Packet 3 Out and Emotional Lability

The paperwork advanced another step today. :)
Yesterday afternoon, I called the Department of State, Consular affairs, in Washington, D.C. to see where things stood. I didn't post about it yesterday because nothing had happened yet. In fact, the Visa Specialist Officer said that the case had not even been opened in Seoul yet, only forwarded there. So, given that news, I was going to wait to call again until the end of the week.
Yeah, right. Didn't happen.

I called again just now after being inspired by the good news of a scheduled Visa Interview for the daughter of one of our waiting friends.
Got good news of our own that the Packet 3 (basically the paper work required to set up the visa interview) was forwarded to the Korean agency. :)

The Korean agency completes that paperwork, returns it to the US Embassy in Seoul and then our baby's visa interview can be scheduled.

There are also two other parts to the equation that we do not get to find out when they happen, but they are completed at some point in Korea. This is the Emigration Permission by the Korean government for our son, and obtaining his Korean passport. They may have both already happened, but we don't know for sure as unfortunately, our US agency does not find out when these occur. We do know that once the Visa Interview is scheduled, those two things have occurred, as that is the last step before we get the travel call.

On a side note, as I have been reading back through my blog posts, I have noticed a trend that I mostly post only when a step in the process occurs, or when I am hopeful that a step will occur soon. I tend not to post on my "Down" Mommy days, when I feel as though we will never get to the end. I also haven't posted any of my very vivid and very strange dreams about the process. (I've had about 4 of those- well 4 that I recorded in my personal journal as they left me very disturbed upon waking up.)

So given that, I just want to state here and now, for the record, that this journey has been very emotional- both the ups and downs. It has not been all happy bunnies and pretty roses. Just ask my hubby or my mom about my occasional hysterics! Luckily for all you blog readers, I have avoided broadcasting those days to the world. :)

There is a somewhat tongue in cheek saying that the adoption journey is a paper pregnancy. In terms of the emotions and preparation involved, I would have to say that is true. The only thing I don't have to worry about, is the discomforts of a growing belly and other physical changes of pregnancy. I actually do mourn the fact that I am missing that aspect of growing our family though. (If you know me IRL, and know what I do/ did for a living, and what my graduate degree is concentrated in, you will understand why I might be mourning a bit more than usual and might be a bit slower to accept the loss of never experiencing a pregnancy.) I'm slowly getting past it and dealing with the aftermath of infertility in my own mind step by step. All I can say is that it is definitely a healing process.