Today has been two years since we started this journey! Two years ago, Bryan and I took a huge leap of faith and sent in our application to our agency to adopt a child from South Korea. Little did we know that God had our little Jack (soon to be conceived) in mind for us when we sent it in.
Other big news today was that we received our I-600! It states, "The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has provisionally approved your Form 1-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an immediate relative, that you filed on behalf of Dohyun Kwon." :) So, I like that! ;)
Approval means everything is sent to Korea now and we are basically waiting for a travel call.
Everyone wants to know when that will be and, to tell you the truth, so would we! ;) Our original estimate for travel was to be 3 to 4 months after receiving our referral. It has been two months tomorrow that we have received ours. Unfortunately though, there are some complications that might interrupt this process.
PRAYER REQUEST:
Which brings me to my prayer request. Back in June, I posted this update and briefly mentioned how our agency (and all agencies working with Korea) had run out of EPs for the year. EPs are "exit permits" and only a certain amount are released by the Korean government each year. Once a child is issued an EP, that means they are officially approved to leave to country and the adoptive parents will get their travel call to come get their baby. The complication is that there is now a huge backlog of people waiting to receive an EP since June of last year. Usually the Korean government issues them at the beginning of the year, but so far, there has been no movement! It went from we should hear something at the beginning of the year, then February, then middle February, and the latest is middle March now. We also do not know how the government will choose to distribute the EPs. If they divide it up between all the agencies, we have a good chance that our wait won't be that long because our agency has no backlog of waiting families. However, if the Korean govt. decides to issue them to only the ones that have been waiting, we might have an even longer wait on our hands. No one is really sure what the hold up is and there are hundreds of moms and dads anxiously waiting to get their babies and can do NOTHING about it. These children are getting older and older (hence why Jack was so old at his referral), making transitioning and grieving very difficult for the child and foster family. Not to mention the ache the adoptive families have as they wait, missing milestone after milestone of their precious babies. The adoption agencies in Korea are running out of space and are having to turn women down that wish to put their child up for adoption. It's just a big big mess over there and they desperately need our prayers. I am trying very hard not to get caught up with all of this, because I know that I can do nothing about it. I know that the orphan is very close to the Lord's heart and I'm positive that He has already been and will continue to be at work in this situation. I also know that our travel call will come when the Lord wants it to come. So, in the mean time, I have been keeping myself busy and praying continuously. Praying for all us waiting parents, that the Korean government hearts will be softened for these orphans that need to be home with their families and that EPs will finally be submitted! Please consider joining us in prayer for this situation. Other adoptive moms and I plan to pray every evening at 7pm until we hear something. You can join us or just pray for it when you remember. Again, I am thankful as always for your prayers.
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