Catie Come Home

Our adoption journey to Guatemala

April 15, 2005

Catie Is Ready to Work

Yes, that's right, our five-month-old daughter is now a legal immigrant with a work visa. That's the last step in the process for us to bring her into the United States, and we finished it yesterday before heading to Antigua. (I couldn't blog about it because the computer at the Princess Reforma wasn't working.)

The embassy appointment went much more smoothly than three years ago, when we misread the time we were supposed to be there and almost blew it. Only an understanding embassy worker saved the day for us then. She let us get our paperwork in even though it was technically too late. She was surprised that our attorney or a representative had not accompanied us to the embassy, and this time, our attorney's daughter took us herself.

On the one hand, we hope our goof in 2001 didn't trigger that change; on the other hand, we were glad to have Nancy there. Not only did she quickly lead us to the embassy gate when she saw four or five other adoptive families about to beat us into the first place in line, but she answered all of the last-minute questions we had about what to do. The embassy appointment was much less stressful than in the past.

I returned in the afternoon to get Catie's Guatemalan passport, work visa and immigration papers. I was a little nervous that I would mess something up, but all went smoothly, and I was home in time to catch the ride to Antigua. Technically, we could have left Guatemala today, the original date of our return flight, but we have so much more we want to do in such a short time. We return late Tuesday, and it probably will be Wednesday before we get through customs and immigration at Dulles.

We're eager to introduce Catie to everyone -- and maybe even put her to work since she has a green card -- as soon as we get home.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home