The Big Apple

We are on our way to The Big Apple, New York City!! Okay, maybe not us exactly. Let me back up.

Last Wednesday I finally got tired of waiting for our home study to show up. I called the agency, got the tracking number of the package, and discovered that it would be waiting for me when I got home. This also means that a copy was sent to USCIS. On USCIS's website, they state that it should take 3 weeks from the time they get everything until we receive our I-171H (the document we need to get matched with our little boy). The clock is ticking! It usually takes 6-8 weeks for the I-171H to come back but I can officially start bugging them in less than 3 weeks.

I took a vacation day from work on Thursday. I got up early, read the fine print over and over again, checked documents over and over again, and then checked it all one more time. I headed off to FedEx. Greg and I had to set up a FedEx account so when we send out documents they can all be traced, since these documents are so valuable. After talking to two people at FedEx about what I needed to do to send my package to a courier in Harrisburg and then have everything included for her to send everything on to a courier in NYC and have everything included for them to send everything back to me, I think I finally got it set up. It was hard to hand that envelope over to be shipped out. Inside was the life history of Greg and me. It was almost as if Greg and I were in there ourselves, being shipped via FedEx to get our son. I handed over the package and told the woman that it was the most important thing I ever mailed.

All was going well until I had this little freak-out. I had put the tracking number from the shipping slip into our personal account online, so we could find out just where that package was. The package was supposed to be in Harrisburg by Friday. By Saturday morning the tracking number online was still reading "no status". Greg checked to see if he could find the charge of the shipping marked in any of his accounts. When he didnt find anything, I announced that I was going to FedEx. Greg and I (and the dog) all jumped in the car and went to FedEx. It took everything I had to not start crying as soon as I walked in FedEx. I demanded to know where my package was. First they said they couldnt tell me, that I had to call the hotline. Then they looked it up for me. According to what they knew, it had been delivered on Friday, just like it was supposed to. Greg and I went home and discovered that I had typed in the tracking number wrong. Oops! Problem solved.

This morning I got an email from the first courier service we used, the one in Harrisburg. Everything has been certified and she shipped it off the the courier service in NYC for the authentication at the Guatemalan Embassy!! Off to NYC we go! (If we were to mail our things directly to the Harrisburg office for processing, it could take 3-8 weeks. For a few extra dollars, this was so worth it.) I cant believe that we have made it this far in the process. It seemed like it would never come. We are at the point now where all we can do is wait - wait for everything to be returned from the authentication process, wait for our approval from USCIS, and ultimately wait to be matched with our son.

--Annie