More of the Same

I've really bad about keeping my blog up to date, which I'm sure by now many of you have noticed. I will, as I have in the past, create posts that cover events that have happened since the end of October. There just isn't a lot to write about during that period of time. Perhaps it would be easier if I committed to writing a minimum of a paragraph each week and posting that as I go, since it the length requirement in my head that keeps me from writing more often.

Since October, our I-130 was approved for the second time and was forwarded to the NVC for processing. I then sifted through 7399+ pages of documents to find names, addresses, and phone number for each employer my husband had since he arrived in the United States. We can all be thankful to my packrat tendencies which have saved us several times in the last 6 years. The down side is that this does make my room a veritable mess at the best of time since I am in a perpetual state of cleaning and organization - which I never manage to finish because God forbid people leave me alone for a solid hour at a time.

Escape to Paradise

I’ve filed my 2012 tax return so hopefully my refund will find its way to the bank soon although the IRS apparently doesn’t start looking at returns until Wednesday.  I can’t wait to buy my tickets, it’s been so long since I’ve seen my husband it’s almost more than I can bear.  I found something cool this weekend at Target that we can use for Ashley to sleep on in Mexico since we won’t have a bed for her.  It’s called an EZ bed, and it’s basically an air mattress with a fitted sheet that has a comforter attached to it.  It has horrible reviews, but as long as the thing holds air for 2 weeks it’ll have been well worth the $15 bucks I spent.  It’s really kind of cute.

Do the ends justify the means

I firmly believe that the employees at the consulate willfully employ psychological warfare tactics on the people they see every day. If you want a job where you can insult and belittle people on a daily basis, this may be the place for you. On another day I’ll talk about his first appointment at the consulate so that you can make up our own mind about the workers in the consulate. Anyway, yesterday was Alberto’s second appointment with immigration officials at the consulate in Ciudad Juarez. He arrived at 7:30 am for his 8 am appointment and spent the next several hours waiting to be seen. When Alberto was finally seen by an official, he was told that he needed to travel to the Zaragoza Bridge and retrieve a copy of the arrest record which began this fiasco in 2007. Alberto contacted me after leaving the consulate to ask me what he should do. We were in agreement that the likely result of this trip would be his arrest in relation to the warrant for his arrest. He asked me to contact both attorneys to see what each said about this situation and what advice they would give.

I contacted our immigration attorney first and was dismayed to discover their phone system was set to the answering machine in the middle of the business day. After calling several times, the receptionist returned from her lunch break only to tell me the attorney was currently out to lunch. I made her promise to have the attorney call me the minute he returned to his office because I needed to talk to him as soon as possible. I received the call approximately 30 minutes later and spoke with Lance. Lance said that based on our situation and the problems we have been experiencing with immigration; we would never get the opportunity to fix Alberto’s legal status without resolution of the warrant and criminal case. Lance was also of the opinion that the idea was to have Alberto arrested and extradited to Minnesota to stand trial. Lance also stated that there was the potential, given a favorable conclusion of the criminal case that Alberto would be allowed to adjust status from within the United States. Since Lance was not handling our criminal case as that is not his sphere of expertise, he said that he could not advise us as to what Alberto should do. My next contact was to speak with Brian, our criminal defense attorney. I last spoke to Brian a few months ago about our case and what our chances were if we went to trial. Brian is still of the opinion that they don’t have a case against Alberto and we have a good chance of getting this taken care of without having to take a plea bargain. To make this 100% clear to everyone, Alberto did not do what they’re accusing him of. However, if for some reason a miscarriage of justice were to occur and he were to be found guilty of a felony, he would NEVER be allowed reentry into the United States. Hence the option of plea bargain is on the table if it looks like we could lose, with the idea to reduce the sentence and severity of the crime to misdemeanor level. Because family come first, as it always should.

The Consequences

Tonight is pretty much guaranteed to be horrible and there’s not much I can do about it. Tomorrow is the next big appointment for Alberto with immigration and anxious does not begin to describe how I’m feeling right now. I’ve tried to push this from my mind all weekend, and thankfully we had a family get together that helped me do just that. I was never able to go and get that pedicure with Lizzy that I was counting on for relaxation, but I’ve gotten pretty good at handling mild anxiety these last few years. I swear I wasn’t a basket case like I am now even 4 years ago.

