April 1, 2002 - We finished our homestudy tonight! We are almost done with all of our paperwork! We have our 2nd parenting class tomorrow night! Our social worker says AAC is just waiting on our homestudy and then we should have our referral pretty quickly! WOW! We may know just who Ian is before the end of the month! I am going to call AAC tomorrow and verify where we are on the list. We are getting very, very excited!
April 2, 2002 - I just got off the phone with AAC! As soon as they get our homestudy and proof from us that we have at least 12 hours of parenting class/reading done (we have 15 hours after today!), then we ARE NEXT IN LINE FOR REFERRAL!!! Lynette said that we should get our referral by the end of April! Oh my gosh!!! I am jumping up and down with excitement as I type this! This is going by so much faster than with Kaitlynn! It is so incredibly hard to believe but we are so very, very excited! We are going to work on Ian's room this weekend. I'll take digital photos! More when we know more!
April 4, 2002 - I just spoke to our social worker and she said she has started writing up our homestudy and plans to have it up to AAC by Monday or Tuesday. She'll email us when she does drop it off up there. Yeah! We are inching closer and closer to Ian. So hard to believe!! I'll keep you posted! We are getting so excited!
April 7, 2002 - We got Ian's room painted today! Yeah! You can see the digitals I took here. We hope to get the border up this week. We have to wait for the paint to completely dry. It looks really good though! I can't wait to get it finished!
April 9, 2002 - Our social worker emailed us that our homestudy is now complete and on it's way to AAC. I emailed AAC and asked them if we were still next on the list and sadly, we are now 4th. We are officially 9th, I was told, but technically 4th at this point as we are 1 of 4 families who have completed everything required. So, in all reality, while it was nice to dream that we might get his referral this month, it looks like it will be June before we get it. I am okay with this as I am happy as long as he is home by Christmas!!! I will keep everyone updated!!!
April 15, 2002 - WHINE, WHINE, WHINE!!!! We are still #9 on the list. AAC is hoping to get more referrals this month but, unlike the China program where they know when referrals are on their way, Korea just sends them with no warning. I am hoping and praying at this point they get more boy referrals this month. Otherwise, I fear, it may be July before we get Ian's referral. He would be home by October then and could potentially have the same Gotcha Day as Kaitlynn. :-) While that would be neat, I'd rather him be home in SEPTEMBER! Doug and I are both frustrated as we were told we were next and then back to #9 all in the same month. Nothing like being on top of the world one minute and then down in the valley the next. Thanks for listening. I'll keep everyone updated as I know anything more.
April 17, 2002 - I talked to Lynette at AAC today to find out exactly how the referral process works in Korea. She said that the Korean agency (Eastern Welfare Institute) sends
referrals
out whenever they have them each month. She said there is no set schedule like
in China. They never know, unless the director happens to talk to Korea that
day, when referrals are mailed. She said it is frustrating for them as it is for
waiting parents but that is the way Korea has done it for many, many years now
and they don't see any reason to change it. Everything is on Korea's time line
which of course is not on our time line. LOL! She said, they hope to get a few
more referrals this month but so far know of nothing coming in. She did say that
she saw NO reason why Ian would not be home THIS year, so that makes me feel
better at any rate. She said they average 4-5 referrals a month. I did tell her
we would be out of town in May and she said that if by some chance we did get
our referral next month while we are in CA, they would FEDEX everything to us
and then we could FEDEX back our acceptance papers. That is a good thing at
least! LOL! So, now I just look forward to going on vacation next month and hope
that Ian's referral gets here sooner than later. I am mentally thinking July now
for my own peace of mind. If we get it earlier, I will be over the moon! It's
amazing right now how much this referral time mirrors Kaitlynn's referral wait.
This time 2 years ago I was hoping we'd get Kaitlynn's referral in July too.
Eerie! It's that red thread talking. :-)
April 23, 2002 - WE ARE NOW #8! Officially! They got twin boys referred to some lucky family on Friday. We are now looking at probably July for referral and home by Halloween in October. Fingers crossed for sooner but that is what I am setting myself up for now. I will, as always, keep everyone posted. We are hoping they will get another boy referral this week or at least more than 1 boy the beginning of May. Just think boy thoughts for us and send them over the seas to Korea! :-) It seemed to have worked last week!!!!!
May 1, 2002 - Happy May Day! Well, I spoke to Lynette and she said we are still #8 and that we will probably get our referral in June! She wanted me to give her our numbers for CA anyway.."just in case" but honestly I am not expecting to get our referral while we are in CA. The good thing about us going on vacation this month is that the month of May will FLY by and June will be here before we know it! So, continue to think baby BOY thoughts and send them to Korea! We are hoping for a lot of boy referrals between now and the end of JUNE!
May 7, 2002 - Ya, okay, I need a May page! We found out today we are now #5 on the list!!! YIPPEE!! We also finished all of our parenting classes tonight and so now we just wait for referral!! Keep those boy thoughts going to Korea! THEY ARE WORKING!! We are hoping for referral by the end of the month to the middle of June! We will keep everyone posted!! We are FINALLY getting CLOSE!
May 20, 2002 - Hello! We are back from a wonderfully, busy, vacation in Southern California! We had a great time at CA Adventures, Disneyland and with our friends and families. It was so good to see so many of you and I wish we had more time to spend with each of you! I have the photos back and will get them scanned over the long Memorial Day Weekend. I wanted to get an update on here for you though. We are still currently #5 and have been told to expect our referral by the 2nd week of July (home by October). UGH! They are hoping for more referrals this month and IF they do, then we will get ours by the latter part of June. Keep those BOY thoughts going to Korea!! We moved up 3 spaces last time! More later!
May 24, 2002 - Yippee! Yahoo! We are now #4!!! Our friend's son brought home 1 boy referral! So, keep those boy thoughts coming! :-) We are hoping for a June referral but it could be the first part of July. Either way is okay with us but we'd prefer sooner than later ;-) Hope everyone has a SAFE and HAPPY Memorial Day weekend!
May 27, 2002 - Happy Memorial Day! Our weekend has been very low key as Doug had an allergic reaction to something he ate and has been ill with hives all weekend. Yesterday he went to the doc and got mega doses of antihistamines and is doing much better today! Yeah! I did get Ian's border done. Here are some shots of it! I will get a full room view once I get it setup. I plan to go to the craft store this week and buy some matching stencils to do the walls in baseballs, soccer balls, footballs and basketballs. Once those are done and I get the bedding I will shoot some digitals of the entire room. Right now it's still a MESS! LOL!