A bit (perhaps a long bit) about our adoption journey

This post is just to catch everyone up to speed.
On August 08, 2008 we officially signed with our adoption agency and began the process of bringing a beautiful little life into our home to be our daughter. When we first signed up I believe we were #24 on the waiting list for a girl from South Korea. The waiting list moved fairly quickly at first. I waited two months before I first called the agency and we had moved up 6 spots! I thought for sure that meant the process would go faster than I anticipated. At that point I anticipated 16-18 months.
Over the course of our first year waiting we moved all the way up to #3. Then came the stand still. Literally, three months of no movement at all on the girls list. This part was so tough because we were so close and thought that at that point we'd have a referral. (For those newbies to adoption referral is when the agency calls you and tells you they have a little girls file for you to look at.)
But it took until November 30th before our day finally came.
It was a very fun and special day. I was teaching that day and my husband had received the "call." When I came home he had this funny look on his face and his mom was video taping me. I was trying to figure out what was going on when I saw a picture frame on the counter. The little note said "all I want for Christmas is a family"- written by my husband. (The pic was the one of her on the red throne)
I was so excited- I skimmed the file with a huge grin on my face, asked Chad what he thought and within about 5 minutes called the agency to say YES- we'd love to have this child be our child! That's a day you never forget- one you hope for for a long time.
Since that point we are attempting to be patient as we wait for all the necessary approvals and government paper work to be complete so we can go to Korea to pick her up. On Jan 4th we received state approval. Then last Friday we received our letter in the mail to go and get our fingerprints done by the US Immigration Service. Our agency had warned us that this process is new this year and could take up to 90 days to get approval. This is considered federal approval. But to our surprise and great joy we got the approval letter in the mail today!!!!
One big step closer.
So that takes you up to the present. I'll fill you in on what's next in the next few days.