So we went to the babyhouse this morning to visit with Angelica (that's her full name and what we're calling her for now) and got to have a nice long visit (1 1/2 hours!). When we got there they had the children in her group playing outside. They were all in their underwear and with kerchief things on their heads for girls and baseball caps for boys. We got some great pictures of her dressed like this, with her underwear on backwards, actually! We stayed outside the whole visit because it seemed like the toys were a little bit of a distraction in the little playroom. So we walked and I held her and Greg held her and we sang and had lots of fun. We looked at the book again and played peek-a-boo, which she learned how to say already. We think she'll pick up English pretty fast after she's immersed in it.
After that, we went for lunch at the Doner cafe, a place that had been recommended to us by another adopting family. We ate really good Turkish food (Nicholas had french fries) and then Nicholas played in the playplace that they have there. We liked it and want to go back.
After lunch we went around town with the other Americans we met yesterday. We saw the Orthodox Church and the Mosque. It was very fun and they have a playground on the grounds of the Orthodox church that we played on for a while. Then they (the Jones family) came over for spaghetti at our apartment. They are living in a hotel right now, so it was a chance for them to get some non-restaurant food. And we all enjoyed talking to other Americans for a while. All in all, we had a really fun day!
Tomorrow we are not allowed to visit either one of the girls, but we plan to go down to the river for the "demonstrations" that are supposed to be taking place for the Protection of Children Holiday. There will be demonstrations by children from schools and from orphanages, and I'm sure it will be interesting. We'll take lots of pictures.
I'm going to post a few pics of the last few days, including one of me wearing a crazy green cape, which is what I had to wear to go into the mosque. The little boy in that picture with me and Nicholas is Des, the Jones' son. Also included for those less traveled, a picture of a "squatty-potty."
It's storming right now and it's supposed to cool off tonight, which is great since it's been in the 90's the past few days. Paka! (informal bye in Russian) Love you all!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Bonding Day 3
Well we finally got internet in our apartment, so I've checked my email (44 new) and now I'm doing this and then I'm going to try to call people. We don't have many new things to say about the girls, we only got to visit Julia today because of the Holiday of the Protection of Children, which is Sunday, and apparently they are making preparations at the baby house and could not let us go to see Angela. But we will see her tomorrow and sunday and we will not get to go to Kachiry to see Julia again until Monday. :( We did have a good visit with her today. She came and initiated a hug with me, which was huge. Yesterday, she hugged me when I hugged her and did not seem to mind, but never did it unless one of us initiated or someone told her to. but today she came and sat on my lap and put her arms around me. I felt that first string of love connecting my heart to her.
Random fact about Pavlodar...the mosquitoes here are worse than in south Louisiana. And they are even worse in Kachiry. We can't even play outside with Julia because they might carry us all away:)
We met some other Americans here today and are planning to meet up with them tomorrow afternoon and go have some fun. They are here for research for a doctoral dissertation. They have been living in a village in Russia for the last 3 months and now they are in Kazakhstan for about 10 months. They have a little boy Nicholas's age and they were really happy to see another kid who speaks English. We expect to have a fun day tomorrow, with visiting Angela in the morning and hanging out with them in the afternoon.
Blessing all! We love and miss you!
Random fact about Pavlodar...the mosquitoes here are worse than in south Louisiana. And they are even worse in Kachiry. We can't even play outside with Julia because they might carry us all away:)
We met some other Americans here today and are planning to meet up with them tomorrow afternoon and go have some fun. They are here for research for a doctoral dissertation. They have been living in a village in Russia for the last 3 months and now they are in Kazakhstan for about 10 months. They have a little boy Nicholas's age and they were really happy to see another kid who speaks English. We expect to have a fun day tomorrow, with visiting Angela in the morning and hanging out with them in the afternoon.
Blessing all! We love and miss you!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Bonding Days 1 & 2
Well, finally the news you’ve all been waiting for…
We found the girls! Yesterday we went to the babyhouse here in Pavlodar and saw three little girls. The third one they showed us was Angela. Yep, Angela. How weird is that? She will be 3 on October 14 (happy birthday Granny!). She has a big sister, who is at a different orphanage, because the children age out of this one at 4. So we had to get more papers, etc. to go to the orphanage in Kachiry, which is an hour away. When we got to Kachiry, we met Yulia (which will be Julia when we get home). She was very sweet and quiet and serious. She and her sister do not look very much alike. We decided that we wanted to proceed with the bonding time and that counts as bonding day one.
