I600a

We have officially encountered Paperwork Mountain #2.

A couple of weeks ago I started our Show Hope application; part of the application is getting reference a letter from Holt stating that we have completed our home study. So Holt sent us a letter in the mail that week and I put it in my Show Hope folder. (I know, I'm a nerd. I love any reason to have a notebook.) Then, a few days later, another letter from Holt came in the mail. I put that one in the Show Hope notebook too. Not sure why, though. I guess in the midst of my busy busy schedule I assumed it was the reference letter we were waiting on. Anyway, last week I sat down to finally organize the notebook and when I opened the two Holt letters I learned that only one was the reference; the other was instructions on how to send our I600a to Korea.

WHAT?!

As it turns out, we are now moving forward with Korea, at least on the business end. We still don't have a referral, but the paperwork keeps moving. Korea has our homestudy and we are now only working with the Korea department at Holt. I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds official, right?

What is an I600a? The easiest way I know to explain it is it's the pre-approval application for our baby's visa. Once we're matched we will send off the I600, which is the formal visa application. This little 3 page form is very expensive too. $890 expensive. Oh me...
But it is very exciting to know that we are really requesting permission to bring home a baby! I just wish we knew who she was! According to the letter from Holt, once the I600a is submitted we only wait 3-6 months to travel when we're matched. Yay!

Lately I've been a little bummed about the whole process. This summer we had lots of referrals to look at (two of which we pursued), so it kept my mind constantly thinking about our future baby. We've had no progress on the referral front for several weeks, which has made me apathetic. Not good. I hate admitting that because I'm afraid it sounds like I don't want to adopt. I do! I cannot wait to get this going again. It's just that right now everything is so business oriented that I don't get time to think about the actual child.

On a separate note, we are still full force with fundraising. Here is a list of things that are potentially on our to-do list.
1. baked potato or chili lunch at church
2. 5K in March (this one is for sure!)
3. Malerie does your Christmas shopping for you! (this one is also for sure)
4. a dinner and silent auction (with items from Diamond's Direct and such...) in February
5. Scentsy fundraiser
6. t-shirts

If you can or want to help with any of these, just let me know. And if you know someone that has big ticket items they can donate to the dinner-auction send them my way.

Hopefully we will have a baby update soon!

Sending Hugs