ever-fixed mark

Today I packaged up some gifts for our new son and his foster family. I wrote them a little note to go with the presents, and then decided to use Babelfish to translate it into Korean.

Just to be on the safe side, I back-translated the Korean translation to see if it was near the mark, and this is what I got:

Love the flag which it does lu the family: In order him at the house us and convenience there will be a possibility of coming and until, anxiety hazard it will be extensive, thanking me hazard yun song it does, the son who us is new it is bitter.

The family thinks you all like this gratefully.

In order to be visible our thanks we the baby the hazard some futures, and extensive hazard also are sending the futures. You the flesh for yun song Haess when preparing the fact that it sends you regarding us egg Sip us thought the thing in small quantity in the United States.

Me in Korea, in order it visits the friend it saw inside past, but 2 years long the difficult will be hour thing travelling to becoming us it thought. When them long becoming, we are clear in Korea and will take away our children, is like that and regarding an inherent their miscarriage in order to learn there is a possibility of seeing in the place which will be the that time innumerable difficulties thing where all, we will be extensive it hopes.

Bitter? Miscarriage? Difficulties? Maybe I’d better send it through a real translator, before I start an international incident.

On Saturday, we received a hand-addressed envelope in the mail from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. I held the envelope up, Karnak-the-Magnificent style, and yelped excitedly because I was certain it was the I-600 approval for our second son. Why else would USCIS be contacting us? Other families with our agency have been getting approvals in record time, and we had to be next.

The envelope contained only this (identifying information redacted):

(I love the “Official Document” at the bottom. Looks official, doesn’t it? About as official as the register tape you get when you buy a pack of gum at the White Hen.)

The I-600A is the form you send to the government with your homestudy and a big money order to cover the cost of your fingerprints—a sort of “intent to adopt,” to get the ball rolling. We submitted this nearly a year ago. Is this our receipt? Or does the government wait until you send in seven pounds of tax returns with your I-600 (Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative) to ascertain that you are not eligible for the fee waiver lo those many months ago?

One more question: If things don’t work out, and I want to return the baby, what happens if I’ve lost the receipt?