Fun Facts About Our Adoption

Well, it's been a little boring around our house lately as both the kids have colds and we've been hanging around the house mostly. Poor Zoey is like a running faucet lately! So I decided it would be fun to share some fun facts about our adoption process!

*Originally, we were going to use a different adoption agency that works with Eastern Social Welfare Society in Korea, which is where I was adopted, but when that didn't work out, we chose Holt International in Oregon, which works with Holt Korea. Our original application was dated May 28, 2008.

*We had to wait to complete our homestudy at that time because we were in process of building a new house that we would not close on until June 10, 2008.

*Our actual homestudy visit was November 5, 2008, election day, at 2:30pm. By 3pm, we were getting nervous that our social worker hadn't showed up. We finally remembered that we had put our phones on silent and she had called both of us several times! She had accidentally gone to my parent's old house, where we were living before our home was built. Unfortunately, they didn't live there anymore either, as their house was being built at the same time as ours, and now lived next door to us! After spending weeks and weeks rearranging and cleaning our home, the social worker didn't leave the couch! Finally at the end of our visit, we volunteered a tour of the house, which she took. So I guess it wasn't entirely for nothing!

*Our homestudy was completed and submitted to Holt on December 18, 2008 and we received our referral on December 19, 2008 via a phonecall at 12:42pm! Seon-Mi's file had just arrived at Holt offices that very morning! My husband, son and I had the stomach flu all week and could barely peel ourselves off the couch. This call definetly jump started us!

These are the two photos we had at the time of referral.




We didn't see her with her eyes open till we received an updated picture January 6, 2009!


*We mailed our completed acceptance packet January 2, 2009 and overnighted it to Holt. Twice I had to correct forms and pay to overnight them again!! It ended up costing us a total of $75 to mail the acceptance packet because of the mistakes! Our acceptance packet was then sent on to Korea on January 15, 2009.

*Seon-Mi's legal documents arrived January 22, 2009 and filed our I600 that afternoon and overnighted it to our local USCIS office. We had submitted our I600A on December 22, 2008 and sent a check for $830.00. Cost of the same forms for my parents 27 years ago for my adoption...$35!!

*We were fortunate enough to receive Well Baby Checkups every month dated
December 22, 2008
January 20, 2009
February 23, 2009
March 24, 2009

*She has never been above the 10th percentile on height and weight until she arrived home, where she is now in the 50th percentile!

*Seon-Mi was transferred to a foster home in Seoul on November 13, 2008, from a foster home in her city of birth.

*I applied for my passport on January 7, 2009 and was very nervous to hand over my only original Certificate of Citizenship to the post office! But it made it back safe and sound and I received my passport on January 17, 2009.

On March 19, 2009, we received updated pictures! Seon-Mi was wearing the sweater we had sent in her care package!



*After many struggles with our local USCIS office, we finally received our I600 approval on March 24, 2009.

*Seon-Mi was approved for her Emigration Permit on February 17, 2009. Our I600 was logged into the National Visa Center on April 6, 2009 and it was logged out on April 8, 2009. Our Packet 3 was sent to the Korean Embassy on April 14, 2009 and Seon-Mi's Visa Interview was scheduled for April 24, 2009 (Korea time).

*On April 23, 2009 at 11:55am, I pulled over to the side of the road after picking up my husband from work, to answer a call from Holt International who told us our girl was ready to come home!

*I left for Korea on April 25 and returned home on April 30, 2009, a day after my son's fourth birthday with his best present ever, his baby sister!