Today we took Grandmother downtown to the immigration office for her sworn statement. Luckily, the background check we had already done for her was sufficient so the sworn statement was the last step in this insane process. Rob and I got a little nervous when we woke up to hear rain coming down in buckets. Our appointment wasn’t until 1:00 so we were praying the rain would subside just long enough to get this done. We were determined to get this done TODAY.
Rob and Grandmother picked me up at work downtown for the drive to the immigration office. Luckily we found the place on the first try. I thought for sure we’d have to circle around the block a few times to find the entrance but that wasn’t the case. We had Grandmother’s wheelchair so we had to find the handicapped entrance. We found the drive that had a ramp entryway to the building, but the parking there was for government employees only. The guard at the gate was extremely nice though and allowed us to pull our car close to that area so we could at least get Grandmother out near the wheelchair ramp. The rain had subsided at this point, by the way. WHEW! Even so, we bundled Grandmother up in a rain jacket with hood and put an afghan blanket across her lap just in case. She always thinks we overdo it with the layering and bundling and she isn't thrilled about riding in the wheelchair. She doesn't want people to think she's an invalid and she's quick to tell everyone that she can walk just fine. LOL! If she had her way she would walk up the stairway to the building and she probably could. It would just take an entire day, time that we did not have at that point. Thank goodness for wheelchairs.
Rob had to park across the street but returned shortly to meet us. We made our way up to the correct office and found ourselves in a huge waiting area surrounded by immigrants from many different countries waiting to take their citizenship tests. This really put things in perspective for us as we arrived at the office pretty irritated by the process we were being put through. In that moment, we were reminded to be thankful that we were born citizens in this great country. We have freedoms that many of these people probably never had in their native countries. We really do have much to be thankful for and should never take it for granted.
After checking in at the reception window, we waited about 10 minutes before the immigration officer called us back to her office. She took one look at Grandmother and we could tell she felt bad about putting us through this, but whatever. She tried chatting with Grandmother and we had to tell her she’d have to raise her voice a few decibels for Grandmother to be able to hear her. Once she did, the blank stare on Grandmother’s face was replaced with a smile. The oath was very official. Grandmother had to raise her frail right hand and solemnly swear that she would answer the following questions truthfully. We all got so tickled at the questions Grandmother had to answer. She was asked if she had ever committed a crime, ever been on parole, ever had to pay a fine or ordered to community service, ever had a traffic ticket, etc. This tiny 4’ 11” woman in a wheelchair was being grilled about her criminal history…absolutely absurd. Obviously, her answers were “no” to everything. It was a surreal moment, just so ridiculous. At one point I got so tickled I almost had to excuse myself. Rob and Grandmother also got tickled but kept it together long enough for us to finish with this nonsense.
The bottom line is that we walked out of that office with our I-797 approval letter. The immigration officer printed it out for us right then since we had been through so much trouble. The I-797 letter is what we will need to take to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw when we immigrate Kristine & hopefully Olegs too. After all of the court sessions in Latvia are completed and the adoptions are granted, the children will be U.S. citizens once they hit U.S. soil.
It’s great to have all of our paperwork in order. If only we could get our first court dates scheduled in Latvia. Now that the kids are coming here to stay with us for Christmas, we have asked to travel to Latvia immediately after they leave to head back home. Our attorney says that should not be a problem. At this point, we’re not getting our hopes up since we’ve been disappointed in the past. Not much we can do about the timeline of events anyway. We’re just anxiously awaiting the arrival of our kids for Christmas. We’re so excited!! They’ll be here in 2 ½ weeks. We can’t wait!!!!
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