A well deserved vacation… almost not!!

Well, Leandro and I have been waiting for this day for so long! The day that we could finally go way, with no worries…

We were so certain that we would pass on the interview that we book a cruise to The Bahamas to celebrate it in advance. The Cruise would leave from Florida, 3 weeks after our green card interview. Well, when I had my interview, I left the office with my passport stamped, and we thought the same would happen with Leandro. But NO! The Immigration agent that helped us said that the new policy does not allow stamps unless it is an emergency. She also said that we should receive his Greencard in 2 to 3 weeks… well; we were leaving to The Bahamas in 3 weeks!!

We waited and waited, and nothing came in the mail. We would be traveling Saturday 21st to Miami, but the cruise would not leave until Monday 23rd.

On Wednesday18th, I suggested that Leandro should go to the immigration again, with our itinerary to try to get the emergency stamp.

He was able to schedule an appointment, but the agent that saw him said that he couldn’t stamp his passport because his Greencard was already mailed out!!! Regular mail! We had to wait for it, and we had only 3 days before our trip…

Wednesday- no Greencard in the mail

Thursday – no Greecard in the mail

Well, by Friday we were all desperate and stressed out. To make it worse, we called the Cruise Company to try to cancel it, and they said that we would lose all the money!!! We were so upset! We decided that no matter what, we would go to Florida, and try to enjoy the time there… But we could not forget the money that would not be returned for the Cruise…

Saturday morning, Leandro’s father suggested that we should go to the post office to see if anything had came this morning…

I went there very early, and there was a guy in front of me in the line that took forever!! He was really pissed because he had lost an important package… well, I was waiting impatiently… When I was finally able to speak to the delivery manager, he told me that the Mail lady that does the mail for my building had just left!!! OMG!

So I decided to walk around the neighborhood trying to find Theresita (the Mail lady)!!! And luckily after a few block I saw a lady with the post office uniform, I asked if she was Theresita, and to my surprise, she WAS!!!! I explained the entire story, and she was extremely nice. She told me that the mail to my building was already in the truck, and that the truck would delivery it around 2pm, but my flight was at 1pm! Then, she told me to go back to the post office, to ask the manager again, to ask the truck driver to deliver the mail earlier that she would go there and sort them before!!! She was an angel! Truly!!!

I went back to the post office, and Paul, the manager, agreed to ask the truck driver to go there earlier…

If this Greencard was there, we would be able to get it! The only problem was the uncertainty, because who know if the letter would be there or not..

Well, we had only a few minutes to finish packing and get ready, in the mean time, Theresita was going to my building to sort the mail. I took shower, got all the bags, and we went downstairs to go to the car… when I went to the mail room, I saw Theresita, with an envelope and she said, I think this is it! When I touched the envelope, I felt the hardness of the card and started to scream!!! WE GOT IT!!! WE GOT IT!!!! I asked Theresita if I could hug her, because she was such a great person helping us!! We were all so happy, she met Leandro and wished us a great trip…. We cried! It was so emotional!!

I could not believe we got it on the last second! We were so happy! We were able to go to our cruise as planned!!! Thanks to the help of many nice people!!

We almost didn’t make in time to the flight, and because we got in the airport so late, we could not have out seat assigned at the check in. they said that they would try to get us a seat at the gate. Well, at least we had the Greencard! We could miss the flight that we would not be sad!

To my surprise, when I went to the gate they were able to assign us a seat. When I look at the ticked I saw that it was on row 3. Well, it turned out the row 3 was BUSINESS CLASS!!! Ha! They put us in the businesses class for no extra charge!!! Hahaha could it be better?!?!