I just received an email from our social worker that the home study is complete and being reviewed by the agency director. Now we are just waiting for the fingerprints to come back. It’s to bad it took us months to pin down the state trooper so that we could get them done or maybe they’d be back by now. Nothing we can do about it now except wait. With all of this practice I can now say we’re really good at waiting!!!

We visited Jaden’s Grandma and Grandpa this weekend and also saw his aunts and uncles for the first time in what felt like months. I also got to see my beautiful godson. He’s getting SO big.  Since we specified in our adoption application that we were willing to adopt a child that’s under 3, I can’t help wondering if our child that is waiting for us is my godson’s age right now. It’s interesting what types of thoughts run through the mind during processes like these.

The big adventure for the weekend was a yellow-jacket’s nest. Somehow the little buggers managed to get pissed off at the same moment that Jaden walked by, even though a few of us had walked up and down that path a few times earlier with no sign of critters. Jaden was stung, but thankfully the sting didn’t swell too much and there was no other allergic reaction to deal with. Phew.

The next challenge was getting Jaden back outside so that we could take him swimming in the pool. It took some coaxing but we finally managed to get him out there. In the meantime, I entertained everyone by running into the house each time I saw anything that even remotely resembled a bee. Then my brother made caipirnhas and I forgot all about it.

We had our first visit by our new social worker the beginning of July, and the last visit two weeks ago.  Jaden kept calling him “Mr. Gentleman” which was quite adorable. I think the social worker was taken by him. I could not get over the wonderful manners Jaden was displaying. I kept wondering who took my kid and replaced him with this well-mannered boy. I guess he really wants a sibling!

I finally did get the well-water testing done last Friday, and the results came this week. After hearing a few horror stories about E. coli and other nasties, I was happy to see that we have not been poisoning ourselves with our water supply.

The social worker just let me know that the final two pieces are the fingerprints and the background check. The fingerprints were done in June — it is now just a matter of waiting for them to be returned to the social worker. The social worker said that it is taking longer than usual for the fingerprints to be returned lately. Ah, bureaucracy.

Once the prints are returned the SW will submit the background check. I’m not sure I understand this part of the process, but I’m going with the flow, as we have learned that is the best way to handle things when going through any adoption process.

The two girls we inquired about are no longer posted on the DCF photo listing so I assume they have found their forever home. Although that means we won’t be considered as a possible adoptive family, it is wonderful to know they are now home and no longer in ‘they system’.

So I took another look today at the I171H approval and it seems that CIS received the I600 on July 22nd, but didn’t approve it until August 7th. Somehow I had myself believing that it was approved on July 22nd (wishful thinking!) – so my calculations are slightly off. That means that this Thursday will be 3 weeks since the approval, and according to the agency if we fit into the ‘average’ category we will have another week or two before we get “the call,” affectionately known as “TC” on the Korea adoption boards. 

I was sincerely (and selfishly) hoping that it would work out that we could go the first week of classes. This is possibly why I convinced myself our approval date was 2 weeks earlier. It would be so much simpler for me to go that week for a number of reasons, one of which is that there is not one college student in this universe that actually pays attention to anything a professor says on the first day of class. They are too busy figuring out which class is next, where the class is being held, how to get to the building, picking up the syllabus, making a judgement call as to whether this class seems like too much work to add to an already overwhelming schedule, determining which professors they like the best, dropping those they don’t like and adding those that they do like, changing their schedules around to match with their work schedules…. etc, etc. etc. So it’s pretty much a “Hi Professor, nice to meet you, give me the %@$! syllabus, and I’ll see ya next week!” 

In short, the first week of class isn’t a horrible one to miss, if you have to miss any. After that it gets stickier, and it screws up the entire schedule that you spent so much time putting into the syllabus in the first place. All the left-brained students hate it when the schedule gets messed up, so we try not to change the schedule at all, if possible. (All the right-brained students never realized there was a schedule in the first place, so they are usually okay.) 

The other reasons are also selfish, so maybe I should shut up – (but I can’t…  bloggers plight) – for instance, Neville is stuck going away for a week if we are not heading to Korea soon – and it’s not something that is really fitting well into our lives right now for a number of big reasons. Alas, we will manage, as we always do, but it really begs the question as to whether or not there are some things in our lives that we need to give serious reconsideration to, especially with our precious one so close to being home (yes, this is purposefully nebulous – sorry to those who have no idea what I’m talking about. If you PM me I’ll fill you in on all the gory details).

So I see I just went off on tangent number three  - odd numbers are considered lucky in Korea so three tangents seems like a good place to stop….

I wonder if anyone else is jumping out of their skin every time their phone rings this week?

The I-600 approval was estimated to take the first 4-5 weeks of the 8-10 week wait we were last quoted (only two weeks ago), which means, if everything else goes well, we might be traveling in another 4-6 weeks! I am so excited – wouldn’t it be wonderful if we traveled in the beginning of September?!!!! – I just can’t believe it is moving along so quickly (… knock on wood). )

I put a call into our contact at agency #2 to find out what we have to do next, if anything. Somehow I lost track of whether or not we’re supposed to send them a copy of our approval or if CIS sends it directly to Korea for the next step. Maybe it is just the excitement making me loopy. I’ll write more when I hear from her… in the meantime….

I’M JUMPING UP AND DOWN!!! WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Off to my next appointment.