Just one more thing!!!

We got my birth certificate in the mail today, thanks to that outstanding gentleman at the State Department!!! It's spelled correctly and everything!!! That means, the only thing left to wait on is our approval from USCIS aka Immigration. Bring it!!

Please enjoy the picture while our party is being reached :)

I bought some of that Ethiopian coffee I'd been wanting so much, crushed the beans with a hammer and brewed it in a pot, cause I don't have a coffee maker, and because as my big sister  said, it felt more righteous that way :)

Heart to hearts with government employees :)

This morning I was running with my sweet sister in law and telling her how I hope that our papers come in this week, and within 30 minutes I got a phone call from area code 202... The State Department!!!! Oh, no big deal, it was just some awesome guy saying that he'd received my final documents needed to fix my birth certificate, and he'd get it done TODAY!!! Praise the LORD!!!

Sooo naturally, I immediately go rifling through my filing box and find the phone number for USCIS, because immigration approval is the only thing standing in our way now. I hesitate. It hasn't quite been the full 8 weeks they tell you to wait before calling to check on your status, and I don't want to be a bother. But I swiftly get over it and call, 'cause I really want to know where we are.

My call's answered by the sweetest woman, in the best mood ever. She's surprised that we've been waiting so long for approval (phew, she's not annoyed with me!), and asks if we've sent in our home study. I tell her that yes, it was sent in by our agency on April 7th, overnighted. Hmm, she says, that's funny, it seems it hasn't been assigned to an officer yet, weird. Long story short, we called our agency, tracked down who signed for the home study, and my faithful new friend at USCIS is going to get our file together and get it processed for us. She said she'll call me tomorrow with a tentative time frame!!! Yay, we're almost there!!!

Also, if you haven't seen the movie Babies yet, you totally should, it was so fun!!! We were laughing so hard we cried, multiple times. I only cried in sadness and longing for my baby once, so it's pretty safe :)

A real live miracle

Y'ALL!!! You won't BELIEVE what happened last night!! We had dinner, I did the dishes, normal evening, no big deal. EXCEPT!!! We have a cast iron skillet, and I had made some chicken adobo in it, and as I always do I washed it with hot water and then left it on the stove on low with a little oil rubbed on it so the water evaporates and it doesn't rust, only this time I forgot that I had left it on the stove!!! We LEFT the apartment for like 30 minutes, came back, and were starting to nonchalantly talk about what we wanted to do the rest of the evening, when I set my keys in the key bowl and saw that the stove light was on, telling me I'd left a burner on. WHAT?!?! I rushed over and not only was there no black smoke and burning smell billowing out of the pan (ok, so maybe I have a little experience in this area), but the oil was still there and it had accumulated into a little puddle on one side, and it seemed to be room-temp consistency. I was amazed. I put my hand over the pan... nothing. I picked up the pan... nothing. I put my hand over the burner... nothing. Praise the Lord!!! It's a miracle, there's no other possible explanation!!! For reals y'all, that was the same burner had used to make dinner, and guess what.... I used it again this morning to make tea. Our sweet Jesus took care of us, and protected us from setting out little apartment on fire! Thank you, Lord!!!


And by the way, tomorrow's our 3 year anniversary!!! Yay!!! I love you, my sweets!!! You're my perfect gift! I just realized yesterday I've been telling people we've been married for three years for quite a while now, oops :)

Welcome back surprise :)

On Wednesday I got a call from my sweet friend and neighbor who's been checking our mail for us this week, and she said she'd picked up a "we missed you" notice on our door from FedEx!!! YAY! I called and had them hold the package for us, and found out that it's from... Drum roll please....... THE FBI!!!!! Can I get a "what, WHAT?!?!" I picked it up this morning, and it was my long lost fingerprint results! That shaves about 2.5 weeks off of our estimated paperwork collecting time!

So really, the only thing we're waiting for is approval from immigration (I-171H) and my birth certificate. I also came home to a letter from the Department of State (I was born abroad, so they handle it) that says that they need another document from me before they can issue a corrected birth certificate. For now, I'm going to continue to pursue this, but if it turns out to be the last thing we're waiting on, I might ask our case worker if we can send it in misspelled, with a notarized letter to explain the error.

Things are moving right along, folks!!! Praise the Lord!!!

PS: to everyone who I told that I thought we might also have received our immigration approval while away, I was wrong. It was a small misunderstanding. CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Service), which is a branch of the FBI, sounds a lot like CIS (Center for Immigration Services) on a phone recording to an over-excited mama-in-waiting :). We're still thankful we have our prints!!!

Home

Last weekend we were at Windy Gap Young Life Camp in Weaverville, NC for a work crew weekend, and so since we were just two hours away, we decided to hop over and see our peeps in TN for a couple of days!!! It was a VERY short visit, and we certainly didn't get to see everybody, but we treasured the time we got with my immediate family and some of our good friends. It was a sweet, encouraging and rejuvenating visit!!

I took some pictures of our friends and fam, and even of my parent's house and land. I wanted to remember it perfectly. It was the last place that I lived before I grew up, and I really have a special place in my heart for it. Sara Groves has a song on her latest album that makes me think of my own second story window. Here it is:

This House

it took me by surprise this old house and these old feelings walked round and looked inside familiar walls and halls and ceilings where I'd dream and plan every moment of sunshine this was my whole world it was all I knew like the hull of a seed this old house cracked wide open as I grew hadn't given it much thought hadn't been back here for a while everything looks so small seen through the memories of a child who would dream and stare from that second story window that was my whole world it was all I knew like the hull the of a seed this old house cracked wide open and I flew sad fruitful broken true sad fruitful broken true memories for miles and miles summers falls winters and springs Ruby you take it in see he's withheld no good thing

Me and my Mom

The Bird

the ice cream

Love you guys!!! Thanks for hangin'!!!

Nothing yet

"Hey there, wait a minute, mister postman. Waiaiaiait, mister postman. Mister postman, look and see, is there a letter a letter for me?"

Sometimes I wonder if our paperwork's been lost. We haven't been waiting any longer, or even as long as expected for these last three documents, and I'm not even trying to complain, I'm just saying, the thought crosses my mind that it's possible our stuff's been misplaced, and while I think I'm waiting patiently for something, I'm really just wasting time. Am I crazy?! Has anyone else had this paranoia? I know you have, don't even try to pretend :)

Oh well, here's to another week of waiting to wait, and pretending it's not always on my mind. Date night!!!