Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Update on our Journey

First of all, today is our 3 month wedding anniversary.

It also means we are living here for 5 months now. Hard to believe it has been that long already.
For some reason time is flying and I have the feeling we are running after it, trying to catch up.
In itself that is a good thing I guess, don't they say time flies when you are having fun?
And it is true, almost every friday I am surprised to find out it is weekend already.

But last week wasn't one I would like to repeat, our new dishwasher started leaking, which I didn't know until the moment our new pergo floor started to curl up on the edges of every board.
The floor is 3 months old and is ruined. So we dropped in at Lowes on Sunday to complain and have them take a look at it.
Yesterday someone came over to do so and now we are waiting to hear when they will be over to replace the whole kitchen floor. Luckily we don't have to fight over it, they agreed very fast that something went wrong with putting the dishwasher back after installing the floor.
Still, I am not happy about having the mess of replacing the floor again.

Something that doesn't go fast enough to my feeling is our Adjustment of Status. Which hit me in full force last week also. With a friend in trouble and finding out my Mom is going in and out of hospital for medical issues I really would like to be able to travel to Europe.
Up to now, my son and I can't, we have to wait for Advanced Parole which will allow us to travel outside the US until the moment we get our Green Card.
All the paperwork is sent and the money for the procedures is payed. But as usual, things with USCIS go slow and we don't know anything yet. So were are more or less stuck here for now, even in case of emergencies.

We did get an appointment to have our biometrics done and that was scheduled for today.
So first thing this morning was a trip to York where we had our fingerprints and pictures taken.
LOL, I felt like a criminal. Not because of the people there, they were very friendly. But it all was done next to the York prison.

I did learn a few new fact from the lady who took our biometrics. Did you know for example that it is harder to get fingerprints from someone who works on the pc a lot, or does a lot of texting on their phone?
Or that the same happens when you work with cleaning stuff or other chemicals? And that for women it is usual the pinky that gives the biggest problem and with men the thumbs?
All useless trivia, unless you decide to move to the US.

How stuff works: fingerprinting

4 comments:

Jenny said...

Hi Petra,

I am sure you'll received the authorization to travel abroad soon. I had the biometrics taken on December 12th 2009 and I received the Authorization for Parole on December 30th. The work permit came 4 weeks later.

Good luck,
Jenny

Anonymous said...

Hi Petra,

According to my time line you'll received the authorization to travel abroad soon. I had the biometrics taken on December 12th 2009 and I received the Authorization for Parole on December 30th. The work permit came 1 week later.

Good luck,
Jenny
Philadelphia

houndstooth said...

Oh, I'm sorry for all your troubles! Any one of those things alone would be upsetting, but all together must be really frustrating. I hope things improve soon!

Cisca said...

Meestal komt het inderdaad snel na de vingerafdrukken. Ik denk dat het bij ons ook maximaal twee maanden duurde.
Wat een gedoe he, het kwam bij mij ook mijn neus uit aan het eind.