Exiled

Someone keeps adding more track to the end of our adoption roller coaster. Here‘s the deal: when we received our adoption approval back in May, our “golden ticket” 171H was held in the Virginia office and never forwarded to US Immigration. The US Embassy in Ki*v never received permission to issue Aaron a visa. One official offered the theory that our form was lost in the shuffle when the Virginia office was switching all of its files over to the new (and improved??) immigration system. When we arrived at the embassy yesterday, they had never heard of us. We carried our original 171H with us and gave it to the embassy worker, and she agreed that we were approved and that the paper was legitimate. But she could not, or would not, use it to open up a file for us. The approval had to come from the US. We begged. We pleaded. One of us cried. None of it moved her. Procedure had to be followed.

Anyone who has dealt with immigration and adoption officers (USCIS) knows that getting them to do what you want is equivalent to moving Mount Everest. Yesterday, the embassy here sent an urgent email to the US immigration office about our case. Their response was typical: your “emergency” will be reviewed within 48 hours and any action will require several business days after that. We’ll have to wait a few days to receive your file, “review” it, and “re-create” your 171H. This is the sort of bureaucratic nonsense we got back. There is absolutely no need to review anything. All they need to do is wire our approval, which they have already issued.

We’re not commenting on politics here, but it is a bit ironic: Any number of illegal immigrants enter the country over the southern border every day, unchecked, but for some reason one little disabled boy flying in from the this country is a major potential threat that cannot receive a visa without a week-long review.

Last night we worked non-stop trying to contact everyone we thought might help us. Back in March we used our local congressman to get our process moving. When we finally received our approval in May, the congressman’s office heard the news before we did. They got a copy of our 171H and emailed it to us before our own copy arrived in the mail. So yesterday, when we bumped into Everest, we re-contacted our congressman’s office (and apparently, so did a whole host of our Charlottesville-area friends). Because we already had a relationship with them, we asked them to forward another copy of our 171H to US immigration. The US Embassy here had already sent the one we gave them yesterday, but apparently they couldn’t open the attachment back in the US. What a time for technology to fail us.

Does this mean Mount Everest has moved? No. As it now stands, the bureaucrats are going to wait for our file and send our approval in their own sweet time. The congressman’s office is trying to help, but they too have been told that whoever they have contacted has to “wait for our file.” No one is willing to do anything out of the ordinary to help us.

We’ve already lost our chance to get home this week. The US Embassy here is closed today, Friday, so even if the bureaucrats in the US moved for us today, we still couldn’t leave before Tuesday. The other problem is the time difference. The 7-8 hour time difference (depending on the time zone back home) means that the embassy here closes just as offices in the US open. This means that if we don’t hear from the US today, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll get our visa on Monday. We could be here through the coming week or even beyond if no one has mercy on us. Right now, this seems the most likely course of events.

So please storm heaven for us.  We know that we will eventually get home but sooner is much better than later. We are still counting our blessings. Being stuck in Ki*v is at least better than being stuck in Ananiev. Our little fugitive is a pure delight. This child radiates joy.  He marvels at the simplest of things and is quite content as long as we are by his side and his trusty truck is along for the ride.  Having a TV helps but right now all we can find for him to watch is Animal Planet.  (Anyone know the channel for the cartoons??)  He was a bit frightened when we went to the embassy and medical offices yesterday, wanting Rob to carry him.  We enjoyed dinner last night with Joel Fick who was on his way home after they received court approval.  His family added sweet Darya to their family.  We do plan on exploring the city over the weekend.

We know there are quite a number of families who will be here in Ki*v within the next day or so. PLEASE CONTACT US! We would love to meet up! Call us at 099 470 6792.