A first of MANY squeeeees to come....

Just received notice that our I-129F petition form has been accepted into the "system" and we have been assigned a case number.  Now it really IS official. :o)

Now you know what I will be doing every hour until the thing is complete...checking the status online of course.

I can't help it!

This is very exciting and it came about a week sooner than I had expected.  I'm hoping (and so is my Honey) that the rest of the process happens just as fast!

Send good thoughts, pray, cross your fingers, light candles...we need the good vibes for a quick process.

I've suddenly become VERY impatient. :o)

The First Step...

Martin and I spent last week in Dallas with my sister Liza working on the house and working on Martin's petition.

We're all pretty worn out from all the work we did. There was a lot of work done round the outside of the house. Things we did involved: trees, bushes, gutters, trellises, bricks, painting, and probably a few other things I can't remember.  We worked on computers, curtains, shades, front doors, and probably more.  Oh and the mailbox.  I think we did most, if not all of the outdoor items on the list.

Martin and I worked for a few nights into the wee hours of the morning to get the supporting evidence gathered for the I-129F petition for K-1 Visa.  The form itself is 3 pages long and fairly simple to complete.  It's the gathering and sorting through and organizing of everything we have to send with it that takes all the work.

We ended up with a 1 inch thick 3-ring binder full of stuff.  Our life together condensed down into a 1 inch binder.  It is pretty mind blowing.  And that is not even all of it.  Seven years is a long time to be together and you can't even imagine what it is like (until you actually do it) to try and pick out the right things to send to prove that you really are intending to get married.  How do you prove love?

So, Liza, Martin and I headed out to the post office yesterday morning to send it off.  That photo right there is the first set of "proof" we have starting as of submission of the petition.  Liza did us the favor of taking photos as we wrote out the label and put the petition in the envelope.  Once that was done, we went back to the house, packed, ate lunch and headed out to the airport.

All in all a very productive week.  And now we wait while the gears of the immigration machine begin to turn for us. There are many more steps to go, much more "evidence of relationship" to collect, more forms to fill out and submit.  I'll keep you posted as we go through the process.

It is exciting and scary all at once.  Exciting because Martin and I will be together once the visa is approved. There is much more to do after, but that is the first big hurdle.  It is scary because what if they don't like what we've sent?  Can't help but be paranoid.  There is a lot on the line here.

Anyhoo, wish us luck.  We are hoping for a quick and smooth process.

I Miss You Mom

Mom and Dad at their wedding reception, August 18, 1956

Dear Mom,

It has been a year already.  I miss you something awful.  I think of you all the time and can't tell you how many times I've picked up the phone to ask you something only to realize as I start dialing that you won't be on the other end.

As usual, I needed some help with the "most fabulous stuffing ever" for Christmas.  As you can probably guess, it didn't come out quite right, but it was still edible. I know I missed something, but I can't tell what it was, I'll just have to try again next year.

I've gotten back into sewing a bit and could have used some advice about fixing a zipper and the inevitable buying of new jeans.  You could have told me right away to give it up, I would have believed you more than my inner doubting voice.

Oh, and you could always tell your grandson the exact same thing I just told him, but he'd listen to you more than he did to me.

Wish you were here this week while Martin and I have been in town.  Along with Liza, we've done quite a bit of work around the house.  Hope you don't mind that we've had cable and internet installed.  Now Liza can work easier from home.  It's been nice for all of us to be on the interwebs all at the same time instead of taking turns at the mobile hot spot.

Martin has been quite handy to have around.  I'm going to miss him when he goes back to the UK.  He's a good man Mom, and very good with tools.  He's put quite of few of Dad's tools to work this week and things are looking good round the house.

Going to miss you at the wedding, whenever that will be.  If you were here, I'd ask you to light a candle and rattle the ol' beads because we are submitting the K-1 Visa petition for Martin to come over.  We've been working on all our evidence and so forth and will put it all together and take it to the post office tomorrow first thing.

I know you and Dad are together, so instead of teasing us down here (you guys are enjoying it, I know you are) see if you can pull a few strings and whatnot and get us a smooth and quick process.

Love and Miss you Mom,

Donna

I miss you Dad.

Mom, Me, Big Sis Liza, and Dad...hanging mid 60's style at a wedding.

Dear Dad,

It's 15 years today and it still hurts just as much as it did in 1998.

I think of you often.  I wish you were around to dispense words of wisdom when I need them.  Especially concerning your Grandson.  Or when I break things or need to make things.  I really  miss your hugs.

I wish you could be here to see how Spence has grown.  He's quite the man now, but still a pain in the ass sometimes, but that's what kids do.  You'd be proud of him.  I sure am.

I wish you could have met my Honey, Martin.  You'd like him, he's a good man.  I'm sure you could have convinced him to sneak off for a banana split at the Baskin Robins across the street.  He's easy that way.

