Waiting

The #1 question Tony and I get asked is why we have to wait so long to bring our little guy home (and if we can do anything to speed up the process). The #2 question is often about whether we've gotten any updates on the wait time.


To help answer and explain #1:
The beginning of 2012 did not look promising for families waiting to bring their little ones home from Korea. It was only a couple of weeks ago that the first families received permission to travel, and those families had been waiting for quite a while. The wait time is a roller coaster! For example: 
- When we first began the paperwork process last May we were told the wait from referral acceptance to travel was about 10 months. 
- When we submitted our formal application in the fall we were told things were now at 14 months. 
- When we accepted our referral in February we were told to expect a 19 month wait. 


Really, I don't think the agency knows exactly, but they are trying to help us manage our expectations and not get our hopes too high.


In the weekly program update, CHS&FS provided a good -- and detailed -- explanation as to why we have to wait to travel to bring our little guy home. I hope it helps to clarify the WHY, even though it doesn't do much to help the wait go faster. It also helps to answer the question about whether we can speed things up from this side of the globe. 


Here's what the Agency said:

Can CHSFS control travel times? Unfortunately, Children’s Home has nearly no influence over the length of time that passes between when a family’s acceptance paperwork is sent to Korea and when they are able to receive their child.  Rather, that timeline is determined almost exclusively by the amount of time it takes for the process in Korea to be completed (the U.S. process for obtaining a visa is usually completed relatively quickly). The Korean process is dependent on Korean adoption and emigration policies— in particular, the emigration quota system which establishes a limit to the number children who will be granted permission to emigrate out of Korea for the purpose of adoption. In recent years, the quota has been dramatically decreased resulting in longer waits for children who have been matched with adoptive families to be issued emigration permissions. Although Children’s Home is not able to directly affect the number of emigration permissions granted or the speed with which they are processed in Korea, we are very proactive in advocating in the best interest of the children with organizations in Korea such as the Korean social welfare agencies, the Ministry, and other non-agency advocacy groups. Through all of our efforts we promote ethical child welfare practices and we urge for prompt issuing of the emigration permission so that children can join their adoptive families soon after acceptance.

To help answer #2:

We do hear updated wait times every now and again, but the agency has indicated it will have a more solid idea of our travel time later this year. Our hope is to bring him home before his 2nd birthday, though we are preparing ourselves for the previously stated 19 month wait, which puts us into September 2013. If there are dramatic changes to the wait time or the overall relationship with Korea, we will be sure to update everyone. In the meantime, the little changes the agency posts from time to time are really just guesses and estimations.