EP Approved!!

We are cooking now.  The Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare has approved Sam for the emigration permit!  This happened yesterday, we were notified today.  Again a bit of a surprise that the approval came so quickly, but we'll take it.  Hopefully this pace keeps up!

Holt says that it is still difficult to say when travel will be since there are so many people being processed right now, but that it would likely be September - November.  It took me a little bit to realize that September is just a month away.  We need to be ready in a month!  So my joy has been dulled a bit by anxiety.  There is still quite a bit that needs to be done with the bedroom.  There are several things to buy - like a car seat, a dresser, more clothes.  We don't have any shoes or socks for him.  Is that important?  We've been holding off on getting things for so long because of the seemingly unending delays that it's kind of hard to get it in gear and realize that we're going to have to take care of a little boy soon.

Now what happens from here?  I'm still figuring this out, but a lot of things will be happening behind the scenes and we don't get notification about a lot of it.  He should be getting his visa physical tomorrow.  If that goes well, then his paperwork is sent to the visa worker where they finish collecting the final documents to submit into the US embassy for the travel visa.  It sounds like this takes about 2 weeks.  After this, the foster family has to take Sam to the embassy for a visa interview.  After the travel visa is issued then it's all about preparations for travel.  I'm told when the travel call comes we'll be on a plane in about a week!

I'll post when we learn anything more about the visa status.  Until then, we got some work to do!