Thanks, InLoveInMexico, you have given me something to work on. I will ask Alberto to ask the priest there, to see what is needed to have the religious ceremony not registered through the civil. I am so excited!!! He is the last one that has not married off by church, and it would mean so much to his parents and family that the ceremony happen at their church...and it would mean the world to us.

I guess this is the mock wedding? It will be better than the 'legal' one here in the states.

Where is everyone? I keep watching for someone to come on and nobody has. Must mean you are all busy. Hope everyone is having a good day. It's raining and all around crappy here today. Javier is at home, so I wish I were too. I hate working when I know he is sitting at home enjoying himself. Heck, I could be at home enjoying him too. Hope someone shows up soon.

Charity, how are you signed on to MSN at work???

Never mind you're not signed on anymore....

I'm not. Javier is at home. He was signed in. He said you sent something over but he can't type so didn't send you anything back. I went checking on my computer and I have MSN here but it won't let me sign in. It keeps telling me the server won't allow it. I don't know.

Haha yeah I was asking if you had skipped work, lol!

I think it depends if for your first marriage you were married in a church or married by a judge in a civil ceremony. If you were married in a church, you'll probably need to ask for an anullment of your first marriage that would take quite some time and possibly (probably) money. I was thinking about this last night, and was going to ask if you were Catholic or not. Since you're not, you would have to ask for a dispensation from the bishop - this is permission for a non-Catholic to marry a Catholic. In the US this is fairly easy to get, but from what I hear in Mexico, it's a tad more difficult. It makes it easier since you are baptized, but you would need some type of certificate from your church saying you were baptized. They look for it to say you were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost/Spirit. I don't realy have much experience with it though because I converted to Catholicism when my husband and I got engaged, so I was already Catholic by the time we got married in the church.

I would guess that 12 days in December wouldn't be enough to accomplish all of this, but it'd be a good time to get started on the paperwork and probably get the marriage class out of the way.

I sent in a request to Senator Sarbanes today. Hopefully he will be more responsive than Senator Mikulski was. I'll let you all know if anything happens.

Inlove: Javier isn't Catholic either. He is baptist, same as me. This was just something his abuelita wanted us to do. We wanted to do it for her but it seems too much trouble.

If neither of you are Catholic, you can't get married in the Catholic church. Even if one of you were Catholic, a priest probably wouldn't marry you if you were to tell him you wanted to do it for the abuelita. Part of getting married in the Catholic church involves swearing that your children will be raised Catholic - on the parts of the Catholic spouse and the non-Catholic spouse. Probably not something you want to do if you're both Baptist.

Nope don't want to do that. Well his abuelita will just have to be disappointed then. Javier wasn't too keen on the subject anyway. I just wanted to try and make her happy. Well so much for that. Thanks for all your help.

Everybody say a prayer on our behalf please...Laurel has filed a new inquiry today on our case and I REALLY want them to answer this time...

Melissa, I'm back if you need me. I'm glad you are doing this maybe it will get you somewhere. I've been anxiously waiting a response.

I'm so excited about the church thingy, I spoke to Alberto today and he sounds excited too! He said the priest would be in next week, it is a rancho and priest goes once or twice a month on a tuesday. Anyways, I told him to explain to the priest it would not be through registro civil because that has to be done here in the states that we just want the ceremony. I'm so excited!!! I already have my baptismal record and I'm going to get my first comunion certificate just in case. If everything goes as planned, it will be great!

Good morning everyone! Well it's not all that great for me. First of all I am tired, tired, tired because Jaime called us at 3 in the morning. It woke me up and I couldn't go back to sleep. Second of all, it rained all day yesterday so Javier didn't work. Third of all it's raining again today so Javier isn't working again. Fourth and final, Javier's dad told him yesterday he can't do the $3000 rock job he was going to do. So not only can't we buy our plane tickets now, but we are two days short on Javier's pay check. Just when it seems we are going to be out of the hole something else happens. I am just so tired of all this. Sorry, I just had to rant.

I hope everyone has a great day today.

YYYYYYYeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh I was up late too. For some reason, Javier decided to go sit and wait for the teacher until MIDNIGHT! The teacher never arrived. Well he didn't tell me he was going there and his phone had no signal...so it was notttt much fun last night. Charity, now WE have a "teacher" to deal with but I think it's a man. So anyway, I didn't get to sleep until prolly 1 am and for some reason I woke up fine today...better than usual. I don't get it. But now I'm starting to feel tired and my ear hurts....

Everybody keep your fingers crossed-and say a prayer-that we hear something today!!!!!!!!!

Great! Hopefully yours won't pose as many problems as ours did. She's in for a rude awakening when I go down in December. I am keeping my fingers crossed and have said my prayers.

whoa wtf is going on here?????????????

Question for my Spanish-speaking mama...Elvia!

There's a lady from Venezuela who works here with me. Do you think she will be offended that the work-related e-mail I just sent her had a touch of Spanish in it?

Good morning Comadres,

Keep telling yourself it is going to be a good day and it just might happen!

I'm going to paint the kids room today. The two youngest will be sharing a room (once fiance comes, I will have to give little Johnny the boot). So I'm debating what color to paint it. My daughter likes purple but I don't think it will go with Johnny's spiderman sheets. Any suggestions?

So I called Senator Sarbanes's office and the person who deals with immigration-related casework is not there today OR tomorrow. I'm like, does NOBODY work??????? It's a little ridiculous.

So Bonnie gave me a number for DOS. I called and waited a few minutes, but got nervous and hung up. I don't think I can go through it. I'm terrified of what they might say.

Melissa do it ! In the end your going to find out anyways so you might as well go for it ! We are all here for you girlie!

Sorry, Ash, I just can't do it now!

I have thought it over and it's scary, like calling Sybil was for all of you!

MissLiss- I know what you mean about scarrry, I am afraid they are going to deny us cuz I p/off'd the CO. I called but the voice thingy said I would be on hold for approx. 15 min. I hung up. I'll try later.
Prepare yourself and do it when you are ready.

I am on the phone now...it said 15 min. wait. I have been waiting 10 so far...

Well I didn't get any info...she said she doesn't even know what the Advisory Opinion office is!!!

bummer! I'm sorry you can't get any info., I know it is frustrating, hang in there.

Forunately, I already had it in my mind that they wouldn't have any information and as such prevented myself from being disappointed!!

I think sometimes they know but do not want to say anything. Like the last time I called and I asked the lady for my case status. She said well what did they tell you last time. I told her that they needed more evidence. She told me they have received the evidence, it is taking them 6 months for the next appt.???? I was like WHAT? The CO put that time frame, I have no clue why I told her. She told me just wait and then go when he asked you to go.

Well what she actually told us is, looks like he's not eligible to receive a Visa until 2008...so I hope that's not considering the Advisory Opinion results!!

I don't think so, I think they have the last thing the CO puts in.

How does the process of Advisory Opinion go exactly? Why would it take longer than 60 days, does your reciept have any way to check on the status?

We don't get a receipt, unfortunately. The lawyer sent the Advisory Opinion to the Advisory Opinion office back in December. She had sent it in the mail. I wanted to know if they ever got it so I found a phone number to the Advisory Opinion office and called it. The guy told me that I needed to use the Legal Net e-mail system and that all Advisory Opinions should be submitted through e-mail! So there was a while there when I wasn't even sure if they had it. Finally, in mid-January I think, Laurel got an e-mail back from Legal Net saying yes they have it. After that I started doing regular status checks on Legal Net. The one time they told me it was still being processed and the next time they told me Visa information is confidential and Legal Net is for lawyer's use exclusively. Since then I have not e-mailed Legal Net. They answered me both times the same day I sent the e-mail. However, they have yet to answer any of our lawyer's status checks. I can't call that number since I know they won't give any information. And I can't e-mail Legal Net since they told me already that they have no intentions of telling me anything! So basically it is sitting in that office but they won't tell us what they're doing with it. I found something last night that said it's supposed to take 6-8 weeks! We are already over 4 months!!!

Sorry that I have been a little scarce. I have been working like crazy. I hope everyone is doing well.

Melissa, keep at them, eventually they will give you the answer you want. And I believe that 2008 is probably from before as well. It should not have anything to do with the advisory opinion, especially since they do not have a decision yet.

