Christmas 2011

Ian referral

I came upon a very old email today. It was a message to a friend who was in the adoption process. I had written to her with an update on our process. I had told her that we were told by AIAA that our paperwork had arrived in Korea on Feb 27. Kind of cool that our paperwork arrived in Korea on the day our son was born!

1 year

It has been a year since we contacted AIAA and sent our our preapplication for adoption of our 4th child. With the slowdown in Korea, I wonder about our child. As I pray, I ask God to protect our child and prepare him/her for this journey. Our baby has already lost their birth mother and is now attaching to a family that he/she will also lose. I wonder what my son or daughter is doing, how old they are, if he/she is happy, healthy. I also doubt myself at times. Am I prepared? An email back from Tammy at AIAA states that they anticipate a few referrals in October or November, although she is uncertain if we will be on that list. If not, we wait until next year.

I believe in my heart that this is the path that God wants us on. I am not sure what the future holds, but I know that no matter what, God will be with us and guide us.

For now, we continue the wait.

EP's are moving again!

Exit Permit (or Emmigration Permit) has started to flow again in Korea. This according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) of Korea today.

Because this year's Quota Level has already reached near the limit before the freeze went into effect, there are fewer than100 EPs that will be granted for the remainder of this year between the four adoption agencies in Korea.

The EPs that were submitted in May will be granted first. It appears that during the first six months of 2011, there have been rather high level of EPs granted that made the Quota get filled up quickly. I hope all the children will come home soon.

Family Night Out at the Mallards

On your mark, get set, go!

2 fast kids

With the whole family in town, we decided to have some fun at the Madison Mallards game. Austin and Ben were chosen to do a fruit race in between innings. They had a lot of fun and did a great job!

We all had a great time!

No More EPs

We received an email yesterday from AIAA about the Korea program. We were told that all of the EP's were given for the year, in fact, too many were given. This is common as Korea allows only a certain number of children to be adopted internationally each year. Normally, the EP's run out sometime late Fall. It is shocking to everyone in the adoption process with Korea that it is only the beginning of June and they are already gone!

A friend sent me this explanation they found online...

Here is a brief explanation of how it works...

Each Korean agency is given a certain number of EP's each year which they manage, an emigration permit (EP) to be submitted to the Korean government. Basically, the EP will give approval to leave Korea and will be submitted and approved by Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Each Korean agency has a different quota to manage to, in part based on their relative sizes. The EP quota overall has been reduced each year by the ministry. Last year according to the US embassy website, all of the Korean agencies ran out of EP's, some earlier than others.

Because the EP quota gets further reduced while the number of children coming into care and getting placed for international adoption does not proportionately decrease, the problem tends to grow year over year, resulting in a backlog that grows with the impacted agencies running out of EPs earlier and earlier. Unfortunately as the quota declines, it becomes very hard for an agency to catch up because the number of children coming into care for the new year doesn't necessarily go down, so not only do they have the backlog to clear through but they have the new children to get through the EP approval process as well. Over the years different agencies have run into the quota problem earlier than other agencies.

Here's a made-up example to help illustrate the problem:

Year 1 for a given agency....
Agency is granted 100 EPs
Agency has 110 babies come into care
Agency decides to refer all 110 babies
Agency uses up all EPs by November; only 100 get EP, 10 babies have to wait until Year 2

Year 2 for the same agency...
Agency starts off with a backlog of 10 babies needing EP
Agency is granted 90 EPs (reduction of 10% from the previous year's quota of 100)
Agency has 110 babies come into care (assuming no change in the number of children coming into care)
Agency decides to refer all 110 babies
Agency now has a 110 babies from the current year plus 10 babies from year 1 needing EP or 120 total babies; agency only has 90 EPs
Agency uses up all EPs by October; only 90 of the 120 babies get EP; 30 babies have to wait until Year 3

Year 3 for the same agency...
Agency starts off with a backlog of 30 babies needing EP
Agency is granted 81 EPs (reduction of 10% from the previous year's quota of 90)
etc...

So the complaining of traveling during winter was nothing to worry about since now we DEFINITELY won't be traveling in 2011. We plan to email our agency, AIAA, to find out exactly where we are on the wait list and see if there is any guess on if we will even travel in 2012. So many questions remain...Do we want to proceed? If so, do we want to start over with a baby/toddler, who will likely be older than 9 months, when Ian will be 5 1/2 or 6? Do we want to deal with this uncertainty? It is very frustrating that we finally make the decision to proceed with adoption of baby #4 only to be put on hold for formal application then told that there is no little hope of a referral at the end of 2011, absolutely NO travel for 2011, etc. I try to remind myself that God is in control. He alone knows our needs and WILL provide. HE knows what is best for us. Looking at it that way, I also remind myself to be grateful that we are not one of the families that have already received a referral and were looking forward to traveling in a month or 2 or 3 and now being told that you will not be with your child until after the beginning of next year.

I want to move forward and complete our family ASAP, but yet again, God is telling me to "Be Still and KNOW that I am GOD"

Korean Baby Names

I found this on babynames.org.uk/korean-baby-names.htm

A Korean Baby Name
Customs in Korea vary considerably from the Western culture when
naming a baby. A Korean name is only ever repeated by complete
accident. The majority of given Korean name's are unique. Please see
below for some examples of Baby girl and Baby boy name's.
Chinese-based name's became the norm among upper and middle classes in
Korea during the Go-Ryu dynasty.

Korean Names - their order
The order of Korean name's is presented in the reverse to the Western
format. A Korean name would therefore be transcribed in the following
order: surname, given name. There are often errors in transcriptions
when the characters of the given name are written separately. Some
Korean-Americans have adopted a Western name however they use their
Korean one as a middle name.

Given Names
There are thousands of Korean characters and the given name usually
consists of two syllables taken from any of the thousands of these
characters. The range of name's is therefore almost limitless. Naming
traditions in Korea can include and represent all forms of nature and
the environment or characteristics or even have mystical meanings.
Many will reflect a specific period in history. The Western custom of
naming a baby after another close member of the family would be
unheard of as a custom or tradition in the Korean culture.

The Usage
The given name in Korea is rarely used within the close-knit family
circle. In Western culture children rarely address their parents by
their given name - they are referred to as " Mom" or "Dad". This
custom is also adhered to in Korea but the custom extends to the whole
family. In a family of three brothers their siblings would use the
address of 'second brother' for instance. In turn the parents of
Korean children often give then a unique nickname within the family.
Outside the family circle the nickname would not be normally used.

Surnames
Korean surnames are family surnames. They are passed down from one
generation to the next. Korean surnames convey the family's history
and the deeds of their ancestors.

Selection of a name in Korea
Korean names are unique to each baby. Any duplication of a first name
is purely coincidental. The following list of male and female Korean baby names are therefore only listed as examples and should not be duplicated thus honouring the customs of Korea.

Bae
Chin
Gi
Ha-Neul
Ho
Jin
Joo-Chan
Jung
Kwan
Seung
Sun
Yong
Chin
Chul
Hyun-Ki
Hyun-Shik
Soo Bo-Bae
Dae
Ha-Neul
Hea
Jin
Joo-Eun
Kyon
Min
Moon
Shin
Soo
Sun
Yon
Cho
Hea
Hei