We signed our referral acceptance paperwork yesterday!  Basically, this is the official paperwork that identifies us as our child’s adoptive parents.  It does not legally make him ours by any stretch (this won’t happen until final approval in Korea around the time we are granted custody), but it does get the legal process rolling with both governments.

Essentially, the documents promise that we will love him, accept him, and provide for him as our child and that we have completed the steps to show we are qualified adoptive parents.

To celebrate, I’ve been buying him lots of things HA!  A tiger lovey, a recordable book (where Josh and I can record us reading the story to him), a soft photo album, photo blocks, a giraffe teether toy and baby food.  We are allowed to send care packages through our agency, but the items need to fit in a gallon size bag.  So I’ll definitely be sending over the course of a few months.

We wanted to get the boys with us for a family photo, but Elliott had a meltdown at the bank while we were getting things notarized.  We high-tailed it out of there, but Josh and I still grabbed a quick photo when we got home.  Our first unofficial photo with our baby boy hah!  (In case you’re wondering, we signed a privacy agreement that states we won’t share his photos on a public forum.  So we won’t be sharing any photos of him here until he is legally ours!  I also went and edited the last couple of posts to remove information that I was unsure about.)

As far as the home study goes, it is getting signed by the final people.  We’ve been told that can take 4-5 days, so it may not be done until mid-week.   I am estimating everything will be DONE and ready to go to South Korea by 4/16.