approved!

two weeks ago, we visited the us citizenship and immigration services office in alexandria to have our biometrics (aka, fingerprints) taken for our homeland security clearance. this was our second set of fingerprints -- the first set being for state clearances (i think)...sidenote: imagine if all people had to get clearances before becoming parents...hmmm...but, i digress.

i wanted to take a picture in front of the building, but there were clear signs posted everywhere that no recording devices and cell phones were allowed. it was very interesting being there and on the other side of immigration services, both of us being US citizens all our lives...very interesting. again, i digress.

anyway, these fingerprints were for our I-600 which is essentially the application for the visa application approval for little choi boy (you got all that?). today, we got our approval from homeland security -- hooray!!! this means that we are approved as the identified adoptive parents for our little one. we thought our wait on this was going to take a few more weeks so were thrilled when we received the letter from homeland security today! (i wonder how many other people are actually thrilled to get a letter from homeland security...?) this is a big step for us, because this means that now the korean agency can apply to the US embassy for choi boy's visa. meaning, this is pretty much the last step for us to take on our side before it is all in the hands of the korean and US governments, which will hopefully go fast as well :). hooray, hooray, HOORAY!

praying, praying, praying for a summer travel date...God is good!