Whirlwind of Activity

Ok so I left off with our first visit with our caseworker. The month of June was a flurry of activity. Before I lay out the timeline of how things went let me first explain a little about the fingerprints I mentioned several entries ago. We sent our I-600A form to Citizens and Immigration Services (CIS). They then send you a letter assigning you a location and time for you to get your biometric fingerprints taken. People in our area are either assigned to go to Naperville or to St. Louis. We couldn’t believe our ears. Keep in mind that we just had had our FREE biometric fingerprints taken at WIU 5 minutes away from our home just prior to this. Unreal! On Friday, June 13th we get our letter from CIS stating that we are assigned to get our prints taken on June 24th in Naperville at 8:00 a.m. Why is it that the people the furthest away are assigned an 8:00 a.m. time? This is beyond me. So Justin and I decide that we would have to go up on the train the night before, stay at a cheap hotel, and get the prints done. Not so bad right? Well here is how things went – Letter received on June 13th; Next meeting with caseworker in Peoria on June 19th; the kids and I to Arkansas June 21st – 23rd; drive like crazy on the 23rd to get me back to Macomb for the 6:15 p.m. train on the 23rd; Naperville on the 24th; I was supposed to be in charge of VBS registration that entire week; June 26th get physical form to the doctor; back to Chicago June 27th – 29th for a fabulous wedding; June 30th our home visit/inspection; July 2nd leave for Disney. Not to mention I am supposed to be getting a lot done at work including deploying an entirely new phone system. Things were seriously insane!!!

So the meeting with the Carole, the caseworker, on June 19th was a full day ordeal. She interviewed Justin and me together for about 3 hours. We went through all of the paperwork we had turned in; discussed parenting styles; our relationship; feelings we have about people who give their children up for adoption; awareness to cultural differences etc… We had a short lunch break and then she interviewed each of us separately for about 1.5 hours. This was to get a feel for our upbringing; more conversation about our marriage; our parenting styles; etc… I think she was trying to find out if we are nuts or not. Luckily that day we appeared to be somewhat normal :o)