"Git 'R Done!"

Made some more progress this afternoon. After hearing that the ICPC office will start reviewing our case, our social worker called to tell me that they had indeed contacted her requesting supporting documentation from our homestudy. She was on her way out, so she will work on getting that together first thing on Monday and will Fed-Ex it to ICPC, so they should have it on Tuesday. In addition, I've gone back and forth over e-mail with the ICPC director, who said that they will also be needing supporting documentation from the Korean side. So to facilitate things, I gave her all the contact info for Holt and also contacted Holt myself to give them the heads-up that someone will be contacting them soon about this. The lady I spoke to at Holt said they have everything there on file and she will notify the person who deals with all the ICPC requests to expect a call and to get things ready to fax over. So it looks like we're in good shape for now.

What I really don't understand is why this has all been left for the last minute. We'd certainly like to find out why our ICPC application was filed so late by our agency. Our updated homestudy and everything for ICPC had been sent over from our social worker to Holt about a month ago, but apparently the ICPC application wasn't even filed until Feb. 19th and didn't show up at ICPC in Ohio until Feb. 25th. I think we still need to get some answers on that. But hopefully, this hassle will be resolved soon enough so we can leave on the 11th as planned.

Our charm offensive is working

Good news! I just received an e-mail from the ICPC director saying that she has asked one of her team members to conduct a preliminary review of our case! I guess our tag-team charm offensive is working. We both wrote really nice e-mails back to her yesterday and it looks like she's going to do what she can to help us travel as originally scheduled on March 11th. I have a good feeling about this.

ICPC update

Well, as it stands now, our state Senator's office did contact our state's ICPC director on our behalf. And we received an e-mail back from the ICPC director stating that, while they would love to handle every request on the day they receive them, they have a backlog of many other equally urgent requests and have to be considerate of everyone else waiting in front of us. She said their current turnaround time for these requests is 2-3 weeks, but they would try to get to ours as soon as possible. John wrote a pretty convincing and compelling e-mail back about our scheduling and timing issues, so for the moment, we'll just hold tight and wait to see if a miracle occurs before we rearrange our travel dates.

Where's Superman when you need him?

Ok, I spent the last few hours talking to our adoption agency in Oregon, the Ohio ICPC office, our local Congressman's office, our State Senator's office, writing e-mails, leaving voice mails, and getting much needed support from other families on our agency BB. So far, a nice lady at our State Senator's office said she would try to call this Ohio ICPC lady to see if our case can be expedited. She probably can't get through to a real person at the moment, either.

So, I guess this whole thing was just too easy, right? Everything was finally moving along great, our flights were booked, it was working out great with John's schedule, and the timing was just perfect......until this.

Breaking News! Travel Call!

Well, I just received a call from our adoption agency. It was one of those "I've got good news and I've got bad news" types of calls. The good news is that Leah Jin-Ri is now cleared to leave Korea! The bad news is that the Ohio Interstate Compact (ICPC) hasn't been approved yet, and word is that Ohio is really slow in processing these. This is some sort of agreement that has to be made between Oregon's ICPC and our state's ICPC, which would allow Jin-Ri to live in Ohio until her finalization. The reason for this is that it takes at least 6 months of post-placement supervision for adoptions from Korea to be finalized, and until then, Holt Oregon is officially her guardian. So, I've been instructed to contact some lady at the Ohio ICPC office to try to push this through. Worse case scenario is that we have to get a Congressperson involved. Wish me luck!

Goofing around

This was a much longer video originally, but I thought this part where she clasps her hands and tilts her head was especially cute and funny. Make sure to have the volume up for this one since she's making silly sounds. In the background, a K-pop song is playing on an mp3 player in her crib.

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Time to get those bags packed!

Exciting news! Jin-Ri's Visa has been issued as of today! We should get our official "travel call" from Holt any day now. Yesterday morning, our foster family informed us that Jin-Ri would be cleared to leave Korea starting on March 5th, so I went ahead and booked our flights right away. I recently went out and got 2 new suitcases for our trip. Our older suitcases had already been around the world a few times and had seen better days, so these new ones ought to do the trick!

Family Matters

With their permission, here are a few more pictures and a video of Leah Jin-Ri with her loving foster family during their recent holiday. This video just makes us smile. Leah loves bouncing and being active, and it also looks like she's a little bit ticklish. You can hear her foster family talking to her in the background and she's very interested in watching them, too. They've taught her how to bow when they say "an-nyong-ha-se-yo", which means Hello in Korean. It's so funny how she folds herself all the way over. I hope she'll do this for us, too!

We are so grateful that they are taking such good care of her while we wait. They're clearly doing a great job working with her on her development and we just can't wait to meet them in Korea. We think it'll be so affirming for Leah to have so much information about her life in Korea and to know how loved she is by her foster family who will continue to be part of our lives as she grows up.

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See-Saw Fun

Here's a sweet video of Jin-Ri with her foster sister and mother playing on a see-saw during their holiday. Her foster brother is in the background, and her foster dad is filming. Jin-Ri is having so much fun, she's all smiles and squealing with delight. She especially loves it when she gets to put her hands on the handles by herself like a big girl!

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Making Room for Baby

The crib arrived yesterday and I managed to put it together, along with a dresser and a glider chair. Of course, I ended up putting the sides of the crib on backwards the first time around, which probably wouldn't have been a big deal, except that all the warning stickers would have been on the outside of the crib instead of on the inside. But by the second try, I had it all figured out. I did a lot of research on crib mattresses and I drove 45 minutes to a specialty store over the weekend in a snowstorm to pick up a mattress that was recommended, but when I got it home I didn't like it and drove all the way back the next day to return it. What a waste of time. I picked up another recommended mattress at another store, but now I'm not sure it fits the crib as well as it should, so I may end up exchanging that one, too. Hopefully, the 3rd time's the charm! I also finally decided on crib bedding and decor after exchanging another set. So Leah's little room is finally starting to take shape. Talk about waiting until the last minute...

In a video flashback, here's one of the very first videos we received of teeny, tiny Leah Jin-Ri at 6 months, right after she received our first care package. She's wearing one of the outfits we sent, and she's showing off her new creeping skills. She looks so determined!

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