6 weeks. We really want to have her home by her first birthday (Christmas Day) so are praying everything else runs smooth. Thank you for continuing our journey to Shea with us.

Updated Photo of Shea

We were so excited to get an updated photo of Shea last night. She is shown wearing one the outfits we sent her and in front is the rest of her care package. The women is probably her social worker at the Holt office but we are not sure. She has really thinned out. Her report stated she laughs loudly when playing peek-a-boo, turns over well on both sides, brings everything to her mouth, and sleeps 7 hours at night with two naps during the day. That's our girl!

Update for July

Shea had another Well Baby Check in July.  At 7 months old she weights 17 lbs 4 oz and is measuring 2 ft 2 in tall. She had more blood test, poor thing, but all came back negative which we are grateful for.  Shea is also rolling over, sitting up briefly and imitating speech sound. We love every bit of information we get about our baby girl.
We had a big packet of paperwork reach it's destination in Texas and now we wait for our next assignment to come.

Letter to Shea's Foster Family

After several tries I finally was able to put a letter together for Shea's foster family.  I kept it short but included a little about our family, how grateful we are they are caring for her and how much we look forward to visiting Korea and meeting them. Our good friend Jenny is having it translated for us and we will include it in our care package.
The boys took Shea's picture to school with them and showed their teachers their new baby sister.  They were so cute and proud.

Care Package

We get to send a little something to our daughter.

Paper Process

This is what takes 4-6 months. Remember we are waiting for government offices who aren't in a real hurry and understaffed.
HSTK/ATK are homestudy or acceptance paperwork sent to Korea
I600a/I600 is the immigration paperwork processed now at the NBC (national benefits center) and sent to the NVC (national visa center) where it is forwarded to the embassy
EP is emigration permit...ok from Korean government for child to leave country
EA is embassy appearance where your child goes to the embassy in Seoul for picture
VP is visa physical 
P3 is packet 3...the paperwork the embassy sends to Holt to get ready for issuing the visa
VI visa interview TC...TRAVEL CALL   

Referral

We finally got the call we've been waiting for! I would like to introduce you to our daughter, Shea. We can't wait to bring her home, but we know she is being well taken care of.  The hardest part is just beginning, as it is a 4-6 month wait until we are able to bring her home. There is a lot of paperwork that needs to be filed before receiving our visas. There were a lot of tears of joy when we made the big announcement to our family.

As I receive any new information, I will be posting it here. Please check back often, as we are excited to share this journey with our family and friends.