One hundred forty-five days. That’s about 22 weeks. Or five months. It might seem like a random, arbitrary number, but that’s how long we waited for our Emigration Permit approval. That’s right, waited. Which means we are no longer waiting — we got it!

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Though we waited much, much, much longer than we had anticipated, we are SO very grateful things are moving forward and we are heading into our next and final steps. We had initially thought we would be in Korea at about this time, but with unexpected delays, that obviously didn’t happen. We knew approval would come, it was just a matter of when. And now that when has happened we are ecstatic!

So, what happens next? Next, we wait for a court date — our papers were submitted to the Korean Family Court the day after our approval and will be reviewed by a judge who will take our case. We anticipate we will hear about our court date within 1-3 months. Court dates are typically scheduled about 1-2 months after the notification, which puts us in Korea for our first trip any time between late August and November. After waiting so long for this step, we are praying hard that things will move a little more quickly for the next steps, but also trying to remain realistic. At this point, I’m thinking we’ll be in Korea for our court date in late September. From there, we’ll wait another 3-8 weeks for final approval and we’ll be able to bring our sweet girl home. We are 99% certain our Lil’ Cowgirl will be home for Christmas and everything will be done well before the end of the year.

It’s been a long, long, long process (this past May was our 3 year mark!) and we’re not finished yet, but we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and we know we’ll be bringing our Lil’ CG HOME SOON. Can’t wait to have our little girl in our arms!!! We’re coming for you, Lil’ CG!