Much Ado About Green Cards

Whew! The past few weeks have been so full and busy! With so many things (and people) clamoring for my attention I thought I'd never get a chance to catch my breath let alone sit down and type up a post. But I love blogging so here I am, with droopy eyelids, typing away...

So, what has kept me so busy? Well, about 2 weeks ago, I realized with a start that my green card to be in the country expired in 3 days. So, Hetee and I got busy collecting the paperwork we needed to get it extended. This includes a crime report from the police station, a letter from our district office saying that I do indeed live where I say I do on my green card, and the results of yet another HIV test among other things. All of this should have been done 30 days prior to the last date on the stamp on my green card, but we kind of forgot so we had to do it all really fast before I became illegal. If any of you have ever done paperwork in UB involving more than 3 government offices, you can imagine what it was like. I was pretty stressed out until Hetee said, "Hey, we always wanted to be on Amazing Race!"

We got to the Foreign Affairs office and waited until someone could see us. The young man who took my case didn't even bat an eye at the fact that we were tardy. He even had it stamped right away since we were coming from Darkhan so we wouldn't have to make the trip back to UB to pick it up in 4 business days. God bless him.

So, I'm legal for another 2 years and I'm HIV negative, too. Woohoo!

The following Saturday Abi and I went back to UB to pick up my dear friend, Tuya from the airport. She was returning from serving 2 years aboard the Doulos. It was great to see her and It was also great to spend some girl-time with Abi. We got to UB early and ate lunch at an American-style restaurant. We had a cheeseburger, fries, Dr. Pepper, and a strawberry milkshake. Abi was in stitches about the pink milkshake! The waiter even put 2 pink, heart-shaped straws in it for us. She thought it was the cat's meow! When it was time to leave Abi cried, and to my embarrassment, it was loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear. It was really out of character for her to do that so I could tell that she REALLY liked it there. We weren't in a hurry so I told her we could stay a while longer. After leaving the restaurant we walked to the UB church office building and giddily rode the "alligator" (Abi's word for elevator). Country come to town.