Paperwork Snafu

Our US Embassy appointment is at 3pm tomorrow (Friday). This is the last step before we can come home and usually takes less than 10 minutes. Today, Marina gets a call that my USCIS fingerprints have expired. Yep, my original ones from April 2007 are, but the ones I had taken in May 2008 to prevent this very problem certainly are not (they are good for 15 months). Problem is the embassy in Almaty never received them. So frantic emails to USCIS in Denver and to my agency in the states and next to my homestudy agency as well. Those fingerprints have to get to Almaty within the next 18 hours or I'm here until the middle of next week at least.

Brady's passport arrives via courier tonight at 11. Marina has to meet the plane. Horrendous working hours these coordinators have to keep! Then I find out less than an hour ago that a certain piece of paper required by the US Embassy related to the birth mother search was never released by the court in Aqtobe. Gulnara apparently made that happen today and that document will be couriered by plane tomorrow arriving at 2:15pm. Marina will meet the plane and race to the Embassy (race being a relative term in the very heavy traffic in Almaty), meanwhile Kate will take Brady and I to the Embassy for the 3pm appointment, assuming the fingerprint issue is resolved. Embassy closes at 4:30 and Monday is a Kaz holiday. Keep your fingers crossed! Assuming all the paperwork gets resolved, we will be leaving at 3:20am Sunday. If not, then it will be Wednesday at the very earliest. Ugh.

Other than the paperwork issues, today was a quiet day. Mommy didn't sleep well so has been cranky herself. We went to the Tsum store this afternoon in hopes of finishing our souvenir shopping, only Brady starts squalling if the stroller stops moving for more than 30 seconds, and sometimes even it is moving! (I'm thinking the plane trip and 7-hour layover are going to be hell.) Bought a bunch of stuff in a hurry, but don't feel like I have everything that I need yet. We may try again in the morning. I asked if they had someone that could babysit for a couple of hours, but was told no, so we'll have to brave it once more.

Meanwhile, Brady-meister learned how to pull his pants off once we were home.



What a boy! Already sitting around in his underwear surfing channels!


The pretty woman on TV couldn't hold a candle to the cute baby in the mirror book!


This is a picture of a small painting I bought from a street vendor on the mall. It's an original acrylic (supposedly). This photo doesn't really do it justice.