Stahlke Adoption

A Close Call

In our most recent dossier, all of the documents were new except one--the clearance from the federal government through the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). (For those of you who have done this, I'm referring to our I-171H.)

Because our I-171H from a year ago had not yet expired, we had to send this "aging" document instead of a new one or an extension. The CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) division of DHS allows for a one-time extension of your I-171H at no charge, if you apply for the extension within three months of its expiration. Our document expires this summer, and the fingerprints and background clearance upon which it is based expired on March 19. Before that date (amid Holy Week prep and jury duty!), we sent a letter to DHS requesting an appointment to be re-fingerprinted. Our invitation letters arrived about two weeks ago, and I placed them with the bills and other time-sensitive information on my desk.

Last weekend was not only the Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday) but also the deadline for Jonathan's tenure application at Concordia. On Saturday night, he stayed in his Concordia office until 3:00 am to finish the application before we left town on Sunday for a short vacation. He had been asleep about an hour when my alarm rang at 5:00 am to get up for Easter services. He woke up at 6:30 am as I was leaving the house, and prepared the children for the 8:30 am worship service at Grace, where Bogdan's choir sang several pieces. The family then drove quickly to our church (Trinity), arriving just in time for the prelude at the 10:30 am service.

Jonathan and I allowed ourselves the luxury of taking the family to Old Country Buffet for Easter dinner. Neither of us could imagine cooking a big meal at home! We then got the car packed for a two-day spring break getaway to Springfield, Illinois. On the way out of town, we drove to Midway Airport in Chicago to put our 14-year-old Ruslan on a 7:45 pm flight to Austin, Texas. His uncle Tim and Aunt Lois had invited him to spend spring break with them, the first of such trips for each of our children. This trip was Ruslan's second time on an airplane, and his first trip alone. The impending flight had caused anxiety and acting out for most of our children for about a week, as Ruslan had to make sure things would still function in his absence, and the other children were frightened that their "father" and protector would be gone. Some of them were also quite apprehensive that he might never return. They've completely lost members of their families before, so it's not a foreign concept to them.

Ruslan's flight went well, and we talked to him in Austin by telephone that night as we drove toward Springfield. He was relieved and a little incredulous that he was already sitting in Tim and Lois' home. The rest of us continued on our two-day trip to central Illinois, which I won't describe now for the sake of time. We arrived home last night about 10:00 pm and got the kids in bed. Jonathan started thinking about what he would teach the next morning in his two classes, and I settled into reading a book.

Suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, I remembered that our fingerprinting appointments were the next morning--at 8:00 am! Oh, my!! During the rush of the week, we hadn't updated our calendars and I had neglected the bills. The appointments were therefore not on our calendars. It's a good thing I remembered, especially after reading the fine print on the invitation letter that says your application will be CANCELED if you don't show up to be fingerprinted. WHEW! That was a close one.

posted by Stahlkes @ 11:20 AM