no place like home...

today i was able to sit in on the USCIS stakeholder conference call. the call was an hour and a half long and it was USCIS and the state department's way of trying to make a bunch of desperate, crazy mothers & fathers-who-continue-to-be-kept-apart-from-their-children-without-good-cause understand american immigration law. now, on one hand, i left the call with a greater understanding of the separate responsibilities and duties of  the state department and USCIS. on the other hand, i also feel strongly that the individuals running these departments fail to look at these cases and see the faces behind them...the children who have already been abandoned once for a myriad of reasons and have likely faced neglect, malnourishment and disease, the mothers and fathers who have emptied their life savings and gone into debt without blinking an eye because they LOVE the one whose ransom it pays, the cribs and beds that remain empty night after night just waiting for the warm body that will one day occupy them, the clothes that have been lovingly bought, washed, and now sit untouched while the intended wearer slowly grows too big for them thousands of miles away. we are the parents of these little ones. i am mommy to ruby. i want her home. just this week two very awesome gifts were given to us for our little girl...the first was a ruby red bird, now hanging in the middle of our kitchen, it came with a note that says "fly home ruby!", the other was a pair of ruby red slippers...and i just bet you can guess what their note said...

i'm going to click them together a few times and see if they work...