To my second child...

Today has been a solemn day for me. Not many of you know but in December 2007 I had suffered miscarriage. And today marks the due date of our baby. I do feel sad of what could have been, but at the same time happy because I was at least able to cherish the small time I had with my with baby. I'll never understand the reasons for it happening but I'm grateful that the Lord allowed me to the opportunity to at least experience it.

As I go through this journey I've never expected my life to be this way. But I do believe that bigger and better things are coming. Many people tell me that the Lord is going to bless us like never before. It was hard hearing that before when things looked so grim. Now that I feel things are moving in a positive way it's something to look forward to.

Last night I was reading Aaron a story call Miss Rumphius. How one of her goals was to make the world more beautiful. Even Aaron said that it was a nice story and "could we plant flowers?". I replied that no matter where we live we will definitely plant flowers.

Is this blog ever going to be about something normal?

Wednesday morning I went to court for my husband possession of cannabis case and praise God we got it vacated... actually BETTER then vacated. The judged order it to be "annale"? I probably spelled it wrong, but its a Latin term that basically the case is abandoned.

The judge couldn't understand why CDJ was being difficult about this case. And my criminal attorney explained to the Judge that if we didn't get the decision amended to show that the case is closed my husband would not be allowed to complete his immigration process. The state's prosecutor said they had no problem with the motion to vacate. "We have no evidence, no witness, even the lab couldn't pull up any reports". So the judge said that he didn't want to this case to "deny him the chance to reenter the country. Motion sustained." And at this point I don't have to pay anything!

I will have to wait until the decision is entered into the system. Supposedly it's 3 days but in reality its 9 days. However, my criminal attorney said he would call the clerk and ask her to enter it as soon as possible. So I hope by today (Friday) I'll have the certified court disposition in my hands and off to Laurel (our immigration attorney)! As Laurel and I were talking we think we're going to have to postpone our wavier appointment. We still don't know how long the Consulate is going to take to make the decision about the gang thing. So we'll see. 1 hurdle down, 1 more to go!

In other news...The family camp was so much fun and we had a great tent that held up during the horrible rainfall we had last Saturday night. I'll post pictures as soon as my sister downloads them :)

A minor recap and what's coming up...

Ok, as you know last Friday I went to the City Clerk's office to get a new court disposition for Eduardo's 93 case of poss. of cannabis. At this time the consulate has said that what we gave them indicates that the case is still open. However, its not. At the recommendation of the Clerk's office I had to ask to call the file back from the "warehouse" and I would present myself with Leo (our criminal attorney) and ask the judge to either vacate the case or amend the decision to show that it is dismissed. It would take 5 days for the file to return from the warehouse and 3 days before I can see a judge. I called the Clerk's office today and praise God the file has already arrived! So I'm going there tomorrow during lunch to ask that it put on the court docket. I'm praying that I see a judge next Monday or Wednesday! Keep those prayers coming.

In other news, our church is having they yearly Family Camp in Green Lake, WI. Yoly (my sister), my son and I went to last year and we had so much fun. This year my parents, my sister and son along with my cousin Mary and her husband will be going. Aaron's been wanting to go back since we left last year. I hope that when Eduardo comes back we can do it more often during the summers.

In other other news, Aaron was written up at his summer camp at the park. Turns out he was hitting another kid. When I said that he shouldn't hit other kids he said "But Mommy Andrew was not being very nice!" like that's an excuse but to him it was good enough. He cracks me up because he kept trying to change the subject by telling me how he tried the lunch at the camp. He ate the sandwich, but what that really meant was he just ate the bread and "it was so delicious!" ha!

Eduardo's back in Mexico City and he was very happy to be "home". When I head there next month I'll be checking out our possible "apartment" and the school. Then we're trying to decide about where to go and what to do. Of course Aaron said the beach and there no arguing that!

Here's the update to Thursday's appointment...

It's been a whirlwind kind of week. Here's what's going on now. We still have the gang problem and now according to the immigration officer there is a 1993 possession of cannabis case that the Officer seems to believe is still open. When you look at the court disposition it says "Bond Forf - SOL". I got a letter from the Chicago City Clerk's office that gives an explanation of that acronym "SOL". Basically the case is dismissed and the State of Illinois has 90-120 days to reinstate the case. Well that was back in 1993 and obviously 90-120 days have passed!

Anyway we don't know what exactly is bothering the Consulate about this particular case. But I've got someone at the Clerk's office and my wonderful criminal attorney Leo who are helping me recall the file and asking that it be put on the court docket. So I'm hoping to appear before a Judge and we're going to ask him to vaca the case. Because that seems to be the only thing that's going to work.

What’s confusing is that they’re telling Eduardo to bring stuff to the wavier appointment in August. But when Eduardo asked if it means we can proceed to the second appointment they told him “no cuentas con ese sita” (don't count on that appointment). I think the bottom line is they said we have to mail them a letter that states the poss. of cannabis is closed and that THEY would inform us of when we can go back to the consulate.

