Update and Care Package #11

 Last week there were more submissions to the government, however, our file was not one of them.  It was a great disappointment to learn that our family, along with 4 others that I'm aware of, were basically skipped over as we learned they submitted files that had later referral acceptance dates as ours.  I had a long talk with the Korea program director on Wednesday morning and got to vent my frustrations.  She is equally as frustrated with the Korean partner agency as I am that they are not submitting files in order despite her asking them to do so several times.  So she was very apologetic for that.  She called Korea for us on Tuesday night and found out everything is all set with Grant's file and they are just waiting for the next submission group.  She was very sorry it wasn't in the group last week and can't tell me why they choose the files they did.  The Korean partner agency plans to have two submission groups in the month of December to take care of all the rest of the files they have prepped for this year.  My director is hoping that we hear good news the first week in December regarding our submission.  So, fingers crossed.

In better news, on the back end of this process the Ministry has been diligently approving files and many families have been getting court dates faster than ever before lately.  They added a fifth judge that is planning to work only on adoption cases, so hopefully that will streamline the court process further.  Even though we are not submitted yet, it is great to see lots of movement on the back end because the more families that get through court, means that much faster our case can get through.  My director thinks based on how things are moving along currently, it is still entirely realistic to plan for traveling in April and making Grant's 2nd birthday.  So that was good to hear.  Of, course that was predicted based on our file getting submitted in December so let's just hope that actually happens like they say it will.

We got 19 month pictures of Grant this past week which was nice given the disappointing news.  I was a little bummed that his foster mom didn't have him dressed in some of the clothes we sent the month prior though.  Oh well.  He was looking like a cutie pie but had the same "deer in the headlights" look from last month pictures, haha.  Hopefully we can get some smiling pictures again soon, I want to see all his teeth:-)   

My friend Erin took Grant's Christmas care package over to Korea 1.5 weeks ago.  I decided it would be better to give it to him for his Nov. 20th visit than Dec. 20th visit so he can enjoy the Christmas goodies longer.  I wrapped up the little toy car and helicopter and pasted my friend's translated letter in a card I sent to Grant's foster family.  

50 days

As of today we've been waiting 50 days for our file to be submitted to the Korean government.  That's about 20 days longer than we expected as families have been typically submitted one month after they were notified their file was being prepared.  The last 20 days have definitely been the hardest on me out of the last year.  It's so difficult when you have expectations of something and are so hopeful and it doesn't come true.  It feels like I've been running a race for the past 3 years and they keep moving the finish line.

I spoke with my agency last week and they said the Ministry is still accepting files and right now the issue seems to be with the Korean partner agency just being backed up with files.  I just hope by the time they are done with our file the Ministry is still accepting them and not shutting down to prepare for their move to another city. 

Anyway, once we are submitted the process takes 5-6 months so we should probably start wrapping our heads around not making it to Korea by Grant's 2nd birthday on April, 20th.  This makes me so sad. 

Auden's teacher asked us to bring in family pictures for this Friday which is "family day."  The kids are going to share and talk about all the people in their family.  I so wish we would have been submitted by now and been able to tell Auden about his brother.  It breaks my heart that Auden can't proudly share with his class that he has a little brother waiting for us in Korea.   

In happier news, my two local friends are in Korea right now awaiting custody of their sons.  Everyday we chat through facebook messaging and I'm getting great information about where to stay, where to eat, places to go with kids, etc.  I'm so happy they will finally be united with their sons and I can't wait to have playdates with them and meet their little guys when they get home.  That will make it feel like one day, eventually, Grant will come home too.