So now we’re on bonding day two. It was funny how different the girls were today. Julia was not told yesterday that we were deciding whether or not to adopt her, only that we were visitors who wanted to play with a girl in the orphanage, but I’m guessing that she had it figured out, because she seemed very nervous yesterday. But today they had told her before we got there that Mama and Papa were coming, and she was all smiles and running to meet us and talking a mile a minute even though we couldn’t understand anything she said. Julia will be 6 on July 9. She and Nicholas had a lot of fun together, riding tricycles and sliding and laughing. When we left I asked Nicholas what he thought of his big sister and he said, she’s better than I thought she would be. So we’ll take that as a positive coming from him. Also she’s a lot taller than he is and he wasn’t happy about that. But he did let her take lots of pictures with his camera, which is a pretty big step for him. Sharing with no complaints. This sister thing could be really good for us! J
After we left Kachiry (which is a little bitty village) we drove the hour back home and this afternoon we went to the babyhouse here in Pavlodar to see Angela again. (We are still figuring out what to do with her name—2 Angelas in one family?) She also was different today. Yesterday, she was still and quiet and shy. When we left yesterday, she didn’t want them to take her from me. And today, when they asked her if she knew who I was, she said Mama and came running down the hall to meet me. Obviously she was feeling very at ease with us, because she showed her 2 year oldness, if that’s a word, after we had been there for close to an hour. She went into full test-mama mode. In the adoption world, that’s considered to be a good thing, though, because it means she is already starting to trust me enough to test me. After all, what 2 year old doesn’t test mama?
Julia is perfectly healthy, and other than perhaps a little fine-motor delay, which I admit I’m on the lookout for, she seems completely fine. She has been in the orphanage since just before she turned 4. Angela has been in the orphanage since she was 8 months, and she has a problem with her eyes. She can see, but one of them is crossed and will need surgery after we get home. Other than that, she has no physical problems. She is also potty trained! Oh, yeah! She does that crazy thing that Nicholas did when he was in the orphanage—when you hold her, she doesn’t hold on unless you actually put her legs around you. Even then she’s not really holding on. So we danced and spun a lot today to try to get her the feeling of holding on when I hold her. Both of them seem okay with physical contact, but do not initiate it. They loved the book we made with pictures of people from home and you’ll see the picture of Angela making the silly face that I was making in one of the pictures in the book. She did it over and over. It was hilarious. Okay gotta go! Bye!!!!!
We found the girls! Yesterday we went to the babyhouse here in Pavlodar and saw three little girls. The third one they showed us was Angela. Yep, Angela. How weird is that? She will be 3 on October 14 (happy birthday Granny!). She has a big sister, who is at a different orphanage, because the children age out of this one at 4. So we had to get more papers, etc. to go to the orphanage in Kachiry, which is an hour away. When we got to Kachiry, we met Yulia (which will be Julia when we get home). She was very sweet and quiet and serious. She and her sister do not look very much alike. We decided that we wanted to proceed with the bonding time and that counts as bonding day one.
So now we’re on bonding day two. It was funny how different the girls were today. Julia was not told yesterday that we were deciding whether or not to adopt her, only that we were visitors who wanted to play with a girl in the orphanage, but I’m guessing that she had it figured out, because she seemed very nervous yesterday. But today they had told her before we got there that Mama and Papa were coming, and she was all smiles and running to meet us and talking a mile a minute even though we couldn’t understand anything she said. Julia will be 6 on July 9. She and Nicholas had a lot of fun together, riding tricycles and sliding and laughing. When we left I asked Nicholas what he thought of his big sister and he said, she’s better than I thought she would be. So we’ll take that as a positive coming from him. Also she’s a lot taller than he is and he wasn’t happy about that. But he did let her take lots of pictures with his camera, which is a pretty big step for him. Sharing with no complaints. This sister thing could be really good for us! J
After we left Kachiry (which is a little bitty village) we drove the hour back home and this afternoon we went to the babyhouse here in Pavlodar to see Angela again. (We are still figuring out what to do with her name—2 Angelas in one family?) She also was different today. Yesterday, she was still and quiet and shy. When we left yesterday, she didn’t want them to take her from me. And today, when they asked her if she knew who I was, she said Mama and came running down the hall to meet me. Obviously she was feeling very at ease with us, because she showed her 2 year oldness, if that’s a word, after we had been there for close to an hour. She went into full test-mama mode. In the adoption world, that’s considered to be a good thing, though, because it means she is already starting to trust me enough to test me. After all, what 2 year old doesn’t test mama?
