1 month down...too many to go

Today is October 10 and it's been one month since we got our referral call on Sept. 10. To be honest, the month has gone by very quickly. I guess I feel like it's still so far away that I haven't been thinking about traveling a ton. I know that it's still going to be a while...but the closer it gets the more slowly time will go, I'm sure.

We don't know exactly what has to happen before we travel but we know there are three major steps. First, we're waiting for something called "legals" to arrive from Korea. I think it's basically all of Sora's Korea legal information (probably equivalent to her social security number and birth certificate). The agency should hopefully get this any time - and, Lord willing, no more than two weeks or so.

Once they get the legals, they will finish filling out our I-600 and mail it to USCIS. We filled out our information and sent the form to our agency; they will complete all of Sora's information. This is our immigration approval to have her be able to come to the US. If you remember, we had to get initially approved by sending in an I600a. This is pre-approval for immigration. It's pretty much the US saying that they will allow us to bring an orphan into the US. The I-600 is saying specifically that Sora is the one we want to bring in. Once our agency sends in the I-600, it takes about 5 weeks to get approved.

Once we get I-600 approval, we've been told it's about another 6 weeks until we get our travel call. I'm sure there are quite a few things that happen in that 6 week period, but at this point I don't know exactly what. I'm sure we'll know when we get to that point.

So, right now, I'm just praying we get the legals this week! I'm not feeling very good about getting her here before the end of the year, but I'm still praying!