Well, fudge~

So I talked to our case worker, Kate, at WACAP yesterday and the news is not great. I mean, it's not for sure either but it could be and it pretty much stinks. We have been told no less than a million times that once we had that coveted "To whom it may concern letter" that we would have just about 3 weeks start to finish before we could ask for travel dates. We are currently at the I-800 submittal part. Our I-800 has been at the USCIS {Immigration peoples} for about a week and a half. But they haven't begun the approval on it yet. In fact, as of yesterday evening, it was still in the "lock box" waiting to be taken out. The nice lady on the phone said it usually didn't take very long to be approved once it was out of the lock box. But, maybe a week or so. Then, they send the provisional approval via snail mail.

After this step, we wait for the US Embassy in BKK to verify approval and have to send more docs with his birth certficate and passport/visa photos and yada, yada, yada. Then approvals are cabled back and forth. This used to take about 2-3 days and is now taking upwards of 3 WEEKS! Huh? Are you kidding me? Kate said that it could go faster. But at this point, this is what other families are experiencing.

You may be thinking, "Kam, dear. You have waited this long. What's another 3 weeks? It's nothing! 3 weeks ago was June for Heaven's sake!" Well, here's the deal. In 42 short days, our Joel will be 3 years old. I know he probably doesn't even realize this, but we sure do. If our I-800 and various cables come through in the next little bit, we could meet our son for the first time on his birthday. Do you realize how wonderful that would be? Don't you know I've been dreaming about this? So, it's not just that our son might be there without us for 3 more weeks {though that's reason enough right there}. It's that he will turn 3 without us. Again, to him...probably not a huge deal. But for this mama, it's the world.

So when I called the Hague division of the USCIS to get a case status update, the super nice lady told me that Crystal B... has been assigned as our officer and would be reviewing our case for approval. She was not there at the time to speak to. But this lady said that I could maybe explain to her about the timing of it and it would be up to her discretion to maybe work fast for us. No guarantees. But a possibility.

This news really made my mood plummet. So I went over to Tara's to water the garden and just grab a little alone time after dinner. And then, around 10pm, I told Jase, "I need some chocolate." He laughed and said to go for it. That's what I did. I got busy on some homemade fudge! To be totally forthcoming, I kinda have an addiction to chocolate. Well, addiction is such a strong word. Let's call it a love affair. I just need a little bit of it everyday. I sometimes wake up in the kitchen {yes, you heard me right, wake up in the kitchen!} eating chocolate...icing, chocolate chips, etc. One day, this is gonna catch up with me I just know it! But for now, I'm just gonna go with it. And since the fudge would take hours to set up, I headed into the living room with my big stainless steel pot, a towel underneath lest I burn my legs, and a spoon and I proceeded to lick that pot near clean. Jase just chuckled. In the end, it didn't take away my disappointment, but it sure helped soften the blow!

So please pray with us for Officer Crystal B...at the Hague division of USCIS that she would be speedy quick with our I-800 and would approve that joker super fast! And if she doesn't, and this whole thing does take another 6 weeks...we'll just continue to walk by faith and not by sight trusting that our God does all things well. And maybe eat a few more batches of fudge in the meantime!

*ps. Please pray for sweet Angie and her hubs as they travel to Thailand TOMORROW to bring their son home!