Legals!

I just checked my mail, and there was a pretty-little-nilla-envelope in there waiting for me! The letter was dated December 10, so that's the date I'm going with. "What are 'legals' exactly?" you might ask? They pretty much state that our agency will be the guardian of little Joye until we finalize (~ six months after she's home). Nothing can get the ball rolling without these. Next step is State Approval and I600 submission.

State Approval is when our beloved Homestudy and legal paperwork are submitted to the State for an approval to adopt. Sometimes they can ask for clerification on certain things and that could delay the process. I have two friends from our agency that had a hiccup with State Approval. Hoping to sail on through with no delays. Normal time-frame for this step is 2-3 weeks.

Also, our I600 is now to be submitted for approval. This is the immigration stuff that I mentioned in a previous post. I won't bore you with the details, it's just the state-side stuff that needs to be done to get our baby home! We will get a letter (I171) in the mail stating that we are approved. I believe that with this letter we (Chad and I) get the okey-dokey to get fingerprinted. We then head to a local USCIS office to do that.

The "word" in the adoption community is that all of the I600 cases are headed to Dallas for approval. I'm not sure if this will be quicker than before, or longer. Either way, normal time-frame for this step is 6 weeks to 90 days. I, again, knew MANY people that waited the full 90+ days and it was excrutiating - to say the least. That puts us at March, at the latest, just to get the US stuff done. I know alot of people are asking "how long, how long?" so I thought that I would just put that out there. Baby Joye could EASILY be spending her first birthday with her Foster Family. I'm ok with that. Chad says I have to be optimistic and have faith. I do. I'm optimistic that she will be home, eventually, and I have faith that it will be at the perfect time. :)

Our agency also sent us some updated pictures of Joye and THE most adorable video I have ever seen. It shows her opening our care package that we sent and looking at our pictures in the photo album we made for her. She really studies them. It is SO cute. We sent a little doll with a rattle in it and she is so enamoured by that doll, that they can't get her to look up. They placed it out of her reach and she gave a little cry. Melted. my. heart. At the end, Foster Mom sat her up and then she looked up and then smiled and rocked from side to side while sitting. Too cute. Here are some of my favorite pics that they took while filming her.

Let me just say that I am forever indebted to the care that our little one is receiving while in Korea. Foster Mom is SO attentive to her and you can tell that she loves her as her own. My heart breaks for the seperation that she will have to endure. Someday I hope I will be able to give as she gave.

Here is FM with our baby and that is the Photo album we sent. At the beginning of the video she is telling her "omma, oppa." Which is Mommy and Daddy in Korean.

This face is what we saw in her referral photo. Eyebrows scrrrrrunched together. Every time they wanted to take a picture this is what she would do. She looks really confused, worried. But while watching the video, I understand why she makes this face. I think she's trying to figure out what they are doing. She made this face while she was studying our pictures, when they gave her the doll. It's the cutest expression, but I was glad to see the many other expressions she had.

Come on now - it's she just precious?!

We are totally in love, by the way - just in case you didn't know.