In case you didn't know....

I am kind of a pest. Shocking to some of you I am sure. ((wink)) I like to think of it as persistence and determination.

Well, I am willing to bet "Officer K" at the USCIS thinks I am a plain ol' pest. And maybe she's right. But honestly, when there is ONE thing keeping me from sending my dossier to the SDA and getting my butt over there to get my girl....yep, you'd better believe it.

I. AM. A. PEST.

Our dossier is DONE. Except for that pesky 171H. The 171H is basically permission from the US government for us to adopt a foreign orphan. I think they are just making sure we are not on the FBI Most Wanted list or something. ;o)

So, we sent in our application, known as the I-600A. We got our letter saying it had been received. We got our fingerprint appointments for July 13th. My "persistence and determination" kicked in and said that was WAAAAYYY too far off, so we walked in to our friendly neighborhood USCIS office in St. Louis and asked VERY nicely if we could have our fingerprints done early. They did them!

Well, that was Wednesday of last week. I called the USCIS adoption unit and told them that the fingerprints were done, 3 weeks early. I was told that "Officer K" was handling our case. I left her a VERY nice voicemail saying we had our letters and went ahead and had our fingerprints done, etc. I was basically saying "Hey Officer K.....all we are waiting on is YOU!" No return phone call.

So, I call yesterday and ask to speak with her. Voicemail. I didn't leave a message. I call today. Voicemail. I hang up and call back and tell the nice gentleman who answered the phone that I had been trying to reach Officer K with no luck. I explain to him that we did our prints early and I want her to know that so she doesn't think she has WEEKS to even worry about our file. He said he sits right next to her and she has been on the phone. He checks in the system.....no progress really. Argh. He adds that it doesn't mean anything - she could have looked at our application and the system is just not updated. OK..... I asked him to give her the message that I called and explain our situation. He said he would. I asked him to have her call me......

Yep, I am PERSISTENT and DETERMINED!!!

(and a bit of a pest.........)