Okay. So. I was lurking on this message board from Holt, one of the major agencies. It seems tradition on that board to mark all the major adoption paperwork milestones in their signature and I started to notice that some people were getting referrals before they got their I-600 approval. I had thought that you need your I-600 before you could even send your stuff to Korea. Which is why I was whining about having to wait at least 100 days. So, I emailed my caseworker and she quickly replied saying “No, you can go ahead and send your homestudy packet as soon as you are ready. ” What? Like, tomorrow?! Holy cow!! Here I was thinking we’d be waiting till October, which meant not getting a referral till November or so. But I was WRONG. Very wrong! We’re back on schedule. And now I need to get my ass in gear. Seriously. I’m giving myself the deadline of Wednesday August 9th to have everything together and off to my agency. Yay!

We got our new, correct, background check from Florida and I quickly faxed it in this morning to our agency. If the woman that notarizes our homestudy wasnt out of town for the week, it would be complete. But close enough.
Also, I got permission to audit Korean at Duke this fall. Classes start August 28th. I’ll be taking the bus to West or Trent (depending on the day) M-Th on my lunch hour. Fun fun. It will make for a loooong Fall. I kinda hate school. And learning a new language isnt easy (especially an Asian one). And I wont be able to eat lunch out or run errands 4 days a week. Yuck. But I really do want to learn my baby’s language and I’d like to have some basic communication skills for when we travel. Wish me luck! Or maybe you should say “행운! (haeng un)”

On Saturday morning, Steve and I took an infant & child CPR class. Its required for the adoption process. It feels good to have it out of the way, but its hard to tell if I’m any more prepared. Sure, I now know its 2 breaths to every 30 compressions. And you use two fingers for an infant and one palm for a toddler/kid. And avoid the zyphoid thing cause that could kill a person. (but I already knew that). I also learned how to turn a baby upside down and smack it on the back if its choking. And that if a baby is coughing, they arent actually choking. And even though its scary, you just gotta let them work through it (otherwise they’ll never learn, right).
When it comes to an actual scary situation, I’m not sure how I’ll react. I’m sure I have some adrenaline hidden somewhere that would kick in at a moment like that, and hopefully I’ll have a clear enough head to remember 2:30.
Oh, and one more thing. They dont recommend the finger sweep anymore. Apparently, it does more damage than good. If you can see food and pick it out with your two fingers, go for it. But chances are, if you can see the food, they arent really choking.
Now I know.

You do not know how many times we made my little brother sit in his super hot car seat while he cried, just encouraging him that eventually it would cool down.
Smart moms invent things to prevent that from ever happening. And I want it (in purple, of course).

I wish I was this nerdy, but I’m not.

Nerd ABCs