A good good day!

There were 2 major things that I prayed for when we moved back to the States.  I felt that I could just about handle anything as long as these things were accomplished:

1 -- For Adrian to land a good job so that he could jump back into his career.  This wish came true in July.

2 - For my kids to get their US citizenship.  After waiting for 5 months, we finally had our interview with immigration today.  You might think to yourself, "what's the big deal?"...You obviously have not dealt with INS in the past.  I've gone through it before with Adrian.  When we found a typo on his green card (they misspelled his last name), it took a YEAR to correct...seriously!   I dreaded preparing the documents for the kids...but did not feel the need to hire an immigration lawyer, so I did it myself.  Looking back, I am actually proud of myself for completing this task.  There were 4 sets of forms to fill out and tons of supporting documents.  I submitted them in May.  We received our first interview notice in July.  Unfortunately it fell on the day that Adrian was in Europe for Simone's baptism, so we had to cancel the interview.  That stressed me out cause from past experience with INS, if you get them off their "routine", your paperwork gets "lost".  I remember being upset about this and Norbert who was visiting us at the time told Adrian to change his travel plans to ensure he keeps this interview.  I didn't want Adrian to miss Simone's baptism, but did like Norbert for being on my side.  Anyway, by this time, it was September and we did not get a second interview notice, so we had to follow up...sure enough, they misplaced Nic's cancellation notice and marked him down as a "no-show"...after we convinced them of their mistake, they scheduled an interview for today.  I was so nervous.  The other 3 were fine.  I prayed during the whole ride to the interview (picking up Mom's trait).  I was so worried about forgetting some important paperwork or misreading some law that would disqualify the kids from obtaining their citizenship.

The INS Officer came straight out and said that the kids were approved, that they would be getting their green cards in 2 to 4 weeks!!!  As she was stamping her approvals on the documents, she told us what a great thing we are doing regarding adoption.  Gave us instructions on the next and final step of getting citizenship (one more form).  She was also impressed with my organizational skills..she said that she is really anal so appreciated it...I have to admit, their files did look perfect!  At the end of the interview, we all gave her hugs - thank you, thank you, thank you.  These kids are going to be citizens!  I get to claim 2 dependents next year!  We are truly lucky people!!!
I did think of Norbert several times today.  I hope he knows that the kids got approved.

[sorry for the long post...want it for the kids to know what we had to go through]