Duffy's Return from China

This week Brad's mom and dad returned from about a two week trip to China. Lynn went for work. She is a microbiologist at UAB and she had to do some seminars over there. Bob tagged along for the ride. What a long ride it was because the flight was about 12 hours each way! They said they had a good time, but would probably not be returning. I guess seeing it one time was enough for them. Below is a picutre of the traffic in China. They said that there were tons of bicycles and they would ride right along with the cars. Our cities might look like this soon if gas prices get much higher.

Beverly's birthday was also this week and we celebrated with her kiddies at the bowling alley. She has a 12 year old boy named Jackson and a 10 year old girl named Sarah. Brad didn't bowl very good the first game (all the girls beat him), but he came back to beat us all in the second game. I forgot to bring my camera to the b'day party, so I just attached a picture that I had of Beverly. Next time I won't forget the camera!

Atlanta Practice

We just got back from Atlanta yesterday for our anniversary. We had a fantastic time. We arrived in town Saturday night and stayed with Dee Dee's step mom and sister. For those interested we made it in time to see the UFC pay-per-view fight where Rampage lost. Anyway we spent Sunday at the mall getting Dee Dee some new clothes and then off to Brians House.

Brian and his wife Candice just had a son a few months ago named Jay so Dee Dee and I were able to get a little practice in babysitting and taking care of Jay. This was the cutest kid ever. He never hardly cried and we kept him up late so he slept all night. They also had this neat gadget that you could not only listen to him sleep on the monitor but you could also watch him as well. I love technology.

Any way after a few poopy diapers and Dee Dee and I both getting bit by the Parakeet. We we out for margaritas and then to bed.

The next night was spent at the Dave Mathews Concert, awesome. We had great seats and the parking wasn't bad so we were able to escape right after the show. We stayed at the Ellis downtown. This is a new hotel and is Very nice. If you go to Atlanta I recommend it.

Anyway all said and done we had a great time over there and tomorrow night starts back to Russian lessons and more paper work for us. I hope all is well with everyone and next anniversary we will be celebrating with our new baby.

Brad

We received written confirmation that Brad's fingerprints are approved!!! I have a better idea to how the process works from here. Our social worker will send the home study to ICPC in Montgomery who then sends it to USCIS (Immigration) in Atlanta. I was explained that ICPS is like the “middle man” between our Agency and Immigration. Alabama is the only state that has this "middleman". In Every other state the home study goes straight to USCIS and the process isn't as long. The process can take awhile. It is my understanding that it usually takes ICPC about 4 weeks to process the received final home study and Immigration may take up to 90 days. We now have to start gathering documents for our Russian Dossier. Once those documents are together, we just wait for USCIS to get back w/ our approval. We can't send anything to Russia until we get approval for USCIS.

DD