So I haven't written anything since December. That's because there hasn't been anything to write about. Our plan on bringing home Z in Feb obviously didn't happen since it is now the middle of March. She still has not been transferred from Katana in eastern DRC to Kinshasa. To make a long/frustrating/heart breaking story short. Lets just say the ball was dropped. Epic Failure on so many levels. Papers were never filed for in November. The "30 day wait" after court never happened and turned into more of a 120 day wait. I can sit and point fingers and scream until I can't scream anymore. But it doesn't change the fact that our little girl isn't home. And no matter how much I screamed before it didn't seem to make anyone pay attention to the issue. So now we are all caught up. Hello and welcome to March.
We now have all her paperwork/documents/birth certificate in hand and are ready to file the i-600. The bad news is that the consulate has implemented new procedures and since our case got overlooked for months we are now stuck going through these new procedures. That involves a possible 3+ month wait and investigation of her case (and all others) before her visa is issued and she can leave DRC with us. If we file the i-600 in the states the investigation will not happen until the i-600 is approved and sent to DRC. Or we can file i-600 in DRC and the investigation will start immediately. We have been told that this will cut off 4-6 weeks from the wait time. So after a lot of thought that is what we have chosen to do.
We have been traveling all over Europe for the past 2 months and so why not right? I'm not sure how much worse it can get than it has already been to be honest. So we would rather be sitting in Congo with our daughter than having her grow up without us for another 3-6 months. With her not in Kinshasa or at our agencies orphanage we do not get any of the benefits that the other families get and neither does she. I am tired of seeing all the other families enjoy countless pictures on facebook of their children and videos and Christmas and other gifts that people bring them. We are just done missing out on her life and not being with her. We are done feeling like she just gets forgotten about over and over again. So at least if we are in country we have some control about what is going on with her. Bottom line is we get to have her in our arms.
So why hasn't she been moved to Kinshasa? Where do I even begin and who is telling the truth? I don't even have the strength to tackle it. The blame gets passed back and forth and the story changes montly/weekly/daily/hourly. At first the blame was put on Sister Ephransie the nun who cares for her. Saying that she insists on moving to Kinshasa with her until we pick her up. She "insists" on meeting us. Then the story changes to the nun will let her go but needs to see a birth certificate and documents before she allows this. So it was at this point that the cat was out of the bag and we find out that our lawyer hadn't done anything since November and nobody noticed or cared (except us). Then we find out that she doesn't need a birth certificate to be transferred. But that didn't make anything happen. So then we got the documents months later and she still wasn't transferred. Last we heard our agency sent money for her to buy plane tickets and our lawyer sent one in response saying that she will be arriving in Kinshasa in 10 days. I'm not sure how many days ago that was. At least 10 but who is counting besides us?
Colin and I will be flying to Kinshasa in 2 days (Monday) and have an appointment to file our i-600 on Wed. As of right now NOBODY knows what the crap is going on with the transfer. I have been asking for 4 days now and nothing has been done about it. Not shocking since I've been playing this ridiculous game for 5 months. All I can say is if our little girl is not there when we get there all hell is going to break loose. We will finally be there so the Ephransie excuse can't be used. What will they come up with next? Only time will tell.