Julia is perfectly healthy, and other than perhaps a little fine-motor delay, which I admit I’m on the lookout for, she seems completely fine. She has been in the orphanage since just before she turned 4. Angela has been in the orphanage since she was 8 months, and she has a problem with her eyes. She can see, but one of them is crossed and will need surgery after we get home. Other than that, she has no physical problems. She is also potty trained! Oh, yeah! She does that crazy thing that Nicholas did when he was in the orphanage—when you hold her, she doesn’t hold on unless you actually put her legs around you. Even then she’s not really holding on. So we danced and spun a lot today to try to get her the feeling of holding on when I hold her. Both of them seem okay with physical contact, but do not initiate it. They loved the book we made with pictures of people from home and you’ll see the picture of Angela making the silly face that I was making in one of the pictures in the book. She did it over and over. It was hilarious. Okay gotta go! Bye!!!!!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Pavlodar Day 1
We’re in Pavlodar. It’s actually a lot nicer than we expected. We got moved into our apartment last night and it’s really pretty nice. Big. Actually, I saw pictures of this apartment on a blog and started praying that we’d get to stay here. And here we are. It’s great after a couple of days on planes and one night in a teeny weeny hotel room in Almaty. Almaty was pretty cool. We found a McBurger restaurant and ate some burgers and fries. Not bad at all. Nicholas isn’t doing too good with all the different food, but now that we’re here we can cook, and things will taste a bit more like home. We stopped at a supermarket after getting to Pavlodar last night and picked up the stuff to make spaghetti. We are supposed to have an appointment at the ministry of education later today and we are just waiting to hear what time from our lawyer.
Just got the call from our lawyer and they’re picking us up in 10 minutes. Gotta go!
We had our appointment at the Ministry of Education this morning. It went well and we are now waiting for the paper she has to give us that gives us permission to go to the Office of Care and Guardianship for the next step of the process. We are hoping to get that by about 4:00 this afternoon. Hopefully we’ll get to the OCG today and will be ready to go to the babyhouse tomorrow morning, but if not, we’ll go to the OCG tomorrow morning and then to the babyhouse. We made spaghetti for lunch—I had bought what looked like a roll of ground meat at the store last night (it had a cow dancing on the package) but when I opened it, it was not ground meat but something like a roll of spam. Ok. But once it was cut really small it worked pretty well in the spaghetti, and even Nicholas ate a big plate of it without complaining at all. That’s the first meal he’s been okay with in Kazakhstan.
The lady at the Ministry of Education was very excited to meet Nicholas (who’s not up to his usual friendly self yet, but getting closer!) He talked to her a bit—I think it’s hard for him that no one understands him and that he can’t understand them. I hope he’ll get used to the translator thing soon. She said she had never gotten to meet a child who had been adopted from an orphanage and been with a family for a while, and it made her feel happy to see that he was happy, healthy and well cared-for. They told us after that few families bring their children and those that have brought children here have had biological children, not adopted ones. I’m so glad he came! I can only imagine how horrible it would be to have left him…all of you families that had to do that, wow. It must have been so hard. It’s hard to have him, too, but in a different way. For example, he woke up at 5:30 this morning because of jet lag. But he came and got in bed with us and went back to sleep (off and on) until about 8:30.
I’ll hopefully get to post all of this tonight. Maybe we’ll even put some pictures of our apartment and stuff.
We love and miss you guys!
Just got the call from our lawyer and they’re picking us up in 10 minutes. Gotta go!
We had our appointment at the Ministry of Education this morning. It went well and we are now waiting for the paper she has to give us that gives us permission to go to the Office of Care and Guardianship for the next step of the process. We are hoping to get that by about 4:00 this afternoon. Hopefully we’ll get to the OCG today and will be ready to go to the babyhouse tomorrow morning, but if not, we’ll go to the OCG tomorrow morning and then to the babyhouse. We made spaghetti for lunch—I had bought what looked like a roll of ground meat at the store last night (it had a cow dancing on the package) but when I opened it, it was not ground meat but something like a roll of spam. Ok. But once it was cut really small it worked pretty well in the spaghetti, and even Nicholas ate a big plate of it without complaining at all. That’s the first meal he’s been okay with in Kazakhstan.
