Holding on...

It's been long week. My dog, Niko, is still really, really sick. We were told to expect some improvement within 24-48 hours after starting the antibiotics and it has been six days with no change. He has lost all feeling and control of his hips, legs, tail, bladder and bowels. He is wracked with seizures and spasms. He pants frantically for hours at a time. In my heart I know that we can't put him through this much longer if we don't see some sign that he is responding to the medication. I honestly can't imagine life without him. He's been such a part of our family for the last five years.



The vet has given him a pretty high dose of Tramadol for the pain, but it is not helping him much. He tries to hide his head under my arms and wimpers for much of the day and night. Lifting him up to change the pee pads underneath him is incredibly painful for him and causes him to pant and cry. We've been up with him most of the night for the past week.

We will have to call the vet again in the morning and tell her that he has not gotten any better and all I can think as I lie here next to him is that he may not be with us tomorrow. This may be the last time I can cozy up with him and scratch behind his ears and look into those big brown eyes. I can't imagine welcoming Tae-son home to a family that doesn't include a mixed-up lovey Niko.

With all of the dog-related turmoil this week, I didn't even get to writing that we received the first letter from USCIS (Immigration) regarding our I-600A application, which is an application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition. The purpose of this form is: "For adjudicating the qualifications of the applicant(s) as prospective adoptive parents. Filing this form will generally speed up the part of the processing relating to the qualifications of the prospective adoptive parent petitioner(s)." Basically, we have to pay $80 apiece to have biometric fingerprinting done at the local USCIS office and the $670 for the US government to decide that we are fit to be adoptive parents. (Which, by the way, strikes me as kind of funny that they are qualified to make that determination, nevermind without ever interviewing us!)

Our I-600A application was sent on June 9 via overnight mail, received by USCIS on June 10, processed on June 16 and we received notice on June 17 that we must appear at the USCIS Support Center in Hartford, Connecticut at 3 pm on July 1st with proper identification for our fingerprinting appointment. We were a little suprised to be sent to the Hartford office instead of the Boston office, but happy that things are moving along.

Simultaneous to the I-600A application being submitted and processessed, we have also submitted an I-600 application, also known as the "Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative." The purpose of this form is: "To classify an alien orphan who either is, or will be, adopted by a U.S. citizen as an immediate relative of the U.S. citizen to allow the child to enter the United States." This form is used to determine whether or not our prospective adoptive child meets the legal definition of an orphan, and takes several months to process and approve. I'm a little worried Hubby's adoption, naturalization and subsequest name change (back to his Korean name)will complicate this and slow things down, but we'll hope for the best.