A Governmental Apology

I seriously couldn't believe it!  I'm sitting quietly at my desk late this morning working away on a power point presentation for a conference on Monday in Greenville,SC and my phone rings.  Ok, so that's not the unbelievable part.  When I answered the phone, there on the other end, was the most pleasant, sweet voice of a woman who identified herself as an immigration officer. (USCIS).  

She indicated that she had caught wind of the troubles that we experienced earlier in the week with one of their agents and she just "had" to call me and offer her deepest apologies!  I was almost speechless at the thought of it! (And, trust me, this does not happen often.)

So, not only did our awesome Senator's office "get the job done" on our behalf, but they made sure that the appropriate supervisors were aware of our unpleasant experience.  Wow. Ok, they have been great, so maybe that's not the astounding part, but for USCIS to actually track me down and offer apologies?  I am forced to re-evaluate my opinion of government agencies (at least for today) and share that this particular officer was very sincere and genuine in her remarks.  

But, it didn't stop there. She gave me her full name and DIRECT phone line so that I could call her early next week to touch base on our paperwork.  Even though the paperwork now moves on to a separate government agency, she still offered to contact them on our behalf if they had not responded quickly enough getting the approvals cabled to Guangzhou. She was very sensitive to our tight timeline.  

So, the moral of this story is: Don't hesitate to report inappropriate treatment to someone who can do something about it. We must be the advocates for our children even if it seems that we are being pushy and impatient.  (Which of course, we would never really be-right?)  Stop laughing. I can hear you-- all you people out there who know me and are laughing-- out loud-- stop it!  Contrary to popular opinion, I CAN (when ABSOLUTELY necessary) be calm, cool & collected. :-)  

Angie