The lady at the Ministry of Education was very excited to meet Nicholas (who’s not up to his usual friendly self yet, but getting closer!) He talked to her a bit—I think it’s hard for him that no one understands him and that he can’t understand them. I hope he’ll get used to the translator thing soon. She said she had never gotten to meet a child who had been adopted from an orphanage and been with a family for a while, and it made her feel happy to see that he was happy, healthy and well cared-for. They told us after that few families bring their children and those that have brought children here have had biological children, not adopted ones. I’m so glad he came! I can only imagine how horrible it would be to have left him…all of you families that had to do that, wow. It must have been so hard. It’s hard to have him, too, but in a different way. For example, he woke up at 5:30 this morning because of jet lag. But he came and got in bed with us and went back to sleep (off and on) until about 8:30.
I’ll hopefully get to post all of this tonight. Maybe we’ll even put some pictures of our apartment and stuff.
We love and miss you guys!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
In Frankfurt
Hey from Frankfurt, everyone. We are safely in Frankfurt, Germany. It's 10 am here, which makes it 3 am Sunday morning in Louisiana. We have a few more hours here before getting on another LONG flight and ending up in Almaty. Nicholas did not fly as well as usual on the way here. He slept for the first bit and the last bit, but whined for a good few hours in between. I didn't help much because I slept through that whole part (about 2 hours) and Greg had to deal with it alone. After I woke up, though, I managed to get Nicholas back to sleep in my lap and so all three of us got to sleep for a while. We tried to get the bulkhead row for our next flight, but no luck. The lady at the Lufthansa counter did say we have an empty seat next to us for the next flight, though, so that will be nice. We keep thinking about how hard this will be coming back with (hopefully) three kids and just all we can do is laugh.
We have now realized how different it is flying completely blind, with no picture, and what we did before where we had already seen a picture of Nicholas before we went. It's a whole different and kind of weird feeling this time. Still excited but very different than going to a specific child that we have already seen. Well, I'll go check email now! Love to you all!
We have now realized how different it is flying completely blind, with no picture, and what we did before where we had already seen a picture of Nicholas before we went. It's a whole different and kind of weird feeling this time. Still excited but very different than going to a specific child that we have already seen. Well, I'll go check email now! Love to you all!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Leaving Tomorrow
For those of you who want to know (aka. my mom) :) this is our itinerary info:
American out of Monroe, LA at 7:10am
American out of Dallas, TX at 10:05am
Lufthansa out of Houston, TX at 3:35pm
Lufthansa out of Frankfurt, Ger. at 1:05pm Sunday (which is 12:05am Sunday here)
We will arrive in Almaty at 11:40pm local time (which is 11 hours ahead of here, so we'll be there at 12:40 pm Sunday afternoon Louisiana time. I don't know when we'll get the opportunity to get online, but I think you should expect to hear from us by Tuesday afternoon.
This will be my last blog post from this side of the world, because I'm actually packing now and I'm going to pack up my computer. Much love and pray for us!
American out of Monroe, LA at 7:10am
American out of Dallas, TX at 10:05am
Lufthansa out of Houston, TX at 3:35pm
Lufthansa out of Frankfurt, Ger. at 1:05pm Sunday (which is 12:05am Sunday here)
We will arrive in Almaty at 11:40pm local time (which is 11 hours ahead of here, so we'll be there at 12:40 pm Sunday afternoon Louisiana time. I don't know when we'll get the opportunity to get online, but I think you should expect to hear from us by Tuesday afternoon.
This will be my last blog post from this side of the world, because I'm actually packing now and I'm going to pack up my computer. Much love and pray for us!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
One More Day!
We're leaving in 31 hours!
I'm still not packed (procrastinating from an overwhelming job). I got my fingerprints redone, but tomorrow I have to go to the police station to get a letter stating that I have no criminal record, just in case these can't be read either. I've pretty much got most of the big things done (except finishing packing) and moved on to tidying up the little things. I am packed, sort of, though. I have stacks. Lots of stacks. Wow. I should probably do something about that. Okay, I'm going to bed. Goodnight!
