Her baby nursery is now setup...

Gammy and Aunt Lippy came over today and helped us arrange the furniture for the nursery, it is looking great.

Carseat - simply over the top

Couldn't resist this...

Biometric Fingerprint Appointments

Today we received our I-797 appointment notice for our fingerprints. Luckily for us the appointment falls on a Saturday. We have an appointment for next Saturday morning at 10am at the USCIS office at 170 Portland St. in Boston. Moving ahead.

US Citizenship & Immigration Services - mail call

Holden came up to my office about a half an hour ago with a very important looking letter from the Boston Department of Homeland Security USCIS office! It is a letter confirming the receipt of our I600-A form, and a notification that we should receive an appointment for our fingerprints in the next two weeks. I called Jean and she said this was a new courtesy letter. Our home study and this form will allow the USCIS to process the next step. The letter indicates that the maximum processing time for this part is 45 days, but often it is shorter. Think short.

Bo's written report

Pictures of Bo with Cecelia and Mrs. Kim

Bo's baby room

Bo's chandelier and twin size bed linens arrived last week. Kip and the boys installed the lamp and added a dimmer so we can use it as a nightlight. We painted, steam cleaned the rugs, organized the closet with lots of beautiful hand-me-downs from Charlotte Hood, but still haven't figured out exactly where the furniture is going to land. We have everything we need including the crib set up. Thanks to Kristin Huber for trekking to Pottery Barn Kids to get the crib linens. The boys helped me put together a little toy shelf, and we will move a larger bookcase in soon. We purchased some Korean Lullaby CD's and she has a player set up in her room. We are really putting the final touches on her room.

Cecelia's visit to see Bo

Cecelia, our agency director, traveled to Korea for two weeks beginning May 5th. She visited all the Love the Children babies and provided us with pictures and an updated report. We jumped for joy when we got them on Saturday. She seems to be growing and developing perfectly!

Korean Documents

We found out on Friday from Jean (our agency social worker) that our Korean paperwork is done- to quote "Your baby's legal documents have arrived from Korea. I will be sending them to INS (USCIS) sooo ....one BIG step closer to her homecoming !!!"
We are not exactly sure what the timeline is next but feel like we are moving forward!

Care Package to Korea

Yesterday I sent a care package for Bo to Cecilia at Love the Children. In it was a child friendly teething photo album with pictures of us and the boys and an additonal photo album with addtional pictures of us, the pets, and other family member snapshots. As well I sent a blankie doll with my scent on it, some chocolates for her foster family and a few disposable cameras. I was told this morning that they can only send the one baby photo album and the blankie, but I know she'll love it. Cecilia was in Korea for the past 2 weeks and has pictures and a write up for us. The office says we can expect it in the next week or so, as soon as I get new photos I will post them.

First Post

Welcome to Bo's blog! I have never blogged before, but thought it'd be a good way to document her journey home. She has been in the foster care of Mrs. Lee, Gwi Ja since December 6, 2007. She is growing every day. On April 7, 2008 she weighed in at 14 lbs. We submitted the last of our paperwork on April 18, finished our homestudy on April 23rd, and received and accepted her referral on April 25th. We feel so fortunate. She is happy, healthy, and well-loved. Her paperwork says she enjoys her bath, another swimmer in the midst! We discussed American names for over 2 weeks and decided on Isabel. We think it is so nice because it is the Spanish name for Elisabeth. Bo was born on my sister Elisabeth's 30th birthday. We are still happily calling her Bo. Today she is 6 1/2 months old. Her big brother's are so excited to meet her. We have been working on setting up her bedroom. It looks so pretty so far. It is very pink.