I know you'll be there along side Mom 'watching' us at the wedding, whenever that will be.  I'll be thinking of you both and wishing you guys were there.

I know you and Mom are together now, the way you guys always were.  That gives me some comfort.

Love and miss you Dad,

Donna

PRECIOUS PRECIOUS PRECIOUS

This break from working on the K-1 Visa form is brought to you by Gollum...

Features Clothing Co

Please go check out my son Spencer's new clothing company "Features Clothing Co" - he launched his first collection today!  All the caps in his line are made here in the US.



We're all so proud of him, lots of wonderful things are happening this year!

Purchase a Suitable Wedding Ensemble: Achievement Unlocked

First off to answer J's question about a date:  There is no date yet.  There is one very important thing that needs to happen before we can set a date- Honey needs to get his K-1 Fiance visa.  We're gathering all the information, filling out all the forms and so on and so forth and plan to petition for it soon.  I'm not going to detail everything that we're doing, but I will keep you all posted on highlights.  I'm not even going to hazard a guess at a time frame as you never know what happens with these sort of things until they happen.

The most important thing that needs to happen when Honey receives his visa is that we have to marry within 90 days of him entering the US with it.  When it does happen, the wedding will go down as quickly as possible because there are a boatload of other things that need to go down immediately after the wedding too.  Because of this, I am trying very hard to get as much of the "little stuff" out of the way as soon as possible so that when we do get notice of the visa, we can move quickly on the more important things like venues, flights, and getting family and friends from all over to the wedding.  To simplify things as much as possible, we're having a very small wedding.

So far, we have the wedding rings.  Priorities, priorities - with those and a license, we can run off to the court house if we need to do that.  I think our collective families would kill us though.

Anyway, back on topic now please.  The most important of the "little stuff" for me personally is having something nice to wear.  I have never had an easy time buying clothes for my shape.  My torso is rather potato shaped so it is usually hard to find things that not only fit, but are comfortable and don't look like, well, a potato sack.

Side Bar! 
I know what I like and I know what "used" to look good on me when I had a shape way back in the day a few years before I got pregnant.  Fitted bodice, fitted skirt.  Once upon a time, I had a true hourglass figure for about 2 years.  In my mind, I still see myself with that hourglass figure.  But that was 20 years ago and now age, perimenopause, sloth and so on and so forth has perpetuated the spud look I sport now.  I had to reign in the fantasy and think of what I could actually wear with my current shape.  I decided to look for something with just a tiny bit of shaping to keep it from looking like a fancy sack.

Yesterday Antonella, Spencer and I met up in the City to spend the day shopping for dresses.  I was set for a rather trying day.  Quite honestly, I expected to be reduced to tears in a dressing room somewhere by the time the day was over.  Much to my surprise, we were very successful very quickly.

Bam!  The third dress tried on at Macy's (the first store we went into) was purchased.

Bam!  The shoes bought at DSW match the dress perfectly.

Just for the record, that has NEVER happened to me. EVER!!!!  Here's the way it usually goes down when I need to find something "nice" to wear.  Go to every store in town, try on everything in my size, go home empty handed.  Cry myself to sleep and whine that I'll never find anything.  Repeat several times until finally it is the day before the event (sometimes a few hours before the event), try on something that mostly fits, buy the damn thing and be extremely uncomfortable the entire time wondering if I took off all the tags and hoping no one will notice that it really shouldn't be a maxi-dress but I didn't have time to hem it up and I hope the safety pins keeping the v-neck from revealing all can't be seen.

Anyway, we were done by about 2:30 pm and we went off in search of iced tea and to sit and chat and relax while I pinched myself over and over because I could NOT believe I already had a dress that I LOVED and shoes that I LOVED and both of which FIT and were comfortable - and within budget.  No more nightmares that I would be wearing a new t-shirt from Old Navy and a new pair of jeans while my Honey was in a suit.

All I will say here about my dress is what my Honey is allowed to know so he can get a coordinating tie.  It's silver.  He says he's getting a silver tie to wear with his dark grey suit.  He'll look awesome, and for once, so will I because I'll be COMFORTABLE.

The best part of my ensemble is that I can lose weight, gain a pound or two, or even bloat up like a balloon and the dress will still fit.  In other words, I can continue on like I have been for awhile now and I'll still be able to wear my dress.  It has just enough shaping to NOT look like a potato sack, but enough ease to cover my potato torso.  Oh, and there is a very lovely, very light jacket that hides a multitude of sins.  If by some miracle I actually manage to lose weight, a tailor can still take in a bit here and there and it won't detract from the original shape of the dress.  On anyone taller, it would hit at the knee, but because I am short and wide and needed to get a larger size, it comes down to about mid-calf on me.  I don't mind it, so it will not be taken up.

I can now concentrate the dress energy back towards hair and makeup.  Lord knows that needs a LOT more work and I still need to find a good lipstick.