I'm still not packed (procrastinating from an overwhelming job). I got my fingerprints redone, but tomorrow I have to go to the police station to get a letter stating that I have no criminal record, just in case these can't be read either. I've pretty much got most of the big things done (except finishing packing) and moved on to tidying up the little things. I am packed, sort of, though. I have stacks. Lots of stacks. Wow. I should probably do something about that. Okay, I'm going to bed. Goodnight!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
INS Part 4
Okay, just when I thought everything was under control...
Apparently, my fingerprints on the high tech wonderful INS fingerprinting machine that I had to drive 2 hours to use are unreadable. (oddly enough, when I had my fingerprints done the old fashioned way with ink a few months ago for FBI clearance, they were just fine) The good news is that someone from INS actually was working on our I-171H. She was trying to get it in the mail so we could bring it with us when we leave on Saturday. The bad news is that due to my rejected fingerprints, she wasn't able to complete it and I'm traipsing back to Jackson, MS tomorrow to get my fingerprints re-done by the high tech piece of junk that didn't do such a good job on them last time. Unfortunately, just in case my fingerprints will no longer work (could be a plus if I decide to become a criminal), because some people's fingerprints apparently "wear off" if they do a lot of manual labor (really shouldn't be a problem) or a lot of paperwork (that could be a problem after 2 international adoptions), I also need to get a letter from my local police department stating that I am not a criminal. Or at least that I haven't been a criminal for the last ten years. But, even though this letter will work if they can't get my fingerprints again, I can't skip straight to this step because that would be way too easy. So I need to do both so that they have the letter if my prints are worn off (from the adoption paperwork). Oh, well, at least she caught it while I was still in the country, a fact which I' pretty sure is due to her getting an email from Kristen at AWAA yesterday reminding her that Sen. Landrieu asked them to hurry and that she (Officer Hines) hadn't returned any of my emails in the last week. So she sat down to do it today and couldn't because of the fingerprint issue.
I feel the need to say...
I will leave Saturday morning. I will get my children soon. I will be in Kazakhstan next week. I will complete this adoption. I will have all of my children home with me by the end of the summer!!!!
Ok, I feel better. I just needed to make a statement to myself that this is not such a big deal and it won't stop the important things from happening. It'll be ok!
Apparently, my fingerprints on the high tech wonderful INS fingerprinting machine that I had to drive 2 hours to use are unreadable. (oddly enough, when I had my fingerprints done the old fashioned way with ink a few months ago for FBI clearance, they were just fine) The good news is that someone from INS actually was working on our I-171H. She was trying to get it in the mail so we could bring it with us when we leave on Saturday. The bad news is that due to my rejected fingerprints, she wasn't able to complete it and I'm traipsing back to Jackson, MS tomorrow to get my fingerprints re-done by the high tech piece of junk that didn't do such a good job on them last time. Unfortunately, just in case my fingerprints will no longer work (could be a plus if I decide to become a criminal), because some people's fingerprints apparently "wear off" if they do a lot of manual labor (really shouldn't be a problem) or a lot of paperwork (that could be a problem after 2 international adoptions), I also need to get a letter from my local police department stating that I am not a criminal. Or at least that I haven't been a criminal for the last ten years. But, even though this letter will work if they can't get my fingerprints again, I can't skip straight to this step because that would be way too easy. So I need to do both so that they have the letter if my prints are worn off (from the adoption paperwork). Oh, well, at least she caught it while I was still in the country, a fact which I' pretty sure is due to her getting an email from Kristen at AWAA yesterday reminding her that Sen. Landrieu asked them to hurry and that she (Officer Hines) hadn't returned any of my emails in the last week. So she sat down to do it today and couldn't because of the fingerprint issue.
I feel the need to say...
I will leave Saturday morning. I will get my children soon. I will be in Kazakhstan next week. I will complete this adoption. I will have all of my children home with me by the end of the summer!!!!
Ok, I feel better. I just needed to make a statement to myself that this is not such a big deal and it won't stop the important things from happening. It'll be ok!
Monday, May 19, 2008
Final Countown
So, it's like a bunch of lasts now...
Our last week of meals made out of our regular groceries for a while.
Our last trip to wal-mart before we go. (too good to be true?)
Our last movie at the theater as a family of 3. (Prince Caspian--awesome)
The last time I will re-pack that huge blue duffel bag (probably not!)
Last time I'll hang out with my friends for 2 months!
I'm feeling really excited/nervous/stressed right now. And hungry...
Which probably doesn't help.
