Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Drowning in Details

I've been making lists and packing and planning for our trip to Ethiopia since we passed court. I thought we'd be twiddling our thumbs and ready to head the airport at least a week before our date of departure.

But now we seem to be drowning in unexpected details.

For example, we're having problems:

1. Booking airplane seats.

We've been trying to get our seats for our flights but we can't because when we first contacted our travel agent we planned on leaving on Sunday the 14th instead of Monday the 15th so now the Emirates Airlines computer has us leaving from Denver to Houston on Monday the 15th but leaving from Houston to Dubai on Sunday the 14th and for every other leg of the journey has us booked on both flights.

Which means we've had to make several calls to our travel agent (and you have to budget at least a half-hour for each call because he's a talker) and then we have to wait for the Emirates computer system to catch up and get everything right but Emirates only has offices in Dubai which is 11 hours ahead of us so for now we're waiting.....and can't cross "airline seats" off our list.

2. figuring out our travel documents.

We got an email from Holt yesterday detailing the all the documents we need to bring with us on the trip. One unexpected one was: our HOMESTUDY. We don't have our homestudy. It's our understanding that by Colorado law we're not allowed to SEE our homestudy. So, I have an email into Holt to figure this out.

Then, there's the I-600 form. Holt says to leave the form blank. Again, our Colorado social worker supervised the USCIS stuff for us (this was before we were with Holt), so we don't know what Holt is talking about. Don't you have to fill in the I-600 to get your I-171? Another email to Holt.

3. Getting the right immunizations.

Everett got his kindergarten booster shots today so we thought we were all done with immunizations. But my mom (who is coming with us and lives in Utah) just got her travel shots and HER travel clinic people told her to get a meningitis shot while OUR travel clinic people told us we don't need one. So, who do we trust? Meningitis shots at our travel clinic are $120. So, now we don't know what to do.

These aren't huge problems. We'll get them figured out. But, they're annoying. Like mosquitoes--which makes me think of malaria--and we have a whole other set of issues with our malaria pills.

I'll spare you.

4 comments:

  1. The I-600 is different from the I-600a that you filled out to get your visa approval. The I-600 is a separate form you bring to ET with you...there's a current copy of it in the guidebook that you can see.

    Also, we DID get our meningitis shots...it was recommended by our travel clinic and the CDC for travel to ET.

    Good luck taking care of the last details before travel!!!

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  2. Thanks, Jennifer. Stephanie said the same thing--the I-600 is a whole different document. And she said we don't need the homestudy. So, that's two problems solved. :-)

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  3. A lot to think about and prepare for...just think you are so close to bringing your little one home. I can only imagine how excited you are!

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  4. I'm wondering if we are going to do the malaria pills...I guess I'll worry about it when we get to it!

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