We made it through the bureaucracy we call an international adoption in less
than one year. While some families will say "oh, ours was
faster" they mean from home study to Korea to homecoming. I'm saying
from the time we even found out we were adopting until Certificate of
Citizenship in the United States was received, in-hand. The certificate alone can take 4-6
months.
We found out we were adopting on 3/12/09 via a sibling call. What this means is that a baby was relinquished for adoption in Korea and upon this relinquishment the adoption agency found out the baby was a sibling to another child adopted in the United States. The Korean agencies do their best, in these circumstances, to find the American families and make it known this child is available for adoption. The family of the sibling gets the first choice in adopting the new child. We were lucky to be one of these rare families and it took two Korean agencies working together to find us by the time our son was 6 months old.
We quickly began the mounds of paperwork required by Korean government as
well as the paperwork required by our local, state and federal governments in
the United States. From the time our
home study was sent to Korea to our call to bring him home was right a 4-5
weeks. Our son arrived home on May 29, 2009,
in to the US, after we went to Korea to get him.
And, now this very last piece of paperwork is absolutely done. There is nothing further to do for adoption
other than let Social Security know he is a full US citizen and not permanent
resident. This is easy at this point.
We are so done. It feels so good. You almost feel this was celebrity fast, but it just lined up. Everything just always fell in place. We are so lucky to have this little boy. Don’t get me wrong. I have great sadness for their birth mother in Korea, but if it was going to happen and he was going to be adopted, I’m very thankful it was us.
If it didn't have such identifying info on the certificate I'd take a picture of Jaemin holding it for you. I just about cried when the mailman rang the doorbell and had the certified letter for us to sign for it. SOOOO HAPPY!
Here's a sweet picture of my little mommy's boy instead.
Lisa
WOW.. that is amazing. Now it seems things are going so slow with Korean adoptions due to getting emigration permission. We are currently updating our HS to bring home our second waiting child. Wish us some speed!
Posted by: Tracy | February 28, 2010 at 07:01 PM