A process that should have taken 6 weeks or less ended up taking almost 6 months.
After finally working our way through the phone tree, clerks and supervisors on several occasions, we were finally referred back to the adoptions desk at our local USCIS office in Memphis. From there, both the Mesquite, TX and Buffalo, NY offices were put in touch with one another and the paperwork was finally re-routed to the right desk for processing.
Anyone else who runs into issues should refer to the Child Citizenship Act and ask to speak to a supervisor if the clerk isn't knowlegeable on that topic.
Meanwhile, school's out for summer and both David and Kate are lining up their summer activities between camps, lessons, sports, and just plain relaxing in the a/c. Both did amazingly well in school. We are VERY proud about their accomplishments and just how far they have come in such a short time!
We've had a few hot days, definitely nothing like what it will be like in August, but both are complaining about how hot it is in the Memphis area. Since Petropavlovsk is on the same latitude as Hudson Bay, it just doesn't get as hot there. In fact, we've been watching the temperatures and noticed that the highs this past week were pretty close to the lows in Memphis.
The days are much longer there though! Today's sunrise in Petropavlovsk was at 4:52 AM and sunset at 9:50 PM (17 hours of daylight). That's quite a difference from last November when we left Petro and the days were very short (less than 8 hours of daylight). We'll have to remember to make notes on June 21st and December 21st to compare...
