Richard is Home

Richard plane arrived last night around 9:30pm but he said that it was a miserable trip. The flight from Kiev to Atlanta was 100% filled and Delta even turned away some people. He counted 16 kids under three years old in his section of coach and 10 ½ of the 11 hours of flight had at least 1 of the children screaming. Needless to say he was pretty worn out by the time he got to New York. Then on top of this when the plane landed they did not have an open airside for the plane to disembark. The plane sat on the tarmac for over 35 minutes before the airport decided to have the plane park where it was and to send out a bus for the passengers. Well they only sent out one bus and it could not fit everyone on board. So the remaining 1/3 of passengers were waiting another 25 minutes for the bus to come back. While they waited the power went out on the plane and only the security lights were on. Finally they were able to get on the bus and unload to customs. Once he got thru all of the customs and duty part he made a bee line to Burger King. A hamburger never tasted so good he said. He was fortunate because of all the delays that he did not miss his connecting flight like some people did. He boarded the flight from JFK and it left the gate right on time only to sit on the tarmac for 25 minutes before taking off. The pilot made up the time in the air and arrived on time in Atlanta. Nanette was planning on picking him but do to her eye surgery that she had that morning she was not available. Nanette had three tears in her retina and it was starting to detach, so of course she had to have surgery as soon as possible. I called sweet Donna B. She and David Lee came to Richard’s rescue and pick him up at the airport. Richard is doing well today.

We have found out that our updated homestudy that I sent before we left Atlanta was never received by USCIS. Our old homestudy only showed that we were approved for a child up to 5 years old. We have to have the homestudy reflect at least the age of the child that we are adopting or older. If this is not correct the child will not be able to get US passport. Richard called our adoption agency and then the local USCIS office. The USCIS told him that it could take up to 5 – 7 days to process the documents. Well this would be a problem for us. He then called our congressman and got immediate help. Richard is going down to USCIS office on Monday and hand delivering the original homestudy and amended homestudy. Once that is done it goes to New Hampshire (I believe homeland security office) then they will cable the US Embassy here in Ukraine. With the congressman’s help this should be done by Thursday of next week. Our prayer is that the Lord may continue to give us patience, strength, perseverance and a God like attitude over the next two weeks to face our new challenges.
Thank you Donna and David Lee for picking up Richard.