"minor labor complications"

last monday 6/6/2011, marked four weeks of deafening silence, since asher's last adoption milestone (visa physical).  our agency stated that travel calls typically occur between 3-4 weeks after this milestone.  why was our situation pushing beyond the "typical" timeframe?  we i didn't want to "panic", yet, but we i was curious about WHEN i should go into "panic mode". so off an email went to our adoption agency titled, "Trying to be patient ... but just wondering ...".

our adoption agency has been very helpful, professional, supportive, ... and just overall an awesome agency to work with.  they immediately sent off an email to the korea adoption agency to inquire about our status.

their response was:

The child's VA has not been arrived at the Embassy yet.

WHAT?!?  "VA not arrived yet?!"  all our paperwork was in order, everything approved.  what did they mean that it didn't arrive yet? 

while i have never been pregnant myself, i do know there are many opportunities along the way for complications.  but that is PREGNANCY!  i'm going through an ADOPTION.  don't we just need to cross our "t's", dot our "i's", get things notorized and pay everyone money?!?!?  then i was reminded ... i'm going through a "paper pregnancy"; like all things, there are ALWAYS opportunities for complications, present situation included!

by the end of last week, i figured out that our I-600 approval ("VA") did not arrive at the embassy in korea, because it WASN'T SENT along with all our initial paperwork!$%&*!  it was approved back on 2/28/2011, and we even received a letter on 3/5/2011 stating that it was sent to the embassy!  alas, it was NOT sent.  argh.  an honest human error, which was not caught by three different systems, which could have easily (?) been caught (or at least inquired about).

so after making calls all friday morning to helpful (and not so helpful) gov't officials (so thankful for friends who were able to watch tobe while i was making calls, because he was demanding A LOT of attention that morning as i tried to speak with gov't officials), i was able to iron out the complications and get our "paper pregnancy" back on track (or at least that's all i could hope).

to add insult to injury, we were expecting a medical update for our little guy last week, but never received one!  (yes, insert empathy at this point :))

finally yesterday (mon 6/13), i was able to confirm that our I-600 approval was resent through the appropriate channels, and that it was indeed in seoul.

hopefully this evening (which is wed in korea), our korea-side agency will have what they need to finalize everything for our travel call. 

our "consolation" for this minor complication, are 3 new pics of our baby boy, which we received today, along with a medical update!!  our few weeks delay has led to the following significant changes:

- 2 new upper teeth (6 top / 4 bottom)
- waves bye-bye
- drinks from a cup with help
- says "umma" (mother in korean), "abba" (father in korean), "mama" (specific .. not sure what this means)
- RUNS ALONE (!!!!)
- height = 30.2"
- weight = 21.8 lbs

here's praying & hoping the next post is our TRAVEL CALL!!