The weight of the wait

There is not much new in the world of "waiting for John", but seeing as a few people have asked for updates, I will fill my blogger audience in with what little information I do have. CJ & I were both able to get our fingerprints done before the holidays. Phew! I had planned to keep things quiet at work until the arrival date was closer but, well, me & secrets don't get along all that well and I spilled the beans at our holiday party. And of course had to tell my principal in order to get permission to leave early for fingerprinting. Ah, yes.... fingerprinting...
So off I jetted a million miles an hour to get to the immigration office, thankfully finding a parking spot on the second trip around the block and only getting slightly held-up at the security check. However my 10 minutes to close arrival did not please the fingerprinting lady who grumpily yelled at some poor kid on his cell phone who was just trying to navigate the entrance form. Honestly, I have spoken English all my life and have a hard time with the immigration forms - I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for people with limited English. I tried to be as pleasant as possible in an effort to keep her from squashing my fingers and made jokes about how I was an expert in having my prints taken. She was only mildly amused. BUT, the fingerprints are DONE, and we have officially been approved to bring an immigrant into the country. Woo-hoo! We found out after the fact of course that we didn't need to pay a second fee and I have been trying to get it reimbursed (HA. HAHAHA.) without any luck thus far.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that the agency in Korea has decided they will not be giving us any medical updates or new photos between now and homecoming. The photo thing is a disappointment, but not a surprise because it was the same way with Paul. Thankfully his foster mother took a lot of pictures and arranged them in a nice album that was sent home on the plane. But the medical updates?? Part of the reason we were so happy with the Korean adoption process was the monthly medical updates - it is so wonderful to hear that your child is developing well and to see what he is doing each month. 6-12 months is such a speedy time for development and not only are we missing seeing it in person, but now we don't even get to enjoy it vicariously!! It makes me want to cry.
In the meantime I am working on a package to send to John and his foster family in hopes that they might at least send a letter back saying he is doing well. Until then - what I know, you know. Stay tuned.