One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Well, we have been given some bad news today. We thought that a successful 'G&R' would mean smooth sailing through the rest of the process and that we'd all be home safe and happy this coming Monday. Today, we've learned that because of some back ups within the U.S. State Department, Lucy and I will not be on the plane home. We had been told that our interviews with the Consulate here in Ho Chi Minh City could be scheduled with 24 hours notice. This would have fit our time frame just right. leaving the promised 48 hour turn around necessary to have our second U.S. interview with the embassy in Hanoi to take place Monday.

Well, there are 9 families ahead of ours in line for an interview here in Ho Chi Minh City, and the officer who is perfoming the interviews has said there is no hope to be scheduled before Friday. Even if the interview can take place by Friday, we will not have had time to request the second interview by Monday morning. I even went so far as to call the Embassy in Hanoi. They were sympathetic to our cause but could do nothing for us. Their schedule for Monday is completely booked, and they cannot put a family on the schedule until after that family has been approved by the Consulate in HCMC. So, no chance for a Monday interview in Hanoi, no chance for a Monday flight home for Lucy or her mom.

I felt so frustrated with the Vietnamese process, because it seemed arbitrary and random. No two cases were handled the same way. Some families processed by unlicensed agencies sail through the process and other families who use licensed agencies are delayed. There was no transperancy, no "fairness" to the system.

So, how can I be upset with my own government, when it works completely on the premise of being fair? How can I be angry that we are not at the front of the line, when I know full well that other families have taken their place in the line before us, and it would not be fair for our case to be placed before theirs. The fairness of it makes this a sad post for me, believe me. But, at least I know where we are in the line. I know that another family will not be placed before us, I know that our turn will come and I know that the man who interviews us will go to work each morning, put in a full day's work and do the job he is paid by my taxes to do.

But, it sure is a let down. We truly thought that we could all get on that Monday flight, by the hair of our chinney chin chin. So, knowing that our best hope now is for Lucy and I to fly home all the way next Friday is like being told we have to put Christmas off a week just as we are hanging up the stockings on Christmas Eve.

I don't know how to bear it. I don't know how to ask my Utah Grahams to bear it, let alone my parents and our family who is holding up the load at home. I have no understanding of why this is happening, but it is happening. I am crying, I'm sure I will cry more in the coming week. But it will be over. We will come home. We'll live through it all and somehow it will make us stronger. (I pray the Lord will help us become stronger through it. More patient, more humble, more willing to trust Him.)

I'm hoping tomorrow will put us one step forward again. Today it was two steps back. But at least that doesn't mean a "g&r re-do". At least Lucy is truly ours in the eyes of the law. And she will remain that way, no matter how many steps it takes to get her home.