We leave in 5 days. It's pretty surreal now.
In other news...
The Assemblies of God has a wonderful program called Speed the Light (STL) that gives cars to missionaries. We are considered missionaries even though we work here in the USA because we are on a college campus, not a church. So we had a truck from STL. They have now exchanged it with us for a 2008 Toyota Sienna van. Woohoo! I was worried about having to pack 3 carseats into my little bitty car. (Actually, not even possible--I tried it out one day.) But we will be ok now! God uses a variety of ways to provide when you are doing what He wants. When we first called about getting a van, we were told it would probably be a bit of a wait to get one. But nope! Greg picked it up today. Thanks STL and thanks Jesus...and thanks Allen, if you read this, cuz I know you pulled some strings! :)
I'm gonna go pack and cook dinner, not necessarily in that order.
Our last week of meals made out of our regular groceries for a while.
Our last trip to wal-mart before we go. (too good to be true?)
Our last movie at the theater as a family of 3. (Prince Caspian--awesome)
The last time I will re-pack that huge blue duffel bag (probably not!)
Last time I'll hang out with my friends for 2 months!
I'm feeling really excited/nervous/stressed right now. And hungry...
Which probably doesn't help.
We leave in 5 days. It's pretty surreal now.
In other news...
The Assemblies of God has a wonderful program called Speed the Light (STL) that gives cars to missionaries. We are considered missionaries even though we work here in the USA because we are on a college campus, not a church. So we had a truck from STL. They have now exchanged it with us for a 2008 Toyota Sienna van. Woohoo! I was worried about having to pack 3 carseats into my little bitty car. (Actually, not even possible--I tried it out one day.) But we will be ok now! God uses a variety of ways to provide when you are doing what He wants. When we first called about getting a van, we were told it would probably be a bit of a wait to get one. But nope! Greg picked it up today. Thanks STL and thanks Jesus...and thanks Allen, if you read this, cuz I know you pulled some strings! :)
I'm gonna go pack and cook dinner, not necessarily in that order.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Happy Sad Day
This is a non-adoption related post.
For everyone who knows me, you know I'm not overly sentimental, but I must admit I'm feeling a little blue in a happy sad sort of way today. My little baby boy had his very last day of preschool today. I can't believe he's old enough for kindergarten! (If I wasn't home schooling next year I think I'd be losing it right now) It seems like he's always been here, but in a weird way like he should still be that tiny baby I first met halfway around the world 4 1/2 years ago. He turned 5 last week. :( My baby is growing up! At the same time, the progress he has made and the bond that we have, and all of the wonderful things he says and does make me excited about him becoming the "big boy" that God designed him to be. He's such a little man sometimes. :) So I'm happy sad. I guess this is the eternal feeling of motherhood that moms around the world have felt forever...I count it all a blessing to be able to be part of this big "mom thing" that God has created. I love my son and I love adoption and I can't wait until I have more children to love...
The pictures at the top are a photo journal of my baby's life so far. Not in any order, because I have no idea how to make them move around. I'd also like them to be at the bottom, but oh, well! He's cute no matter where I put him!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
A Question
For anyone who has traveled recently, did you bring cash or were you able to use ATM's there in the country? I really don't want to carry lots of cash around the world unless I have to. Thanks for the packing advice! It's great to have some input! Angie
Monday, May 12, 2008
Busy Busy!
I know I should post more often than I do, but man! Are we busy! Between getting everything ready to go and getting everything ready to be gone, I feel like I'm always running behind. We had been scared that we would be bored during our time in Kaz. since you can only visit the orphanage for a little while each day, but now I think we are excited about the potential for boredom.
I would like to caution everyone that hasn't gone yet--there's a problem with all the packing lists online. After telling you to bring everything you could possibly imagine, they go on to say that you should be careful to pack light! :) What should I do, pack light or bring everything I need? I'm sure no matter which way I go, there'll be things I wish I had and things I wish I didn't have. For anyone who has gone already, any suggestions?
I would like to caution everyone that hasn't gone yet--there's a problem with all the packing lists online. After telling you to bring everything you could possibly imagine, they go on to say that you should be careful to pack light! :) What should I do, pack light or bring everything I need? I'm sure no matter which way I go, there'll be things I wish I had and things I wish I didn't have. For anyone who has gone already, any suggestions?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
INS Part 3
As of today, we have a fingerprint appointment on May 16th in Jackson, MS. How did this get resolved so quickly? I'm glad you asked. Well, our agency apparently has good connections with Sen. Mary Landrieu's office. And Senator Landrieu is a big adoption supporter. So we wrote her a letter explaining what happened and her office called the INS Office in New Orleans and asked them to give us an appointment quickly. So we got an email today telling us to come to Jackson on the 16th. Hooray!
