Immigration and stuff...

Okay, so here is the situation:
(The complete one for those of you who don't get the family emails)

Immigration problem #1
Anne checks with American Embassy in Belgium about the status of her Green card. Rumor has that even though the Green card doesn't expire for another 7 years, it will become invalid when out of the country for longer then a year. Embassy confirms this and says she needs to file for a "reentry permit" that will give her the right to come and go to the US even when out of the country for more then a year. After about twenty emails back and forth with the Embassy, they confirm that she has to go to the INS office in Washington DC in person to file this form. Anne bites the bullet, buys a plane ticket and goes to the INS office in DC.
Thursday: She shows up at the INS office and it turns out: first Thursday of every month, the office is closed. It doesn't say this anywhere on their website, but oh well, there is always Friday as a back -up.
Friday: Anne gets to the office, speaks with an immigration officer and is told: "No, you can't file that form here, we have never ever taken those forms. They have always needed to be send to Nebraska, pretty much from the beginning of time, since the days of the Pilgrims.... Reentry permit, file it in Nebraska. Oh and by the way the price went up from $305 to $385 just yesterday. But have a nice day ma'm."
(Anne considers toilet papering the American Embassy in Brussels)

Immigration problem # 2
Leland has a visa for Belgium till July. No problem there. Anne is a EU citizen and should have no problem living in Belgium, but for some reason the local immigration office is behind in times. Or maybe they are just overzealous, since we live in a small town with probably 3 foreign families. Anyway, Anne was granted temporary residency in Belgium for six months, on the condition she would find a job.
No problem, been working full-time since October. But the immigration office wants to see a year contract not just weekly overviews from the temp. agency. The company Anne works for told her she would get a year contract starting the end of January, then it became mid February and then finally they found out that headquarters had put a hiring stop for the first quarter. So please wait till April.
Then, mid March Anne receives a letter from the local immigration people saying that they NEED to see a contract by March 23 otherwise she will be asked to leave the country.
Excuse me?
Panic attack.
Anne talks to her boss at work and the HR person will write a letter saying that she will defintely get a contract by April 1st, just hold off for a couple of weeks and please don't kick her out of the country.


Meanwhile....
Monty is not having a good couple of weeks. In week 11 (when Anne came back from her *succesfull* visit to the States, he got the flu, or some kind of virus. Vomiting all night long, (We ran out of sheets for his bed at 3 am, took him in our bed and then he puked some more there...) fevers and a rash. Luckily that passed but he was also constipated (again). After he didn't do nr. 2 for ten days we asked the doctor for advice and she gave him a laxative. This started to work in week 12. Four poopie pants in 6 hours time, I tell you...
Same week 12, Tuesday: Monty was riding on the back of Leland's bike in the little child seat, but somehow got his foot stuck in the wheel. Several cuts, scrapes and bruises and a whole lot of screaming later, he finally let Leland put a bandage on it. (Leland called Anne at work, so she could talk to Monty and calm him down, but he was screaming so loud half the office could hear him)
Still in week twelve, Thursday: Anne picks up Monty and Stoney at the after school care. When walking to the bakfiets, both boys decide to climb on the play equipment. "Watch out," Anne says, "It is wet and slippery because it rained." Naturally, Stoney climbs up and slides down aa pole and it fine. Monty works his way up the steep ramp, realizes that the slide is wet and is to scared to go back of or get of any other way. Anne climbs up the steep ramp to get him off. "Just hold on to mommy," she says optimistically. He puts his arms around her schoulders, she hold him with one arm, hold the railing with the other, moves one foot and.... There lay mommoy and Monty on the ramp, on top of each other. Monty did some loud screaming again and Anne temporarily lost hearing in one of her ears.

But otherwise, live is just dandy. Just Peachy!

To end things, i am going to post the two class pictures of the boys here, which were taken back in the fall, but i don't have any new pictures yet. Noy sure if you can see it on these pictures, but Stoney is touching himself in inappropiate places and Monty is screaming at the photographer.
That's our children!
(but of course we love them like crazy)