Teach Me Something Tuesday: Homestudy

We've been getting a lot of questions about what is next and how long does it take, etc. so we thought this week's Teach Me Tuesday should address that.

Right now, we are working on our homestudy. This is a process where we are working with a local agency (Jewish Family Services) and a social worker to prepare ourselves for the arrival of Miss Zoe and transitioning her into our home. This includes lots of paperwork, fingerprints, background checks, reference letters, visits to our home, interviews, etc. Our social worker will write up a report, submit it to Holt and they send it to Korea. We are diligently working on knocking this homestudy out because the sooner we do: the sooner we can have our girl home!

Once our homestudy is complete, it should go something like this:

*Homestudy Complete

*Homestudy sent to Korea

*Complete the I-600 and I-600A (this is basically applying for immigration visa from the US and this is very intricate and has to be signed by like a billion people. A lot of families get held up on this step, so start praying now that it goes smoothly for us.)

*Acceptance paperwork of our child material (formality since we are already matched with Zoe)

*We will receive Zoe's Legal documents

*Emmigration Permit (EP) for Zoe

*Zoe will get a travel physical (blood-work, physical examination) and a Passport

*Zoe will have a travel interview to apply for a Visa Approval with the USCIS

*Travel Call- we can go get our girl!

With the current time-frame, it looks like it could be 5-6 months to complete all of this. The only thing known about the adoption process is that there are a lot of unknowns. We will have a better idea of her arrival date as things progress over the next 2-3 months. Korea also limits the number of EPs a year, so if they run out, we will have to wait until January to be issued one. We are praying against that, but we know it could be a reality with us being matched with her in late May and looking at a 5-6 month time period.

We have a meeting with our Social Worker for our homestudy tomorrow. We are excited that we are moving right along with things. I'll even leave you with a new pic of our little Korean Cutie!

It's a miracle that I even have this picture of her, but that is a story for another day. Check out all that hair. It is a hot mess, indeed, but we can fix that with a headband or some clippies. I love it though! Cute girl. We're coming for you, sweet baby!