What a week!

Now that we have our LOI and can start making travel plans it is time to gather the last few documents that need to be current when we travel. We have Visas to get, still waiting for our updated USCIS approval, new medical reports, doctor's license, more Power of Attorney documents, money from the bank, airline tickets, etc. So we started the week by attempting to contact Baltimore office of USCIS to get the status of our immigration paperwork. I have attempted to look up the status online but it doesn't recognize our receipt number for some unexplained reason. Phone lines aren't working, they aren't responding to emails and I have attempted snail mailing. So Sunday I emailed them again. Monday we filled out our Visa applications and Wayne Fedexed them Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday he finds out FedEx has put a hold on the delivery because they seem to think the Embassy has moved. Have they attempted to deliver the package yet, no! Two phone calls later he convinces them that the Kaz Embassy is still at 16th and O Street in D.C. and they did manage to successfully deliver the package.

Now my turn, I try again to contact Baltimore USCIS. I finally get a working phone number only to get an automated message stating the number will not be functional from 2/23 to 3/19 and to please email all inquiries. Keep in mind our original approval documents say they prefer people to call with inquiries and I have already attempted to email at the address given in the message twice now. Sooo, I email a third time. They are suppose to respond within 3 business days according to their information. Friday arrives and I still have not heard from them. So I try yet again to see if I can't connect with a live human being. I got a hold of someone at the helpline only to be told to call the customer service line that you have to go through about 50 numeric combinations just to get to a live person. Viola, I finally reach a live human being. What does poor Leon tell me, "I recommend you email the adoption office." Oh, and why can't I look it up online, because my receipt number is for an orphan petition and you can't look those up online evidently. I go through all my attempts to contact them and he tells me, " they are to respond to your email within 2 business days." Really?!!! "No, you aren't suppose to call them, that maybe why you get a message saying it is out of service because the number got out." Then he looks up the Baltimore office and discovers that they are one of the few offices that do take phone calls and he has no idea why they aren't responding to my inquiries. My only other alternative is to schedule an appointment and go down to BCIS in person. So they want me to take an hour or more out of my work day to go have them tell me what they could do over the phone in 5 minutes or less. So I email a 4th time out of despiration.

Miraculously, on Saturday I get not one, not two, but three email responses, each one different. The first one says, "Service records indicate that you were re-fingerprinted on 12/31/08. Your prints are valid for 15 months. The Service will notify the NVC that your prints have been updated." Email two says, "We will send you an updated notice." Hey everything is working out after all! Nope, email three says, "As a further update, our records only show that you were fingerprinted on 12/31/08. Please provide additional information regarding your wife so that we can further research this issue – thank you!" Uh, excuse me but I think I was the one who sent the emails, not Wayne. And what do they mean they can't locate mine! These responses all came from the same person. So, I dug out the receipts (they don't specify which receipt belongs to whom) showing we were both fingerprinted, scanned them in and sent them as a pdf doc to the supervisory adjudication officer that finally responded to all my emails. We'll see how long it takes for a response back this time.

About the only thing that went well this week is the travel agency responded quickly and we are just waiting for the go ahead by our IA caseworker before we book them. She said she would let me know next week. So it looks like we will be leaving on the evening of 4/14 for a very long trip to Kazakhstan. I was also notified that our bank is prepared with our special cash request of all new bills to take with us.

We ended the week by clearing out the room that will become our new child's room. It is already to be painted if we can ever decide on a paint color. We will wait to actually furnish and decorate it once we know exactly who we will be adopting. It will give us something to do between the bonding trip and our court trip.

Just another typical week in the world of International Adoption.

Below is a rather timely Inspiration for the Week our IA caseworker sent in this weeks Happy Friday email:

THIS IS THE JOURNEY YOU MUST UNDERTAKE. YOUR DESTINATION IS UNKNOWN; ALL THAT YOU DO KNOW IS THAT THERE IS A GREAT TREASURE AT THE END OF IT; IT'S WORTH BEYOND ALL COST; A JEWEL SO PRICELESS THAT ALL YOU ENDURE, ALL THAT YOU SUFFER, ALL THAT YOU HOPE FOR WILL BE MORE THAN WORTH IT. IN SOME WAYS MAYBE IT'S GOOD NOT TO KNOW THE FUTURE; FOR EVEN THOUGH THERE IS AN AWARENESS THAT THINGS CAN AND DO GO WRONG, YOU KEEP ON GOING. FRIENDS AND FAMILY ENCOURAGE YOU, BUT EVEN IN THEIR CARING IT IS NOT ENOUGH. FOR NO-ONE UNDERSTANDS THIS CALL OF YOUR SOUL. PERHAPS THIS IS WHAT MAKES HUMANITY IN ALL IT'S FRAIL AND THOUGHTLESS WAYS SHINE WITH GREATNESS. FOR THE ONE THING THAT KEEPS BEAUTY IN OUR WORLD, THAT BUILDS GREAT MONUMENTS AND ENDEAVORS, THAT OPENS EYES AND HEARTS AND SOULS TO ALL THAT IS THE VERY HIGHEST AIM OF HUMANITY; AND YES, EVEN YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY; IS LOVE. Submitted by Marla McConnell B.C. CANADA