How Time Flies

I'm getting a bit sentimental these days remembering the joy we all felt last year on Dec. 14th when we received our referral for Kuri. Seems like yesterday we saw her sweet face on the computer screen for the first time and longed to hear when our court date would be. That was the hardest part back then---seeing her and loving her from a distance and not knowing when we would be going to bring her home. I feel for all the families in process now, experiencing so many unknowns. Having lived through it, I can say without question that God's timing is perfect.

Kuri enjoyed her first Thanksgiving and even had a little program at school where she was an Indian and sang a few songs with her class. She is looking forward to her first Christmas and longs to see her first real snow that she can play in (which doesn't happen often in this part of Texas). We did have a very brief flurry last night, although it was over almost as soon as it started.

Don't think I've blogged about this before, but we never received Kuri's greencard. It's been quite an ordeal. I'd been dreading calling to check on the status again after every prior call ending with the same: we can't find a record of her, send us copies of her passport and other paperwork so we can "reconstruct her visa". Finally I got up the nerve to call again last week and after about eight months of wondering if we'd ever get her greencard I found out that we needed to make an appointment at USCIS in Dallas to find out what was going on. So, on Monday Jim and I ventured out to the office not knowing what we would learn. It went really well. They actually found her in the system and said that her N600 (which we filed in July) was in review and we should receive a letter by the end of January informing us of when the naturalization ceremony will take place. We may never get her greencard, but at least we now know that she does exist in their system and US citizenship is just around the corner. I'll be so glad to wrap up this loose end and finally file away all of our adoption paperwork.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and blessed New Year!!

The Waltons