As many of you all know, our family just received a referral for the most precious little boy. I can't wait to officially be the mom of THREE little boys. That's right, not one, not two, but THREE wiggly, daring, dirty, loving little boys. All three with their own unique personalities. I think #boymom would be appropriate. You can ask anyone that knows me, I'm definitely a #boymom. I love everything about it, don't get me wrong, motherhood isn't for the faint of heart, but I wouldn't trade it for the world...especially to these three boys.
For anyone who is interested in how it all happened, here is the story. Wednesday afternoon (6/22) we received a call from our home study agency, that is the local agency that took care of all of our home visits and what not. Just seeing the name on my phone may have caused me to have heart palpitations...I'm only partly exaggerating. She told us that AIAA (our child placement agency that is located in Michigan) had just sent them our referral. That the referral was for the most precious little boy. You can imagine that my heart was nearly out of my chest at this point. The director told me that we needed to set up an appointment to meet and go over the paperwork. My response, "ok, we'll be there in about an hour." I'm sure she was thinking the next day. Nope, this momma was ready to see her sweet soon-to-be son. Off we went, both boys in tow, to see pictures of our newest addition. The whole way up there my eyes were a seeping mess and my heart felt like it could explode.
For anyone who is interested in how it all happened, here is the story. Wednesday afternoon (6/22) we received a call from our home study agency, that is the local agency that took care of all of our home visits and what not. Just seeing the name on my phone may have caused me to have heart palpitations...I'm only partly exaggerating. She told us that AIAA (our child placement agency that is located in Michigan) had just sent them our referral. That the referral was for the most precious little boy. You can imagine that my heart was nearly out of my chest at this point. The director told me that we needed to set up an appointment to meet and go over the paperwork. My response, "ok, we'll be there in about an hour." I'm sure she was thinking the next day. Nope, this momma was ready to see her sweet soon-to-be son. Off we went, both boys in tow, to see pictures of our newest addition. The whole way up there my eyes were a seeping mess and my heart felt like it could explode.
When we arrived we were given a gigantic folder of paperwork. For anyone who is in the process of adopting from Korea, the folder of papers includes several things. There are several papers that you will need to make copies of from the home study process. [ADVICE: Make copies of EVERYTHING when going through the home study process, then keep it all in a very organized binder!] We had to make several copies of the following documents: State and FBI background checks, birth certificates, marriage certificates, I-600A approval and your passports. There were also multiple papers that we had to sign and get notarized. Oh and you also have to get the child's information looked over by a pediatrician. We are in the midst of this process right now. We hope to have it all submitted by Wednesday(6/29)! Once it is all submitted we will be considered ATK, also known as Accepted to Korea. Fancy, right?
Here's the good part of the giant referral packet. We received tons of pictures of our sweet little guy. Seeing these pictures for the first time was one of the most surreal and emotional moments of my life. I've described it to some people as a mixture between hearing E-Man and J-Man's heartbeat for the first time and the moment that they were placed into my arms for the first time. It was like we were finding out we were pregnant but we had the perks of seeing his precious smile and reading about his handsome little personality. Let's just talk about emotions, shew. All the feels. My heart was proud to know he was going to be OUR son. My heart was in LOVE. My heart had emotions for his Korean mom. My heart was thankful for his foster mom (which is who he is living with now.) My heart was (and is) wanting to hold that sweet boy in my arms.
We also received a packet of papers that included everything about our sweet little guy. Information about his Korean mom and dad. The details are amazing. It described everything from his Korean mom and dad's health records to how they met and even their face shape. It included his Korean grandparents' personalities. There were little details about how this little guy falls asleep each night, how he prefers his bottles, all of the milestones that he is meeting. The amount of information we got was pretty amazing. These things will all be very helpful for his future.
What's next? Well, I wish we could say that we were catching a flight next week to get him. Not so much. We have just begun the waiting game, fortunately now things are moving forward. Before this referral it was all sitting still. If I had to guess, which is never a good idea in the adoption process, I could hope if all things went well we'd be able to make our first trip to Korea to meet him and attend court, sometime in December(ish). If this were to be the case, usually custody takes place about 6-8 weeks later. Why the wait? In order for him to leave Korea and become a U.S. citizen, he must get an Exit Permit (EP). So we must wait to be submitted and approved for this first. Then we will wait for a court date. Oh and if you are Korean adoption junky and I have any of this information incorrect, please let me know. This is all from hear say and attempting to learn the system. Also, for anyone that isn't in the adoption world, guessing about your timeline is kind of a joke. It's not really possible. We will probably get about a months notice (give or take) before we make our first trip to Korea.
For now I will continue the #boymom life of two. I will continue to imagine how great and different things will be in the not-so-far future. We will pray for our newest addition every night and I'm sure J-Man will continue to steal pictures of our little guy, and continue to rock the little picture while saying "so cute...baby brubber."
Here's the good part of the giant referral packet. We received tons of pictures of our sweet little guy. Seeing these pictures for the first time was one of the most surreal and emotional moments of my life. I've described it to some people as a mixture between hearing E-Man and J-Man's heartbeat for the first time and the moment that they were placed into my arms for the first time. It was like we were finding out we were pregnant but we had the perks of seeing his precious smile and reading about his handsome little personality. Let's just talk about emotions, shew. All the feels. My heart was proud to know he was going to be OUR son. My heart was in LOVE. My heart had emotions for his Korean mom. My heart was thankful for his foster mom (which is who he is living with now.) My heart was (and is) wanting to hold that sweet boy in my arms.
We also received a packet of papers that included everything about our sweet little guy. Information about his Korean mom and dad. The details are amazing. It described everything from his Korean mom and dad's health records to how they met and even their face shape. It included his Korean grandparents' personalities. There were little details about how this little guy falls asleep each night, how he prefers his bottles, all of the milestones that he is meeting. The amount of information we got was pretty amazing. These things will all be very helpful for his future.
What's next? Well, I wish we could say that we were catching a flight next week to get him. Not so much. We have just begun the waiting game, fortunately now things are moving forward. Before this referral it was all sitting still. If I had to guess, which is never a good idea in the adoption process, I could hope if all things went well we'd be able to make our first trip to Korea to meet him and attend court, sometime in December(ish). If this were to be the case, usually custody takes place about 6-8 weeks later. Why the wait? In order for him to leave Korea and become a U.S. citizen, he must get an Exit Permit (EP). So we must wait to be submitted and approved for this first. Then we will wait for a court date. Oh and if you are Korean adoption junky and I have any of this information incorrect, please let me know. This is all from hear say and attempting to learn the system. Also, for anyone that isn't in the adoption world, guessing about your timeline is kind of a joke. It's not really possible. We will probably get about a months notice (give or take) before we make our first trip to Korea.
For now I will continue the #boymom life of two. I will continue to imagine how great and different things will be in the not-so-far future. We will pray for our newest addition every night and I'm sure J-Man will continue to steal pictures of our little guy, and continue to rock the little picture while saying "so cute...baby brubber."
No comments:
Post a Comment