I left off with Dr. Plemmons at Vanderbilt's Adoption Clinic and having a conference call with him. Keep in mind, I'm in Myrtle Beach with friends over the weekend, trying to have a good time and not worry about this adorable little boy that was about to come into our lives and the upcoming decision we had to make!!! Yeah try that one on for size!! UGG!! Dr. Plemmons had Aiden's medical file and had a chance to review before our conference call with him the following week. When the call came, I had pen and paper ready to write anything and everything if need be on our little boy. Dr. Plemmons (to sum up) said he's a healthy little boy and he was surprised to see him on the Special Needs list! He kind of chuckled a bit and said this little boy is growing fine, weight and height were in the normal range, head circumference was good, motor skills great, and developmentally on target, etc. So, the first thing I asked was, "what about the meds the birth mother was on?" ((Unfortunately, Aiden's medical file did not disclose the actual names of the meds the birth mother was taking while pregnant.)) Dr. Plemmons said the meds weren't a big issue. And that the only issue a pain medicine would present if the child was born 'addicted' to the pain medicine, and the repercussions of that would only be short term withdrawals. I asked Dr. Plemmons if I were to get the actual names of the meds she had been taking, could he advise us of any possible issue there after. He said he'd be more than happy to review them - THANK YOU DR. PLEMMONS!!! ((love this doc!)) So..... we were informed that our little boy was healthy, and as perfect as he could be!!! Yes I was over the top at this point, but who wouldn't be, right?!
After the phone call with our doctor, I jumped on email and emailed Jessica at Holt. I asked if there's any way we can get the actual names of the medicines the birth mother was on while pregnant? She returned my email rather quickly and said that Holt had already put in a request to Holt in Korea for the names of the meds! Yeah - it was already in motion. I felt good about it at that point, keep in mind we still haven't officially accepted our little boy yet. After a few days, Jessica at Holt forwarded the email from Holt Korea the names of the medicines. I then forwarded the list to Kelly at Vandy, and she forwarded it to Dr. Plemmons. He returned my email by that evening with a full write up of explanations of all the meds she was on! Yes I was amazed again! I thought a busy Pediatrician at Vanderbilt would be just that, a very busy pediatrician at Vandy and I wouldn't hear a thing for a long time! The explanation filled the whole page! His first summation listed a medicine, said it had a low chance but still a chance of causing physical birth defects. ((Our son wasn't born with any birth defects!!)) So that one was in the clear! Then he listed the others with less importance, some meds were identical to our meds we have here, he explained what everyone was and what it's used for. They weren't of any significance, mostly minor meds and even supplements or vitamins. So here's that recap again - He's fine!! Aiden's original medical file didn't contain his Hematology report, or it hadn't come in yet. I received that another couple of days later, forwarded that to Kelly, she forwarded it to Dr. Plemmons and answered back rather quickly and said all is fine - still! All blood work was normal, and no abnormalities! Whew, another big sigh....!
So, we received Aiden's file on July 22nd and we officially accepted him on July 27th!! I sent the email to Jessica and she responded with his official acceptance note. Jessica told me that she'd now turn us over to Mary at Holt to handle our case from now on. They sent us the acceptance forms - WOW. I referred to their Guidebook on Holt's site for the help with all these documents. Here's what we had to have completed to send back with the acceptance forms. ((1)) I-864 Affidavit of support - (2 original copies needed) Mike had to fill this one out; ((2)) I-864A Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member - (2 original copies needed) I had to fill this one out; ((3)) Affidavit Concerning Exemption for Immigration (2 original copies needed, must be notarized). These documents were sent by email to print out: ((1)) Statement of Adoption (4 original copies needed and must be notarized); ((2)) Foreign Travel Release form - (one copy for Mike and I and had to be notarized); ((3)) Travel form (3 original copies needed). These were sent by regular mail to us: ((1)) Placement agreement -- received 3 original copies that had to be notarized then sent to Holt's office in Oregon, our Home Study agency and we were to keep one; ((2)) Invoice -- 2 copies received, one was to be sent back signed with the acceptance documents, the other we kept for our records. PLUS (no I'm not done yet!!) -- copies of our certified marriage license, both our birth certificates, recent tax forms plus W-2's! Now are you dizzy yet!?!?
Mike and I completed them, went to have some notarized the next morning. He went on to work late, and I went home with the jewels! When I got home to look at all of the documents, I realized I had missed one that needed to be notarized with Mike's signature only- EKKKK!! He's already gone to work, now what!?!? I called him and told him I missed one for him. He couldn't miss any more work, so I told him he would have to go Saturday morning to a pawn shop that had a notary - yeah that's what I was thinking - ewww - but it had to be done! Come Saturday he went and had it notarized, everything was fine. I got all the documents together the next Monday morning, plus the other things they requested and sent them off to Holt in Oregon by Tuesday, August 10th! I got an email from Mary on August 13th saying she received all the paperwork, it was fine, and it'll be sent off on Friday August 13th to Holt in Korea. And you thought Friday the 13th was bad luck - HA! ;)
At that point Mary said it would take at least 2 weeks for Aiden's 'legal' government documents to get here from Korea after they receive the acceptance documents from her. I got an email from Mary on August 19th, my birthday, that the "legals" were on their way to us from Oregon and that they would be delivered Fed Ex by August 24th ! Wow what a great birthday present!!! On Monday August 23rd, I got home from picking Tay up at school to find our "legals" in the Fed Ex envelope laying next to our garage door! A day early!? Oh my!! I opened the envelope to find these documents: " (1) Affirmation and Oath Certificate: Certification by the President of Holt Children's Services Inc. of Korea that the legal documents are true and correct, (2) Certificate of the Guardian: Without parents the child is considered an "abandoned child" by Korean law. This document certifies that guardianship of the child is granted to Holt Children's Services of Korea, (3) Family Register: the Child receives his own family register thus severing all ties with parents and establishing him as independent, (4) Statement of Guardianship: Transfers guardianship from Holt Children's Services of Korea, Inc., to Holt Internatinal Children's Services, Inc." Now, can you imagine reading every document like these 4 I just posted?!?! Yeah - do you understand why I'm a little schizo sometimes?!?!
All 4 of those documents were in Korean, translated to English. So each document had a Korean copy and one in English. In a way it was kind of sad, because one document was the release from his birth mother. The others were like reading what you just read above! When Mike got home, I took the documents over to my mom's to make copies of all of them and copies of all the other required papers to have: copy of current tax forms and the Government form the I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative. I found the directions on the Holt web site on how to fill it out, thank goodness! I filled out the I-600 and put it with Aiden's legal documents we had received and sat it on our kitchen table waiting to be sent the next morning.
On August 24th, I sent our I-600/legal documents to the USCIS in Lewisville, Texas (lock-box). From there they went to Lee's Summit, Missouri to the National Benefits Center (NBC) . We received notice that it's there and inline for processing. So for now we wait - AGAIN for these documents to move to another location. I've been told that this process could take up to 6 to 8 weeks. I'm hoping it won't take that long, but so does everyone else that's waiting! The big thing we're waiting on is the Emigration Permit (EP) for Aiden to be able to leave Korea. South Korea has a quota registry that says how many children adopted can leave the country in one years time. If Aiden gets his EP approval this year, hopefully he will be able to travel this year and we can go get him. But as of right now, we're waiting on that. So ...... If you ever have any clue as to what all this means, please understand, if I'm acting weird, seem stressed, and a little absent minded, I think you'll know why now! :)
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