in 10 days time

after weeks of waiting, i finally received my school papers from the states. so on thursday, me and naief headed to the american embassy in hopes of getting his little fingers on an american passport, social security card.... and all that jazz.

after hooking him into a sling thingy, carrying him inside, waiting in line for what seemed ages, answering a few more questions and giving them enough proof that i am actually who i say i am, and that both of the names were used by me and that i'm not someone posing as an american, the officer working on our case said that everything was in order and naief will be getting an american passport. :)

i feel so relieved and just so happy that i was able to show from the records i received that i was that person who had two different last names. thankfully for me, it showed such on these papers. thank God!!!!

while waiting, we had the chance to watch lots of ppl and one lady had a little girl that was so interested in naief. she made her way over to where we were sitting to look at him and say hello. she was too shy to get close... but she was a cutey.

finally, after about 2 hrs, we were heading out and the lady w/ the little girl was ahead of us as we headed thru security. after giving them the necessary badges, we finally got our personal belongings, head out and as we're walking back to our cars we chat a bit.

come to find out, her husband is british, her daughter has a british passport and she has an ethiopian passport. her husband said he's never seen such and was shocked to see how difficult it is to obtain a visa to go to the states. he said they act like you're going to blow something up or that we're all out to harm the americans. i agreed. i told them what i had gone thru and the father told me that in order to get his daughter's passport, he only had to show his birth certificate and he had it.

it just shouldn't be so difficult for americans.... i really believe this. i find it utterly ridiculous that we have to go to such lengths to prove that we are indeed american.... and i find it utterly ridiculous that the "common" folk have to go thru so much to get simple visas... but i had members giving me visa apps and they lied on them over and over again and got visas within a couple of day's time. just not fair. glad i didn't have to bring up anything like that while i was at the embassy.... because if they had continued to give me crap, i think i would have mentioned a few things that i saw taking place over and over again... but ... maybe not.

shame how much power these officers have... and it seems they hold your life in their hands.... sadly enough.

but... i'm happy. naief is getting his american passport and i'm very pleased with this.