We did a 3-way call with our immigration attorney and she's also confused. Both of us believe the wavier is still going to happen so we’re going to continue to prepare for it. So right now I'm waiting for a court date and Eduardo's old file to come from the "warehouse". I pray its going to be this week. There's so many obstacles and it's very difficult but it's not impossible. I feel that the consulate is looking for every reason to deny us the opportunity to file the wavier. As much much as they want to knock us down, we keep coming back and giving them everything they're asking for.

I have a playlist on my iPod call "Encouragement" and whenever I hear an encouraging song I add it to that list. Two songs that have helped me today have been: New Direction's "Peace" and Fred Hammond's "No Weapon"... which I thought was an appropriate song and verse for my family.

Isaiah 54:17
No weapon that is formed against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD.

Update from Tuesday's 1st Appointment.

They are still trying to see if my husband is eligible for the I-601 (the pardon). Here's one of the problems. On one police report it says that my husband said he was a part of the Latin Kings. My husband denied it and said that when he was arrested there were two other guys that were part of the Latin Kings but he was not. There are no other court dispositions or police reports that state my husband's supposedly affiliation with the LK. Just this one police report. So they're reviewing it further to make sure that his can file the waiver.

The second thing they asked for was for my husband I-212 form. This form is needed because Eduardo had to leave to Mexico due to his order of deportation from a 1991 hearing. I didn't send because 1. I didn't remember and 2. now that I think about it is supposed to hand and hand with the I-601. So when my husband called me and told me that he had to go back on Thursday they wanted the I-212 AND the I-601 wavier packet! Blah!

I told my husband he needed to go back and ask again. Because how could they ask for the I-601 packet when we have the wavier appointment? Plus there's no way I could shell out the $580 for the wavier and $545 for I-212 Thursday! So he called me back and said that he could turn in the paperwork and the money at the wavier appointment. Here's my thought on why he's going to be eligible 1. God is good and He is on our side 2. The officer kept telling my husband "bring it to the wavier appointment"...why say that if there was a chance he wasn't going to be eligible?

So all panic aside and talking with my husband (and my friend Hilary) we figure this is a good thing. I mean this officer could have told him flat "No wavier ... see you in 10 years" but she didn't. So it's a good thing. On Thursday they'll tell him if he can file the waiver which I'm sure he can. Thanks for the prayers and the thoughts! We're still in the rat race!

Cutting it close with Immigration....

So by some fluke I didn't get the DS-230 (the Beast of all forms) or the I-864 (the form that says I will support Eduardo .... $$$... for 10 years!) done and mailed off with enough time.

Anyway. In the past I sent immigration stuff to my cousin Sandra in El Paso (FedEx, Overnight ... even Saturday delivery). However on Thursday, when I tried to prepare the FedEx label it tells me Saturday delivery is not available to my cousin's address. So I said ok well I just overnight from the post office. BUT I wasn't sure if their overnight also included Saturdays to a PO BOX. Well it kinda of does, but it worked this.

If you overnight something with USPS they guarantee it will get there to the next day to their "facility" HOWEVER they have no control of when the workers at the actual post office will put it in the box. Also remember the post office closes early on Saturday. Yet another obstacle.

Well my cousin called me Saturday and said NOTHING arrived. ARGH!!! So it will probably get there Monday.... I just checked the Track and Confirm with USPS today and it says a notice was left in the box. I hope its there. If not I planned to email scanned copies of these forms to Eduardo and I hope that it flies with the immigration officer at his appointment. Seriously what else can I do if the package doesn't make it? Needless to say my husband was really ticked off and he asked me to get him the waiver packet 1 week before the appointment so he wasn't going through this mess again.

I said this time around I wasn't going to freak out. I'm just rolling through the punches at this point. By the way, my husband said that going to the psychologist was the biggest waste of his time. He even argued with the dr. because Eduardo said the dr. talked about nothing but about his previous drug use.

My husband told the doctor MANY times that he since he turned his life over to Jesus he has not done any drugs for 15 years! My husband said to the doctor why are they treating him like a drug addict when he clearly isn't one? Caramba I tell you my husband has taken a "no holds bar" kinda of attitude with immigration. I think he (and I) are tired of tippy toing around immigration... its like we're telling them "you have NO reason to deny us anything anymore". We sick of this process! Oh and they had him draw pictures... what the!?

Two days to go!

Update from Eduardo - Medical Exam is complete!

As some of you know Eduardo's first appointment is Tuesday, July 8. He arrived in C. Juarez yesterday afternoon. His medical exam was today. He just called and said the medical exam went fine (had to get one vaccination = $210) and now he's off to see the Psychologist. (When you admit to drug use you are automatically sent there). I reminded Eduardo to EMPHASIZE the fact that he has been drug free for 15 years!

More to come!