Thankfully, the 3 week wait for I-800 approval was the longest wait left. In order to find out our approval status, we are instructed to call the USCIS on a daily basis to inquire. If we are lucky, we are put in touch with our "officer" whose job is to approve the application or request more information (shudder). On this side of adoption, we do not know what the officer's responsibilities include or how busy they are. It seems, perhaps, cumbersome (and annoying?) to call someone, theoretically interrupting their work, to see if your part of their work is done. Combine this with my complete intolerance for phone calls = UGH. However, it is not surprising that the motivation to get to China outweighed my intolerance. So I called. and then chickened out and emailed. Eventually, the form was approved without any need for further information (=delay)! The next step is to wait (yes) for a GUZ number. And so, while waiting, Serena and I hopped in Subaru no 2 and hit 1-30 W to Texas, where friends from long ago waited to reunite.
Kristen, Joanna, and I got to know one another quite well during our mutual quest to conquer general chemistry in college. We were equally determined and passionate about this conquest. And it bound us together as these things tend to do. 15 or so years later we find ourselves same same, but different, as the book title goes. All that to say, it was glorious to get together and catch up on our lives and introduce our children. We stayed up entirely too late and there was wine and we talked of children, of books, of work, of spirituality, all the things that compose our lives.
Also, Joanna runs a small farm, which is awesome:
We explored Dallas Museum of Art where Serena and I saw our first Frida Kahlo (not pictured):
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| The kiddos experienced the museum while sketching as we went along |
The heat was real but not a deterrent! Downtown Dallas allowed us to take it on with splash pads and shaved ice.
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