Doing the dossier jig!

We just received most wonderful news...WE ARE DTC TODAY! We will certainly have a July LID but I am thrilled to officially say the Paperchase is over!

My original goal was to DTC in July with a late July/early August LID. Many people say that I got the paperchase done quickly because I am so "Type A" however I think we just got damned lucky. Lucky to have switched homestudy agencies and found the best SW on the planet (I should be careful since my mother and best friend are both SWs - but they don't do homestudies). Our SW, Valorie, did an incredibly fast homestudy and helped us navigate through USCIS. We were so lucky that the Boston USCIS office moves fast. THANK YOU BOSTON USCIS! We were also lucky that we live in the same place where we were born and married so nothing had to go out of state for certification or authentication. We had a simpler paperchase than many other people because of that.

So I can now say that we are "paper pregnant" with the gestation of an elephant!


WOOOHHOOOO! I think I'll go dance on the ceiling. Yes, too much Lionel Richie in my formative years! (Mom, Dad, you know which one of you was responsible for that!)

Well I'll be damned- the paperwork looks good!

Jen W. at CCAI just sent me an email saying we are through critical review!!! So so so happy! The dossier will go into translation tomorrow and will DTC within a week! WOOOHOOO!

CCAA not thru June in June :(

I had so hoped that the CCAA would get through June in June. I am ever hopeful that they will resume full months sometime very soon and that they keep the wait to 12 months or less. I am disappointed by them not referring the last two days of June. Just two days. How hard could that have been? I am so happy for everyone who is receiving their referrals soon. It could have been worse, initial rumors said CCAA would only get through the 23rd. OK moving on now- we still have to DTC and get our LID. So we gotta LONG LONG wait.

A Name Game...

New Names
1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet and current street name): Zoe Guernsey

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME (grandfather/grandmother on your mom's side, your favorite candy): Patricia Milky Way Dark

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name):S-PAT

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (father's mother's name, street where you grew up):Mary Willard

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (best friends name, city where you were born):Stephanie Lynnfield ... (that is such a soap opera name!)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name):Yat Ess (OOOHH WIERD)

7. JEDI NAME (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards):
Ittap Sseb

8. SUPERHERO NAME ("The", your favorite color, favorite drink): The Brown Mojito (oh sounds awful) lets change that to The Turquoise Mojito...

Boston's Dragon Boat Festival

On Sunday we went to the Annual Dragon Boat Festival in Boston. I think I read somewhere that it is the country's oldest Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. Much of Memorial drive up by Harvard is closed off and they have food vendors, crafts for kids, and performances alongside the river during the boat race. The weather could not have been better and for those of you who live in the Northeast, you'll agree, that is a tremendously lucking thing to say. (We've had over 18" of rain in 4 weeks)



We walked over the footbridge to the Boston side to watch them practicing. They had a drumming performance over there as well.



The parade then came back over the bridge to the Cambridge side and did some performances in a large tent. The kids got some chinese kites and we all had some chinese food for lunch. All in all a great Sunday!

A day in NYC with Mom!

Man do I love THE CITY. Forgive me for being a Bostonian and calling it THE CITY but I really do love it. We lived there for a few years after we were married and I have such a special bond with NYC. Don't get me wrong, I'll never be a Yankees fan- growing up going to Fenway with my dad was way too special.

Going to NYC is always a special event for me. No matter what I am there to do or how long I get to stay, it is always loads of fun. That's why hand-delivering my documents to the Chinese Consulate in NY was very cool for me. On Wednesday I decided to take the train down to authenticate my very LAST document and my mother decided to join me. It was really special completing my dossier with my mom and shipping it off to CCAI.

We took the 6:30 train down and got in 3 hours later. Unfortunately it was pouring down with rain but cabs were plentiful at Penn Station. We zipped up to the Consulate and dropped the document off. We were told to come back between 2:00 - 2:30 pm to pick it up.

We then grabbed a cab down to SOHO to do some shopping and have lunch. We ate at a place called Fiamma Osteria on Spring St which was lovely. As lunch was ending and it was nearing the time we needed to be back up at the consulate, I started getting really bad butterflies. It was the weirdest feelling. The dossier was nearly done and in less than an hour I was to hand it over to FedEx to be sent off to Colorado. I was so afraid to let it out of my sight that I joked in the cab back uptown that perhaps I should just fly it to Denver.





Stomach knots and all, we got back to the consulate at 2:00pm and picked up our autheticated I-797C. Mom took lots of pictures as I picked up and paid for the document, made copies of the authentication page, and worked it into the final dossier packet I was sending to CCAI.





Here I am getting ready to hand it all off. All those precious documents that required so much hoop jumping were about to leave my hands.

Look! I actually let them go. Luckily Kelly at FedEx seemed like a trustworthy person.





They arrived at CCAI yesterday at 10:20 and I got an email from Kimberly that they had received the dossier.

After the traumatic letting go of the documents, we did some more shopping in the Flatiron area. Took mom to ABC Carpet and Home which she loved. We caught the 6:00pm train home. Apparently Logan closed leaving much of DC and NYC business people to take the train so it was crowded but I was in my own bed at 10:15 pm!

DTCCAI

Yep, the chase is over! Went down to NYC yesterday to authenticate the I-797C and then shipped the whole thing off to CCAI from there. The package arrived at 10:20 am this morning. I will write more about our fun but wet day in the big city later. Got to get the kids out of the house before we all go nuts!

THE GOLDEN TICKET...

I am like a bee buzzing around the house. Guess what came in yesterday afternoon's mail??? YES! The I-171H! WHOOOOOPPPPPPEEEEEE!

SJ and I decided to rearrange our master bedroom (we do this a few times a year). So after working hard all day moving beds, desks, chairs, bureaus etc, we took a break and headed downstairs. Yesterday was the first day I did not leap to the mail box to check the mail and as I was in the kitchen fixing a drink, I hear SJ yell from the front of the house that there is something in the mail I might want to see. Yes the blue USCIS logo on the envelope was such a wonderful sight to see! When I opened it it was not a I-171H though, it was a I-797C and I have no idea what the difference is. I had to read through all the language to make sure that it was what we needed. I even called my SW to make sure before I could start leaping around screaming how happy I was. Indeed it is our "Notice of Favorable Disposition Concerning Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition"! Our "Visas cable has been sent to the American Consulate or Embassy in Guangzhou"!

Last night we had plans to go to a surprise birthday party for a friend and then afterwards the two of us went out for a glass of champagne to celebrate.

Now I need to figure out how to get that thing notarized, certified and authenticated as fast as possible- AFAP!