Charity, I am sorry that Jaime woke you last night. Try to get some "catch up" Sleep tonight. I know some people claim that you can not catch up on sleep you miss, but I totally disagree. I used to work like crazy in the week and play catch up on Saturday and Sunday. That was the only thing that got me through the next week. Why can't Javier do the rock job? Is that his father's decision or does Javier need his father to help with the job?

Everyone, Have a great day.

I'm on hold now, I'm gonna see waz up.

Benita: It was the woman's decision that gave them the job to begin with. His dad is still doing the job. I think he misunderstands what she is saying but that's a long drawn out story so I won't bother you with it. Just know that I think he could still help his dad but his dad thinks the woman said she didn't want Javier to help. Even though she asked Javier, in front of me, do you want to help. I really think it's just a big miscommunication with his dad and the lady. Whatever though. We could really use the money but I'm staying out of it. It's between Javier and his dad.

Bonnie................what happened???? Did you hear anything??

That lady was a tripp! She said our next appt was for 01/09/2008, she did not know what she was doing. I told her no, we had our 1st interview 01/09/2006 and then she said it must be a typo from the consulate and she gave me wrong info. then she told me you will be getting appt. soon.
I still don't know what's up???

Don't call that number anymore. They don't know what they're doing. They didn't even know about an office in their same organization!!!

I hate to get my hopes up, she did not sound like she knew what was going on. But I hope they do schedule an appt. soon and Alberto can just go and pick up his visa, that's what I've been praying for. I'm just going to wait and see if my senator gets a response.

It seems like we are both just left hanging.

Man that is some crap! I cant believe they are THAT disorganzed. Maybe theyll just mess up and send you a greencard in the mail!

Now wouldn't THAT be lovely???

I just wanted to say, since I haven't said it in a long time, I love you girls! It's like I told Elvia, God sent me angels to help me get through all this and they're all here on this thread!

right back at ya miss liss and the rest of ya!

Awhh! that was sweet MissLiss. You're the angel, you have helped me so much.
Ashley, the greencard would be nice but a stamp for entry will do!

I did finish painting the younger kid's room 2 walls are lilac and the other 2 walls are sky blue. Kind of like this VJ color on the screen. Now the teens want their rooms painted and I said no way. Those rooms are huge and they just got painted a year ago. My remodeling project is coming along nicely now I need to make some money so I can buy tile for the kitchen.

Guess what I found out, my daughter's bf is ewi, and so are his parents. He is only 15 years old and has been here since he was a baby, his sister was born here, though. How sad, there are so many people that would benefit from the proposed bill. They are all good hard working people, I told him just keep studying and do your best in school if the Dream Act is included in the bill you may benefit from it.

I was looking at your alls picture. It's nice to see you all and actually have a face to put with the posts.

Yeah we're cute and all but Bonnie's the MAMACITA of the thread!!!

And your fiance's hot too!!

Thanks, I think....I'm getting jealous.
I just realized are all my comadres gueritas?

Que bonito es la amistad y el amor. Le doy mi gracias al Senor por darme lo que tengo porque estoy muy afortunada.

TGIF


Hope everyone had a wonderful week. I am so glad it is almost the weekend, we just have to make it through today and we will be fine.

Hello all! I hope everyone has a great day today. I am so glad it's Friday. I need some sleep.

All gueras Bonnie except Sra. Elvia. And why are you jealous? Certainly not of the pasty white skin???

I'm not at work today ladies. I'm not feeling well...not sure exactly what's the problem.

Charity: Sleep sounds wonderful. Wish I could take a nap for about 5-6 hours.

Isn't this insane? I'm home and not sleeping...I should be though, maybe then I'd start to feel better...

I want to be at home asleep too. Definitely did not want to get up this morning.

I have a doctor's appointment Monday morning to see if we can find out why we aren't getting pregnant. I have been having some issues as of late and I just hope everything is okay. If everyone would keep me and Javier in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks!

Hope everyone has a great Friday and weekend!!

Charity, you know you are in our thoughts. Good luck on Monday. Hopefully the doc says it is just stress and nothing else.

My husband keeps joking that the stork that'll bring our kid keeps getting lost. I am glad he can keep humor in all of this cuz sometimes it is hard.

take care all!!