Devastating News

So on the weekly update from our agency today, we not only heard that this is the fourth week that there were no referrals, but we also got an email from our program leader that said our Visa 37 wasn't at the consulate in Addis Ababa. Okay, so in regular people's lingo, that basically means that our dossier that we worked almost a year to complete and get every piece of paperwork approved (and that they'll open when we finally get matched)...that should have been sitting in Ethiopia for quite a while...is not even in the country!!! I got the email after 5pm while driving home from Ella's school that said "Ethiopia does not show you have a file there". By the time I got home, Radames was on hold with the National Visa Center already. We both just looked at each other and didn't say a word and almost burst into tears in each other's arms. All we could think about it is how we're 2 year in and the rug has been pulled out from under us and that we might have to start over again b/c some fool lost our dossier as it got cabled from DC to Ethiopia.

Radames had to leave to take Ella to her karate testing for a new belt. I stayed at home on hold only be told by the NVC that our file had been sent to the Ethiopian consulate months ago and that it wasn't their problem if they didn't have it...and if it weren't there that we'd have to have our agency call USCIS (which is the US citizenship and immigration service; the former INS) and that they would have to "re-request the visas be cabled to Ethiopia." CIS then has the NVC send it to Ethiopia. Now i have no idea what the hell a cable even is...let alone how you re-cable something that's an original, but whatever. All I knew is that there was nothing we could do about it until at least Tuesday (b/c Monday was MLK day) and we had to stew on this with no info for three days!

I missed Ella's karate testing, which devastated me, and we just spent the night sort of speechless and depressed. Then I started to think optimistically about it and realized that (1) the only reason they even know that it's not there is because our agency knows we're on deck and is now doubling checking that everything is where it should be and (2) at least we are finding this out now, rather than once we get our referral and are delayed while we get it resolved. If we can get to the root of it, we can get it resolved before the match even happens.

To make myself feel better, I wrote an email back to our agency and said, PLEASE tell the consulate to look under another name...Tyree or Rodriguez or Radames...or Tommie Tyree...any and all iterations of our name...and that maybe they've just overlooked it and PLEASE call CIS first thing on Tuesday morning to get it re-sent.

Please let our file re-appear! It's too much to handle.