The Jackpot

Well, I hit the Jackpot today.... well, sort of. There was no money involved, but it felt like it. I was almost as excited as I would be if I won the lotto. Finally, after weeks, even months of waiting, the mailbox contained good news today. not just one piece of good news, but four.

Let the record show that neither Tim nor I are criminals. We have a certified letter from the FBI to prove it. We have no record. Shocking. They told us that last year and the year before too. Not sure what took them so long this time. Anyway, the coveted documents are finally here. Two envelopes, one for me and one for Tim giving us the clearance we need for Ethiopia.

But the excitement didn't end there. Also in the mailman's stash today were two envelopes from the Department of Homeland Security, inviting Tim and I to participate in yet another fingerprinting opportunity. This time at our local USCIS office in Charleston. I was so excited..... until I opened the envelope and discovered the date of the invitation. It is for next week. Why the disappointment? Most people would be excited that it was so soon. Well, where will I be next week? Switzerland. Not sure the company will give me a quick flight home to meet with the people at the USCIS office. So, tomorrow morning, as soon as they open, I will make a phone call and see when I can rearrange the appointment for. I imagined this would happen with Tim and I both being out of town so much lately. But, when we didn't get anything last week, I thought we were clear until I came back. I thought for sure all the paperwork would come while I was gone and then the invitation would be for sometime after that. But nope. It's while I'm gone. I've never had to re-arrange the fingerprint appointment before, hopefully it is not too difficult. Hopefully we will get another quick appointment.

The good news is, progress has been made! I am going to take a leap of faith and say that my guess is that the SC USCIS office is going to turn around our I-171H in record time and that we are going to have everything for our dossier submitted to our agency by year end! That would be so great! It may be pushing it, but here's to hoping! Wish me luck with updating our appointments...

In Christ,
Charity