And we got tickets today leaving from Monroe at 7:10 am on the 24th and getting to Almaty at 11:40 pm on the 25th. No long layovers anywhere, but a lot of plane changes! We go from Monroe to Dallas to Houston to Frankfurt to Almaty. What a long trip that will be! But at the end of it we'll be in Kazakhstan, and that's what really matters. :)
And we got tickets today leaving from Monroe at 7:10 am on the 24th and getting to Almaty at 11:40 pm on the 25th. No long layovers anywhere, but a lot of plane changes! We go from Monroe to Dallas to Houston to Frankfurt to Almaty. What a long trip that will be! But at the end of it we'll be in Kazakhstan, and that's what really matters. :)
Thursday, May 1, 2008
INS Part 2
Well, I didn't have anything to say Wednesday, because I didn't actually have an appointment Wednesday. The Infopass system is not very user friendly (and I'm no computer whiz), and I thought I had completed making an appointment for Wednesday, but I was wrong. So I showed up Wednesday and was told I was not in the computer. Apparently, if you don't get a printout you don't have an appointment. OK. Whatever. So I made an appointment for today and tried to have a good attitude. After all, my mistake. So today we had to go all the way back to New Orleans, which is not so bad, because we were at my parents' house, so it's only about an hour. We went "on the way home" today. Not actually on the way home, but better than it could have been. Only about an hour out of the way. So in I went and up to the window with my stack of papers--the papers the INS email told me I would need. And she says, "I'm not sure if we'll accept this." It seems I need to file a 290B form with these papers, which wasn't mentioned in the email I got and probably is why nothing ever happened with the papers I sent in mid-February. Yeah, February. I emailed a few times to ask about it, but got no response, by the way. So, I fill out the form, and she says there's a $585 fee with that form, but if I want to wait until August to redo the form, I can do it for free because I'll be within the 90 days before it expires. No thanks, I'm leaving in May. I'll just have to suck up the fee and do it now. Oh, and I need to make a fingerprint appointment while I'm here, because my fingerprints expire in June. Oh, you can't do that. We'll just mail you a letter when this goes through and they'll redo it. (Did I mention I'm leaving in three weeks?) Can I do it today, since I'm here? No, you can't just walk in and get fingerprints, you have to make an appointment. (I would like to mention as a side note at this point that I was one of 3 people in the waiting room--they were SO swamped!) So can I make an appointment today? No, you have to do it in writing. If I sit down and write it can I do it today? No, you have to mail a letter. Besides, when they get this to do your I-171H again, they'll send you a fingerprint appointment in the mail. Just wait for that. And on and on and on...
We went around that circle about 4 times. Finally I gave up. I left and figured that I would email someone about getting a fingerprint appointment. An hour later, Officer Hines from New Orleans Immigration calls me. She say: I am looking at your petition to reopen a case, and I was about to issue your new I-171H (WOW) and then I realized that it won't do any good, because your fingerprints are about to expire. I couldn't figure out why you didn't just make an appointment to get that redone while you were here today... At this point I actually screamed in her ear. I quickly explained in no uncertain terms that I had tried, but the bright lady at the desk had prevented me from doing so. And Officer Hines gives the extraordinarily helpful, "Well, now you'll have to mail a letter here and hopefully we can get you an appointment this month."
I love INS...
We went around that circle about 4 times. Finally I gave up. I left and figured that I would email someone about getting a fingerprint appointment. An hour later, Officer Hines from New Orleans Immigration calls me. She say: I am looking at your petition to reopen a case, and I was about to issue your new I-171H (WOW) and then I realized that it won't do any good, because your fingerprints are about to expire. I couldn't figure out why you didn't just make an appointment to get that redone while you were here today... At this point I actually screamed in her ear. I quickly explained in no uncertain terms that I had tried, but the bright lady at the desk had prevented me from doing so. And Officer Hines gives the extraordinarily helpful, "Well, now you'll have to mail a letter here and hopefully we can get you an appointment this month."
I love INS...
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