Noemi in CDJ contacted me around 10pm to tell me that Alberto had called her husband Agustin from the bus station. Agustin left immediately to go get Alberto from the bus station because it is not safe to be out after dark in Ciudad Juarez. If you need an example of just how dangerous CDJ is consider this: on March 13, 2010 the spouse of a consulate worker was killed while his two young children in the vehicle at the time were wounded, only minutes later an employee of the consulate was shot and killed along with her husband while their infant wailed in the backseat. If you consider the first victim was a Mexican National, you cannot simply say this was a demonstration of violence against Americans. I’m afraid for the safety of my husband, and more than a little angry that the USCIS thinks nothing of causing me this extreme level of anxiety.

A jumble of thoughts in text format

I talked to Marcos yesterday.  He says he doesn’t remember hitting the pedestrian/cyclist, but he does remember talking to be about the bill I received from the insurance company.  He claims that he was in a dark part of his soul those days and his actions were inexcusable.  Finally someone can admit that they screwed up besides me!  I explained the facts of the matter to the best of my knowledge.  After I reviewed the letter of collections and compared it to what I know now about personal injury law, I would say the insurance company paid a liability claim to the victim.  Since there was no insurance on the vehicle at the time of the accident because we had not purchased any yet, the insurance came after me for reimbursement of the claim they had paid to the injured party.  I prepared a cover letter in Spanish along with all the documents I needed to support my claim for repayment and mailed it to Marcos.  Hopefully he decides to make good on his debt because we really need the money.

I know that my blog posts are defying the concept of chronological order, but since when does anything in life have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end?  My stress level is through the roof right now and it will only get worse until Monday morning when we have a decision from immigration officials in Ciudad Juarez.  In response to my elevated level of anxiety, I have had a tension headache all week.  I am hoping to be able to get away with Lizzy for a pedicure at the local nail salon this weekend.  I can’t go by myself or I’ll stress myself out even more about a situation that I can’t do anything about.  I hate having to ‘wait and see’.  This is our lives, our family that is hanging in the balance not some stupid telenovela where no one is ever happy!  What am I going to do if they say no?  Do I just pack up and leave the only life I’ve ever known, leave my family, and friends?  Go to Mexico where instead of Alberto living in fear of the USCIS here, we can all live in fear for our very lives?  How is that remotely fair to me and our daughter?  Don’t we have any say since we are US Citizens?

Alberto is planning on leaving his house for Ciudad Juarez on Saturday.  He will be taking the bus, which he said is about a 24 hour trip.  I feel sorry for him because of how long the trip will take, but it was his decision on how to go.  We discussed the difference between a flight there and the bus so apparently the place ticket was just too much to handle.  We have to see this process through to the very end.  We’ve invested so much time in the whole process, but the Attorney definitely got the lion’s share of the money.  The Attorney is a subject that I should just avoid talking about, so that’s all I’ll say for now.

I know a few people that are pregnant right now, so a popular topic has been baby names and pregnancy oddities.  It’s too bad that all the popular names are the ones I like the best.  Alberto is the one that chose Ashley’s name; I had wanted to name her Bianca.  I thought it was very difficult to find some names to start with where I didn’t personally know someone with that same name.  Another difficulty is making sure that the initials don’t spell anything, and the mean kids at school won’t have an ugly nickname to call your child.  Initials like C.A.T, or names like Richard paired with awkward last name like Player who then become ‘Dick Player’ to all the mean kids at school around puberty.  Cravings are a good conversation starter (chocolate chip ice cream and buttered popcorn) and weird situations (like the time I almost knocked over a display of pots at Macy’s because I lost my balance while walking) often get everyone laughing.

This is a good time to reiterate that I am not using anyone’s real name in this blog.  EVER.  Not my own name, my husband’s name, our daughter’s name or anyone else’s name.  I’m just making up the names as I go, and if you don’t like your blogged name, submit a change request with a $15 dollar fee and your requested name. 

Ciao

Stress and Oranges

This week so far has been more stressful then I would have liked, and it’s only Tuesday.  Alberto’s interview at the Embassy in CDJ on Monday, so yesterday I called Noemi who rented him an apartment during the last appointment to reserve room for him.  Noemi and her husband Agustin were so kind to the both of us during the first appointment in December, I feel lucky that we found them.   Noemi told me she would have the apartment ready for Alberto on Sunday, but if he was coming before that he should call her.   She also told me that Alberto should call Agustin when he arrives in CDJ, and he would go and pick him up from the airport or bus station so he wouldn’t have to get a taxi.  I think she heard the emotion in my voice when I thanked her so she told me that they would pray for us.  This woman that I had never met before is going to pray for us to find resolution.  It gives me such hope that someone who I’ve never met is going to pray for us.