We're Coming Home!

Another post from Dave =-)

Let us start by saying thank you so much for your prayers and love for us…we definitely felt it throughout the entire, long, day!

The day started with me (and Joshua) going to the court house at 8:15 to pick up our 4 remaining documents and get them to the US Embassy by 10:00. At 9:05 our judge’s secretary comes to me and says, “Your documents are ready by I can only give them to your lawyer”, who was supposed to be at the court at 9:00. She doesn’t show up until 10:00!! I’m handed a sealed envelope at 10:10 and I’m out the door…

So, I rush the documents over to the Embassy, where the visa supervisor looks at everything and says it all looks good, except this ruling is for another person, not the Feldners…WHAT?! By now it’s 11:00. She says we can have a visa appointment at 2:00pm but we need to come back with our correct ruling.

So, back down to the court house I go to get our correct ruling…which takes another hour of waiting around, as the judge had to re-proof read and sign our correct document…sheesh. So I head back over to the embassy, and arrive and stay there at 12:45. Joshua is getting tired, hungry, and cranky – hang in there dear boy!

Meanwhile, Joy and Joseph had a driver take them to our lawyer’s office to pick up our 3 main witnesses for our visa hearing; biological relatives of each boy. She arrives at their office at around noon. Two witnesses are there, but not the third…and without her we have no case at the Embassy.

So, our lawyer grabs Joy about 20 minutes later and says “get in the car we have to go find this relative”. They drive in a packed car for about 30 minutes and finally get to the relative’s village. Our lawyer goes to find her, is gone for 22 minutes and finally re-appears, alone initially. About 5 minutes later the relative arrives…Praise the Lord!

So they race to the embassy for our 2pm appointment, and finally arrive at 2:15.

And we wait…and wait…and wait. Our interview process finally begins at 5:45. Joy, Joshua, Joseph and I are called into a tiny interview room, and are asked several questions about the boys…we answer them as accurately as possible, but it was clear the interviewer was not pleased with our answers. She says something is not lining up. We meet for about 15 minutes. She says she doesn’t believe the boys birthdates are accurate – which is true, but the interviewer thinks that could be a sign that someone is trying to hide something. She wonders out loud if the stated birth mother of Joshua is even the birth mother. Ugh! We know she is. The interviewer seems quite set on her opinion that our case is shaky.

So, she calls Joseph’s biological relative to be interviewed for about 15 minutes, and then one of Joshua’s relatives for about 20, and then the other relative for about 10. All the while we’re outside thinking we’re at the very best going to be postponed for a visa, if not turned down altogether.

Finally at about 6:35 we’re called back in…she says things seem to line up with all the testimonies. She says, I guess there can be human error in some documents (the birth dates), and looking at the facts and their interviews….I’M GOING TO APPROVE BOTH CASES!!!! At roughly 6:45…Joshua and Joseph officially became Feldners and we’ll be picking up our visas on Friday at noon… and be home by Christmas!!!!

Joy and I can’t thank you enough for your love, support and prayers! We felt them big time today!