Thanks!

Thanks everyone for all the congratulations re. immigration and well wishes re. my birthday (And thanks, Mom2 for the card/gift card!!) I appreciate it so much :)

Today we got the official approval letter and in the past couple of days I have made numerous lengthy phone calls trying to determine what is next. Here is what I understand: At the same time as Immigration mailed me an approval letter, they also mailed the visa people a letter. The visa people need between 2 and 8 weeks to process it and send it on the one of the American consulates in Canada. At that time the consulate calls us and tells us when I (we, maybe?) have to come in for an appointment. So, it all sounds really good. The thing that is now petrifying me (cause there is always something!) is that according to the website, I need to bring about a dozen documents that I don't have to the visa interview. I cannot get these documents while in the US, so I will have to get to Canada in time to get the papers that I need and have them returned to me in time for the visa interview. However, I have no idea if I will get the interview in two weeks or two years and I don't want to go back too soon cause then I will be stuck without my little family until I get the visa. Does that make sense? Now, your suggestion would be to call them or check out the website, right? Well, believe me, I have tried that but every case is so different that they can't give me advice until I have the appointment, and at that point it may be too late. And, the one thing that I thought I had learned from the website turned out to be totally inapplicable to me when I discussed it with the nice lady on the phone. So, there is nothing I can do at the moment...yet when everything falls into place, I may then not have enough time to get it all done. And I have been told that if you miss your visa appointment you go back to the beginning of the list and it can take years again. Hmmph. Any suggestions?

Sorry, by the way, that I haven't been posting much lately. Due to numerous and sundry things that I shan't go into at this time, we have been INCREDIBLY busy lately. Plus, I kept forgetting to take my notebook with me places, and by the time we would get home, I would have forgotten what clever things Paul had said. But, by way of update - Paul and Smeagol are both healthy again.

I really don't have anything else to say. Suddenly, everything I have thought to write about in the past three or four days seems so incredibly trite...triter than usual...