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Friday, January 19, 2007

Renatah's Language

Renatah's talking often keeps her from crying. She will think about wanting to cry and talk herself right out of it. We love to hear her talk. Wish we understood her language better!

Our Talking Girl

Poppy loves to 'talk' - her gurgles and smiles light up our life!! She loves talking and smiling with papa, who had the camera ready this time!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Renatah and Adelle





















Renatah is growing up and starting to 'engage' with people . . . smiles and gurgles and reaching for attention.

We have had fun 'introducing' her to our friends kids. We hope that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!!

Adelle is the daughter of our friends Nate and Brooke. She is 6 months old here (Renatah is 10 weeks).

Watching Football with Papa

Tim is attempting to ensure that his daughter shares his love of football. Renatah loves hanging out with her papa over a football game!

Easily Entertained


Renatah keeps herself entertained in her bouncy seat! She loves looking at the bear rattle and is all smiles as she bats at the objects hanging from the bar. We can leave her here for 20 mins or so at a time without any complaints!!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I Love Bath Time


In her first days at home Renatah was rather undecided about whether she liked baths or not.

Since then she has convinced us that this is indeed a favourite past time! She has graduated out of the tiny little yellow tub from the hospital and even out grown the portable blue one that we had for her . . . so now it's baths in the laundry tub or kitchen sink.



The laundry tub (pictured here) has lots of room but not so good for mummy's back (it's a bit low). So these days we are using the kitchen sink.

It's the getting out that is detested. It is usually met by screams which subside once she is dry and dressed. We tried using the robe she was given not to long ago and it seems to do the trick. Screams are silenced when bundled in her bathrobe!!


Thursday, January 11, 2007

Immigration Paperwork Saga continues ...


This whole process has been quite frustrating at times. Here's the latest . . . news only comes every so often because we go for such long stints of time with nothing happening at all . . . just waiting.
In March 2006 I arrived in Portland on a spouse visa which I was told entitled me to get my Social Security Number (SSN) which would allow me to get a job. I wasn't sure if I would seek employment but knew that getting a SSN was necessary anyway. When applying for my SSN I was told that my spouse visa wasn't the appropriate document to enable me to get my SSN. I needed an approved 'permission to work' form or a 'conditional resident' status card - also known as a green card I think.

Each of these cost money and required processes and other paperwork to gather in order to apply. The cheapest and easiest was the 'permission to work' form . . . so this was gathered and sent in April 2006. When we received notice that they had received the form we were told that I would get an appointment date to get my finger prints taken and then the process would take 3-6months to approve. At the end of August I still hadn't received my fingerprint appointment date so I called to inquire. They said they lodged an 'inquiry' and I should hear something within the month. I went through this process two more times (waiting a month in between each one) and finally I heard back at the beginning of December to say that they were investigating further and if I didn't hear anything in 6 MONTHS then I could call back again.
Now this was the climax of my frustrations!!
It was at this that we decided to finalise the 'change of status' paperwork (from spouse to conditinoal resident). I sent that in the first week of December and on the 20th I received notice of my fingerprint appointment for the change of status paperwork for the 26th of December.

I was in shock as to how quickly that all happened!! . . . if only . . . we had done this in April!! We weren't to know!

So . . . all that is to say I am now 'in the system' my fingerprints were taken electronically - it was actually pretty cool especially when I was prepared to walk out of there with black ink all over my fingers!
Now we continue to wait for that set of paperwork to be approved and my 'green card' to arrive in the mail.
However, with Renatah here now, I have no desire to get a job . . . but having the processes over and done with will be nice. And, if anything ever comes up I will be able to work if I so choose!!
Thanks to those of you who have prayed and continued to ask about what's going on with all this. Just getting here after 14months after we were married was the first step!