WOOOHOOO!

Referral & Legals!!!
Very interesting timing! I was half-way through a sad blog that said we still haven't heard anything, and my cell phone rang. I sprang up (scared poor Lucy out of her comma) and nearly said the Holt secretary's name before I could see if it was her or not. It was her! They just FedEx'ed the official referral for Rai today WITH HIS LEGALS!!! This is great news! We fully expected to get the official referral and then wait another possible month before they sent the legal paperwork.

The legals, by the way, are the Korean equivalent of birth certificate, and that is the paperwork we need to file our I-600. (The I-600A is the preapproval for adoption while the I-600 is the actual immigration paperwork specific to the child.) Since USCIS has not yet fingerprinted us, they will process both forms together rather than waiting until the pre-approval is complete. We have been told that this generally speeds up the travel process, so we will keep our fingers crossed! We have been told that 2 months of wait time to travel has happened! Rai, Mommy & Daddy are coming!

(Oh and as soon as our official referral is accepted, we can begin posting pictures, so check back soon!)

The Ever-Evolving House!
After another decluttering weekend, Aaron and I had another trip to Good Will and Half-Priced Books to make on Saturday. Just as last time, we used our sell-back money from Half-Priced Books to buy a few baby books for Rai's room, but this time we found one book in Korean and several books in Japanese! Aaron is studying hard to learn Korean and says several new words/phrases each day. I'm trying to talk Aaron into getting Rosetta Stone for Korean, but he's not convinced it's worth the money. He'll settle for online sources until the library books come in. :-)

In addition to the books, my parents brought over the stroller and high chair we registered for, so we spent an afternoon learning how to fold up the stroller (only weighs 10 pounds) and got around to putting the car seat in both cars. Aaron doesn't think we'll need two, so I had him put it in his car and then transfer it to mine. Needless to say, it's still in my car. :-) I like it in there though! It's like a little reminder that in a few months there will be a little guy in that seat! We did decided against putting the high chair together as we don't have a place to store it, and we would just assume not let Lucy get too attached to having a new chair at the bar. She already has a favorite spot in Rai's room - on his convertible sofa (converts to a bed with sleeping bag).

We also made some progress on the playroom and living room. The furniture is now cleaned out and ready for the explosion of toys and the living room is finally child-proof! The glass tables have a new home in the attic, and I effectively moved the amp/DVD/VCR high enough in the entertainment center to be out of reach until Rai grows a little taller. The TV will just have to fend for itself! We also moved around the bookshelves, and now my ever-growing collection of photo albums has a home! Yay!

Now some people have misunderstood these weekends of preparation as worry. I know that I always sound busy, but I've always found just enough time in my week to never miss an episode of House, Bones, or American Idol - at least until Rai gets here. I've caught many family members and friends saying, "Don't worry. Everything will be fine." Of course it will be fine. :-) We're not worried. We know our lives will turn upside down, and we'll probably never get 8 hours of sleep again until Rai goes to college, but we're not worried. This "nesting" phase is fun! Just like the car seat, each bit of progress we make on the house is a nice reminder about this great change that is about to happen. It was so much fun to see Aaron run around the house "testing out" the stroller. So the next time you hear the laundry list of projects we have going, just remember that it's like Christmas. If you start shopping and wrapping gifts in October, you'll be in the Christmas spirit long before anyone else!

So here is to a wonderful few months of preparation!