USCIS Road Trip

We started out by dropping our kiddos at my mom's last night...which allowed us a 24 hour date-like day!We went for frozen yogurt and a great night sleep!

We left town about 8, stopped in Hood River for some really good coffee at Dog River, it was excellent!


We rolled into Yakima about noon, and met up with a life long friend and his sweet wife and littlest kiddo for lunch. Jason and I have been friends since birth, really! Our dad's grew up together, and our grandparents were neighbors in the 50's...so really, LIFE long friends. We did family vacations together, camping, beach, visiting back and forth. In high school we wrote letters back and forth, and stayed in touch during college over new technology of the 90's...EMAIL. We lost touch after that, each got married to our spouses, and oddly led simlar lifes. He was a youth pastor, I was married to one. Both had kids...

One day, when I was blog hopping, I recognized on someone else's blogroll "Jason and Kala"...usually Kala, is spelled "KaYla"...so I thought, hey, I know a Jason and Kala" and so I clicked, and it was them! They are also adopting from Ethiopia! Again, our lives have intersected in a really fun way. So, since we were in Yakima, where they live, we met up for lunch...I got to meet Kala for the first time in person (we are blog-friends already) and little Mikey. It was fun to reconnect and hang out.

THEN, we thought, hey let's head over to USCIS early and see if we can get in. I was totally organized and ready for our appt. The security guard at the door says, "I need to see your ID's please" Me: "....UM, I don't have mine". Where is it you ask? In my gym bag with my gym membership card....IN VANCOUVER. Seriously, I have a meticulously organized 3 ring binder of all our USCIS paperwork...drove almost 4 hours to get there. Matt took a day off work...and I FORGET my ID!!! Thankfully, the nice guard told us where the nearest DMV was, and we had 40 minutes until our appointment. We raced over the DMV, praying that they would not ask for any other ID to issue me a new drivers license...we walked in, and there was only one person in line ahead of me. When it was my turn the nice man said, "how can I help you?" and I told him I needed a replacement...no questions, whipped me up a new driver's license and we were on our way in 20 minutes from walking in the door. We made it about 6 minutes before our scheduled appointment. We thanked the Lord all the way to USCIS! From there it was a breeze.

Matt said, "we drove this far for a one hour appointment?" (it was actually about 45 minutes) and I reminded him how many weeks of waiting we were saving our selves. It was totally worth the drive! We dropped off the homestudy, got fingerprinted quickly, and were on our way! Our approval letter will hopefully be here in 2-4 weeks.We drove back home, through Goldendale WA. There are all these new "wind farms" going in to generate power. My brother spent several months last summer/fall working on this project, it is pretty amazing. They are HUGE.

I couldn't believe what a dork I was, forgetting my ID. But, God was good, crisis was averted and USCIS...CHECK! We're done there. Hopefully.

Next up, authentication and waitlist!! Thanks for your prayers, and Mom, for saving us from dragging our kids on a 8 hour misery drive! (actually, the drive was really beautiful up the Columbia River Gorge, but kids dont' really appreciate the pretty views)