Down a big hill & halfway up a little one

The roller coaster never stops. It is in a continuous loop and I have eaten too much funnel cake. Plus, just like in high school, ( I was on a roller coaster and my bf at the time went to put his arms up in the air while we were going down a hill and ended up elbowing me in the face, knocking my glasses off, never to be found again) I am totally blind. I have no idea if I am upside down or about to plummet 300 miles an hour downward in a spiral until I puke all over myself and just want to curl up into a ball. Except I can't. Because I can't get off the damned roller coaster!!!

So, we found out yesterday that some of the families that are currently waiting for their I-600 approvals have been waiting 6+ weeks (instead of the 3-4 it was taking) because the USCIS is behind (understaffed, overworked, story of my life). Running the numbers in my head, I figured if ours got submitted by mid-January (and they took 10 days to log it in like I have read on others' blogs) plus add in the Tet holiday shut downs, we would not be traveling to the very very end of March at best or early April. So I freaked out a little (down a huge hill which we were on top of because of the pictures). I mean Norah is 5 months today and I really thought when we got our referral we would be traveling a few weeks from now, not a few months from now. So B wrote the agency and asked about our I-600 and why don't they just submit all of the ones that they have?

Well, it has to go WITH the babies' paperwork to the USCIS. The good news (little hill with a twist) is that they received Norah's paperwork yesterday morning that needs to go with the I-600. However, we are not sure if our I-600 is still here in the states, on its way to, or in Vietnam plus they have to translate all of her papers into English before they can send it to the CIS. So, with every answer comes a million more questions. How long does translation take? Where is our actual form? Does the Tet holiday shut down mean the CIS gets additional days on top of the 60 they are allowed to take to process the form? Is it only business days? How many days are they closed? What happens if they are not done in 60 days? And why the hell are there 2 #25s on the actual form??? Sorry, I just can't get past the last one. I don't understand why the government is always trying to confuse us. I guess that means they are doing their job.

So even when I should feel better about the paperwork (and I do a little bit - thus the half-way up the next hill) I still think that it falls in line directly with my calculations. Translations could take a few weeks, let's be optimistic, say 10 days, so they send it to Hanoi the 15th, the USCIS receives it the 16th, logs it in the 26th (wait, that is a Saturday) the 28th then we add 60 days to process which puts us at March 28th plus 1 extra week for Tet. Which would put us at April 1st, 1 day shy of 3 months from today. 1 day before Norah turns 8 months old. I know it might not take the full 60 but if they are waiting 6+ weeks now, I could edit my calcs and say 53 days to process plus that week off for Tet and we would get our travel call on the 28th, one week earlier so that we would be holding Norah when she turned 8 mo. Either way, it seems like forever from now. Plus I know, since I am still slightly up, that something bad will happen next. That is the way it goes. It is never 2 ups in a row or 2 downs, that is physically impossible to do on a roller coaster.

Will someone please give me a barf bag?!?!? (My glasses back would be nice too, it is hard to type when you can't see a thing.)