He knows we're coming!

We recently got an update on our little guy!  He knows we're coming for him and he likes to look at our family picture (the one we had to send when requesting pre-approval), point to each of us and call us by name, mother, father and brothers! How sweet.  Knowing that he knows we are his family makes it that much harder to wait! 

We hope to have some more information and maybe a few pictures of our daughter in the next week or so.  

In other news, our home study addendum, which approved us to bring home our daughter in addition to our son, was sent to USCIS last week.  (Just getting the addendum was like pulling teeth...and probably not a story I can tell here.)  I called USCIS to speak with our immigration officer to let him know the addendum was on the way.  Remember the kind and helpful man who was ready to approve us and then was going to move our file to the top after he got the revisions?  Well, he's not our officer anymore.  It turns out that we were assigned another officer while waiting for our home study agency to wrap up the revisions.  I've corresponded a few times with the new officer and she is not nearly as efficient or kind as the last one, and definitely not helpful.  She seems not to care that the bulk of our paperwork has been waiting since the beginning of February!  Seriously, how long does it take to read an additional two pages and issue the approval?!  

According to the most recent email from our immigration officer, our paperwork is "in line to be reviewed".  Not, "let's get this going", "I know your kids have been waiting two extra months already" or even a hint of kindness.  I am trying to breathe deeply and be as zen as possible.  Obviously there is nothing we can do but wait.  And wait some more...and try not to have a pity party for myself.  Haha.  We just want to go get our kids!  

I'm pretty sure that any parent going through this process is going to be impatient, but this woman is just really unsympathetic about the sense of urgency.  Yes, I realize that she deals with other impatient parents every day and maybe she's jaded but these are kids and they are waiting to come home!  I wanted so badly to tell her how to do her job and hurry up while she's at it, but I was on my best behavior!  Nothing but a grateful heart and gentle words, I promise.