No visa interviews all around

First- my heart is just aching for my friends K & C whose daughter's homecoming is now delayed by possibly a few months due to government workers dropping the ball on some paperwork. This is the family that has been about a month ahead of us in this whole red tape process. They were told almost a month ago to expect to be able to travel in two weeks. Didn't happen, so our local agency finally called the Korean agency to track down what happened. The news was not good. They are still waiting for that all elusive Visa Interview and will need to continue to wait until their daughter's Emigration Permission and passport come through from the Korean government. My C's thought was that whoever was responsible for messing up the paperwork should be publicly humiliated and fired (well, in not so nice of terms as that)!

Also, T, an online blogger friend, has been waiting about the same length of time to hear about her daughter's Emigration Permission being granted so that they can move on to the Visa Interview. (Their local agency lets them know when it happens, whereas ours does not.) T is slowly going crazy and my heart aches for her as well. She just hasn't heard anything at all, so hopefully her daughter's paper work will materialize soon. May those precious baby girls be united with their wait-crazed mamas soon!

As for us, we are also still waiting to hear about J's Visa Interview. From what I have seen of other families' posted time-lines, it typically takes 6-12 days for the Visa Interview to be scheduled after the Packet 3 is sent out. That is assuming all the other steps have already been completed. (See K & C's and T's plight above). Baby J's Packet 3 was sent out from the Embassy to our Korean agency a week ago, so we are still within the the average window to get to that next step. I called this morning to check, and the Visa Interview was not scheduled as of yet. Friday is a Korean holiday, and then it is the weekend, so the next time I call to inquire on the status will probably be Tuesday, right before we leave on our vacation to California. Waiting until then to call again will allow two more business days to be completed where hopefully something will happen. We shall see.

I'm also waiting to see if I passed my last test for grad school, which I took yesterday. I am allowed one re-take, in the event I didn't pass. I wasn't so confident after I finished, but then again I never am. C and my mom have been reminding me about how much test anxiety I have had in the past for major tests, thinking I failed every one so far, when really I have passed every one so far. This time felt different though- I was just very overwhelmed by the amount of material. I actually cried right when I started taking the thing, which I think was an emotional response to how keyed up I was. Oh, well. Again, just have to wait and see.

To distract myself from the two waits, I'm heading up to my old hometown today to go to lunch and go shopping with my mom. We are going to look for small, Colorado-themed gifts to bring to Korea with us for the foster moms, socials workers and directors of the Korean agency. Also, this weekend, I plan to work more on the landscaping of our back yard, and I am going to make my first quilt ever. Well, at least the top. I bought a baby quilt kit to make for J that included most of the supplies. I still have to do the cutting, piecing and sewing though. Once I get that part done, my mom, who quilts a lot, will do the actual quilting to put the top, batting and back together. Hopefully, it turns out great. :)

I will post more when we have more news. In the mean time, Happy October! (Can you believe it?!?)