Ruslan, Yuri, and Alina in front of SDA today. We took them to meet the women in the office where we reviewed the files. The women were happy to meet them and enjoyed talking with them.
Zenon just called me as he walked out of the American Consulate here in Kiev and said he has the visas in hand!!!! This is a miracle---literally! The Consulate here was waiting for an email from the USCIS office in Chicago in order to process the papers. We were called at 9am this morning and told that the email had not come. We went for our interview this morning anyway in order to get the rest of the process completed. The frustration level was high today--after an elated phone call of joy accompanied by many tears last night.
Let me recap--I did not update yesterday due to phone calls and emails back and forth to America.
On Wednesday, we heard that the "approved age" was not in compliance with what was on our original application. We then began a series of phone calls, emails, skype calls, more emails, and lots and lots of tears. We began to work on finding out what needed to be done to change this. We were told by the USCIS office in Chicago that an addendum needed to be submitted to their office to change this and then they would let Kiev know so we could get our visas. This was prepared, and was taken to Chicago and hand delivered by my mother (who I believe broke all speed limits in order to do this) to the "officer" (at this point I use this term loosely) who requested the document. At that point my mother was only told that this document was not sufficient. Okay, let's begin by bumping up the stress level here to about a 9 on a scale of 1-10. So, now know that this isn't enough begins more emails and phone calls to figure out what to do.
A friend of mine initiated a phone call to her father who is a friend of our Congressman Pete Visclosky. He was willing to help us, but we needed to get him a form filled out with one of our signatures on it. I said, ok, let's get it done. But, of course, being a blond it didn't occur to me that I don't have a printer or fax machine here in this apartment--just our laptop. So, at 10pm here in Kiev (and 2pm in Indiana) my husband made a phone call to someone here to find a 24 hour internet cafe. Off he went, returning about 1:30am, successfully printing and faxing the document to Greg at the Congressman's office.
On Thursday, we received an email from the USCIS office stating that we needed to have a brand new home study done!!! You've got to be kidding me!?! That is virtually impossible, since we are in Kiev and home studies need to be done AT HOME by both parents. So, the stress level now rose to 25 on a scale of 1-10. At this point, we were completely mystified at the response we received from the USCIS.
The Congressman's office began a string of phone calls and investigation into the situation on our behalf. Thursday evening we received a phone call from him stating that the supervisor reviewed the file, and would sign off on it immediately, allowing the visas to be processed. This required her to send an email to Kiev with this information. So, we were so excited, crying tears of joy, and ready to come home with our children.
This morning began with
THE phone call from the U.S. Consulate's office: no email! We felt like we were kicked in the stomach again. No email???? So, off to the appointment--and praying like crazy that the email would arrive by days end. We needed to wait until 4pm Kiev time (8am back in Chicago). At 4pm Zenon decided to go to the U.S. Consulate office and wait for the approval to be transmitted. On the way to the Consulate, Zenon phoned Greg and updated him about the situation. The Consulate office closes at 4:30 and they waited to close at 5 while he was there. At 5 minutes to 5pm, Zenon in TEARS, asked for them to call Greg at Congressman Visclosky's office. The consulate graciously complied and called Greg for a last minute bailout. Greg didn't understand why the email had not yet been processed by the USCIS Manager. Within moments of the conversation, the Consulate received a phone call followed by - you guessed it - THE E-MAIL!!!!!!!!
Zenon called me at 5:25 and said he just left the American Consulate's office with the VISA's in hand!!!!!!!
Our God is still on the throne when everything looks hopeless!
We had orientation Monday and last night to get prepared for today, the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Yeah, Me!! The house is QUIET today. Everybody was very excited to go to school. No one had to be asked twice to get up---we'll see how getting up for school is two months from now! We said goodbye to Elyse after our annual "First Day of School Photos", as she got on the bus, then shortly loaded the rest up and off we went. I dropped everyone off with big smiles today. I can't wait to hear about their first day tonight.
