[emnyhan@aol.com]

O.K., now what?

I've written before about having moved halfway through our adoption, and was advised to get going on an update. I did so, contracting with a closer adoption agency in our new state. I sent a certified letter to the prior agency in Reno, Nevada, asking them to forward our file to the INS in Sacramento, Calif.
The new adoption agency sent us an envelope stuffed an inch thick with paperwork to fill out and have notarized (all of it totally redundant; new fingerprints, new police clearances, new reference letters, new autobiographies, all of it reducing me to alternating tears and curses, and making me want to dab lotion on my poor, tender fingertips which have been seriously abused through multiple printings).
Imagine our delight and consternation when we received a certified package forwarded from our old address in Reno, containing an I-171H. The letter inside also explained that the dossier had been sent to Senegal for processing.
I realize that I should still get the homestudy update, etc., but being as how the first stuff took over 18 months to push through, is there ANY WAY AT ALL that we can expedite this? I mean, with the Liberia situation spilling over the Sierra Leone border, what's to stop us from hotfooting it over to Senegal and whisking her back here? Wishful thinking, I know. I already have sent a letter to an INS agent at the Sacramento office for advice, and at least the agency in Sacramento has direct communication with this woman. (They just wanted to have me contact her first).
I also asked the first agency to send whatever they have that would be pertinent to the Sacramento agency. I realize the fingerprints have to be done again, since moving 20 miles across a state line instantly morphs you into a totally different person. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent my spleen. Any brilliant ideas or observations welcome!

Elena