And the Academy Award goes to….

So for the last week and half (or the last two weeks my minds a blur right now), I have been arduously working on my new and improved hardship letter. It required a lot of internet research, research at the library, book reading and input from friends to prepare for it. Right now it’s approximately six pages long and it’s filled with very good hardcore facts.

So what’s a hardship letter?

First I should explain to some of you what a hardship letter is. In a nutshell, it’s up to me to prove an extreme hardship if I am forced to move to Mexico. A very daunting task when I was first presented with it. Needless to say, the first letter I write was written incorrectly. It was far too emotional and it didn’t really state any facts/hardships. But then again, it was written over a year ago and I didn’t have any real life changing events happen to me or Aaron. Ironically, the US government is only interested in how a denial will affect me and Aaron. They don’t care what Eduardo has to say but rather they only care what I have to say. It kind of reminds of parents attitude with their children… “I don’t care what happens to so and so, I want to know what happens to my son/daughter!”

You can’t understand how happy I am to finally finish it. Here are some things that I have learned. Ask, ask, ask for help. My friend, Hilary A., has been a great blessing and source of information for me. She was always encouraging and gave me many ideas to work with. When I was feeling particularly discouraged about a bad phone call with the Consulate office or with the National Visa Center she was the first to tell me to ignore it/them. I can’t thank enough the wonderful people at I2US.net. Seriously, I owe them a lot for all their help and contributions.

Finally I thank God Almighty for enlightening the path. I’ve often felt ignored and left behind because things were just not going right for my family. I felt that I was often alone in the crowd always jumping up trying to catch God’s attention. But He has never left me nor forsaken me.

Praise God for that!

It's continues to be an overwhelming few days...

As most of you know I have petitioned for Walo since 2001 and up to now it's being a really grueling process. You never really know what to expect when you start the immigration process and when you're doing it alone you find that you have no real support. Sometimes even Walo doesn't even understand everything that's involved.

I find it frustrating when people offer blind suggestions on how to fix our case. Just hearing some of the comments from others who are offering their "help" really makes me tired. I get to the point of not wanting to talk about where our case is because it somehow I'm made to feel like it's my fault the things that have gone wrong. Maybe that's not the intention of the person who's making the comments and I'm exaggerating but that's how I feel.

Some of the comments I've received are:

"You lawyer doesn't know what s/he is doing!"
"How come it’s taken so long and so and so is already done and back home"
"I know someone who knows someone that can fix Walo's papers fast!"
"But why did you do this or do that?"
“Have him come back and wait over here!”

I shouldn't say I don't have much support because I have my family and I2US.net. A great wealth of knowledge and support from many women (and men!) about their experience throughout the immigration process. There we celebrate the approvals and cry with the denials.

The bottom line is that Walo’s case is complicated and the timing was bad. Eduardo has asked me to come and move to Mexico this coming June. As much as that scares me, I hate saying and hearing "just wait I'm sure something is coming in the mail..." because we say it week after week and there's NOTHING in the mail.

I’m getting ahead of myself because we still need to know what the final decision is for Walo’s waiver. I don’t want to needlessly worry myself about moving because it’s not time too.

Up to now, I think I’ve contacted every single source of help. Tomorrow is another day of calling and what’s better is that it’s double the mail tomorrow thanks to President’s Day… so maybe there’s something there for us.

It's been a crazy couple of days..

I spoke to our immigration attorney and she has encouraged me to write another hardship letter. Basically I need to show how hard life will be for myself and for Aaron should we have to move to Mexico.

Anyway I never really felt that our first hardship letter was very strong. I won't go into the details of how I felt, but I'm glad I'm on the right track to get in some additional evidence. I feel like I'm back in college writing a term paper. I have to say I am SO glad for the library. I love Google but sometime heading back to the old fashioned library works wonders.

The Harold Washington library here in Chicago offers a extradinary amount of resources. In fact, I was pleased to see that their information desk was very helpful. They guided me in the right direction so now I feel like this task isn't so daunting. And it was all over the phone!

Well it's all I can think of for now. Hey It's Super Duper Tuesday. Get out and vote!

Saw something interesting on the bus today...

As I enjoy my daily commute to and from work (no really I do!) you can see a variety of interesting things on the bus. I use mass transit, CTA (Chicago Transit Authority, 65 Grand Route) and I am especially impressed by those who travel with purchases made during the lunch hour. Upon the varies items I have seen were rugs, a Dyson vacuum cleaner, Crate and Barrel boxes, etc.

But on my commute home this evening, I saw two guys getting on at the Orleans stop. Now at the Orleans stop is an Office Depot so its not usual to see people lugging items from that office supply store. But today I was shocked to see what they had purchased. It was a ......

Ok so it wasn't this one but when you think about a typewriter doesn't remind you of something old and outdated? :) So I'm surprised that they still sold typewriters and secondly I wondered how much it was.

Regardless, out of all the things I've seen on the bus, this has got to be the most usual...but it was still pretty neat. Do people still say "neat"? Now I'm feeling old and outdated lol!