Irish Citizen married to a filipino

Hi name is Dave , I am from Dublin, living and working here , but am married to a Filipino living in Tacloban . I travel there as much as I can and we are currently waiting on a decision on her visa .
I would much appreciate any advice given on this process . She has also got an 8 year old child who I treat as my own , we have also applied for a visa for him , I might add that I have known her 9 years now and its been a long struggle to get to this point . we recently got married last year after a very turbulent 9 years in which circumstances pushed us apart several times. we now have a home together in Tacloban and we stay in contact every day no matter what . its now nearly 6 months since our papers went in and we have received no response or contact what so ever , is this normal practice , should we just wait or should we inquire as any contact we have made we just get the official response of 6 - 12 months process . Also if anyone has advice on schools that I can enroll our son in ... his English is good but still broken but he has very good grades at home any way that's my story of why I'm here and any help would be much appreciated , also Maricor is a Teacher with good English and she would love to take up teaching here if she could. I have been into crosscare and they helped with the paper work and advised on what was needed . But as far as giving any other information its the same response . Is there anyone out there that has been in the same situation and had there visa granted , any advice what so ever would be much appreciated