We run into people all the time and the question everyone always asks is "How's the adoption going." It is so nice of people to ask and I appreciate their interest but basically the answer I give is...LONG!
We just got another update with some news that for some in the process is bad and for some it is good and for some it is indifferent. Thankfully for us, for now, it is indifferent. Let me explain.
The ministry of defense of Korea used to be the one to decide and send out travel visa's for orphans that were being adopted. Korea has changed it's law and the court system now handles those proceedings. Sorta of scary when you think of how long court proceedings can take and how much work is involved. Since this is a new way of handling things our agency has told us to expect some delays.
Thankfully the people who have not yet received their referrals (info on a child, we fall into this category) will hopefully not see alot of changes except some added paperwork. Unfortunately anyone from our agency who did receive a referral after July 16 will not get to travel before January 2013. I can't imagine what those families are going through! Waiting that long to travel is so disappointing, to say the least. The reason for the delay is because with the new law passing and the courts running things the government has to figure out a system of how to operate. They do not/can not send out travel visa's until everything is put into place. Our agency tells us they hope to have a system up and running after the first of the year.
This really does not change our situation for the time being because we are not expected to get a referral until sometime between December - March. What we don't know is if after we get our referral the wait time to get our travel visa's will increase(Our agency is warning us that it most likely will).So for now all we can do it WAIT, which we are becoming experts at during this process.
So there is my true answer on how the process is going...Long with a chance of even longer. Still I try not to get too upset as I know this will not help anything. When our referral comes it comes and when we travel we travel. Thank you for your thoughtfulness in keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers.
