Eastern & EP questions

These are pictures of Eastern Social Welfare Agency and the group of Social Workers who work there with all the children and foster mothers. You will also see a picture of Henry and I's social worker Mrs. Jin Hwa Shin. She is a social worker extraordinaire. She was very sweet and hospitable. I liked her an awful lot and by the end of my trip I counted her as a new friend.

The building you see in the picture houses much more than you might think. The first floor houses the social workers and post adoption services. The second floor has computers for guests to use, meeting rooms with toys for parents and children to meet in, and a hospital where newborn babies are taken until they are placed with foster parents. The third floor has the office of Dr. Kim and also some rooms that serve as a home for the pregnant mothers. The fourth, fifth and sixth floors have a cafeteria for everyone and guest rooms for visiting families. There are also laundry facilities and kitchens for the visiting guests.

Many of you have asked when I'll get to bring my Henry Joon Seong home and what the holdup is and I always say it's government red tape. Each year the Korean govt. issues a certain # of Exit Permits (EP). Eastern applies for the EP for each child as the paperwork gets completed and once the EP is granted by the govt. then America can apply for the child's visa and the child can usually travel home rather quickly. We received our referral in August and our paperwork has been waiting for an EP since November. When I got to Seoul I, of course, very quickly asked Mrs. Shin when she thought our EP would be applied for. Her answer was not my favorite, but I'll tell you what she said. Mrs. Shin said that each year the Korean govt. decreases the number of EP's granted by around 10%. She also said that the week before I got there they had just applied for the May (families that got their referral in May) EP's. So, she said, my EP will probably be applied for in late March/April. I asked if I would travel in April, and Mrs. Shin hesitated before telling me it may be May. Let me tell you that every time I remember that I still feel like I'm being punched in the stomach.

Now, I don't know if any of you have the same logic as me, but I thought that well, if you applied for the May EP's last week, lets apply for June next week, July the next and August the next. I had to probe quite a bit (respectfully of course!) to find out that a new batch of EP's could not be applied for until the previous batch was approved and sent back. From what I've gathered it's about 3-4 weeks between each batch of EP's that can be applied for. Here it is mid-Feb. and I still have heard no word on the May families travelling to pick up their children. I'm a little worried that it may be later than May when we travel. Here's hoping that I'm wrong!!