Wow, our week in Seattle is already over! It’s been fun and productive and
entirely too short!  Besides the obvious of returning home to reconnect with
friends and family we were in the Seattle area for a few important reasons.

Over the summer, Mark had received confirmation that the conditions had finally
been removed from his green card but the new card must be processed in person at
your local INS office. This necessitated that we spend a day at the INS office
in Seattle waiting to complete the paperwork and get a stamp in Mark’s passport.
I was nervous, especially after our experience of entering the country in
Minneapolis but when our number was called there were absolutely no problems. In
fact, we were told that our case must have been exceptionally clear cut. Now
that the extra tight INS security is in place post September 11th most couples
are called in for a second interview and the INS agent found it quite strange
that the ”powers that be” in Nebraska had approved Mark’s green card based on
the original file. Given the logistical complexities that a second interview
would have caused us, we are very thankful that we were an exception! And we
reminded ourselves that every dollar we spent on our immigration attorney was
worth it! Well….

In addition to our visit to the INS, this weekend was also my 10 year high
school class reunion. The timing worked out perfectly which wasn’t actually a
coincidence given the fact that I was the committee chair and personally chose
the event date. My role as committee chair was supported by a wonderful reunion
committee and, if I do say so myself,  everything turned out fantastic!  I had a
great time and I would even venture to say that even Mark had fun too! It’s hard
to believe 10 years have passed… what a walk down memory lane!

The rest of our time was spent catching up with family and friends and running
errands. It’s amazing how many little to-dos we had! We were fortunate to have a
nice long visit with Grandma on Wednesday afternoon, and dinner with Steve and
Susan on Wednesday evening! It’s always wonderful to see them!! Thursday after
the INS we celebrated by sharing a dinner out with Mom and Dad! Friday we caught
up with Kari (our friend who used to live in Eindhoven!)  and her husband Scott!
They are now living in Tennessee so it was pretty great that they were in
Seattle at the same time we were.

And on Sunday, Mom and Dad threw a big picnic and pool party in their back yard!
It was a great combination of friends and family that were able to attend!! We
only wish that we had more time to catch up one-on-one with everyone! It was at
this party that we broke the news that we would be leaving the Netherlands at
the end of October and heading out to see the world. We were also able to share
some of our pictures and travel stories about our journey to date which was also
fun. Of course it all went by too fast! But I think we’ve finally decided that
Seattle will be our future home, so hopefully there will be time to visit with
these folks more frequently.