Updates

The screen on one of our digital cameras broke, and the other is acting wierd, so we might have fewer pictures on the blog during the next little bit. Even still, I have to report our latest immigration miracle: Sarah has a North Carolina drivers license! That may not seem like a big deal, but it's very symbolic for us of overcoming all the obstacles we've faced in the last year and a half. North Carolina was one of many states to pass laws last year making it much more difficult for anyone but citizens and permanent residents to get a drivers license (ie, excluding legal non permanent residents like Sarah was until Jan 18). The car was in her name, so we've had to keep it licensed in Quebec, have two seperate sets of insurance, etc. It wasn't that much more expensive or difficult, but a symbol that our life was still somewhat fractured even though she was totally legal. Well not anymore. Once that magical social security number arrived in the mail, it has opened a lot of doors for her, including geting a NC drivers license. She actually studied pretty well for the test too, which was good since at least some lessons were learned from the fact that I failed it my first time!!

The other update is that we spent a few days this week in DC for the AcademyHealth National Health Policy Conference. It was a good conference with important speakers (former HHS Security Donna Shalala, current CBO Director Peter Orzag, congressional staffers, representatives of the 3 major Presidential campaigns, etc. The days were long but I learned a lot. Sarah spent all day monday walking around to the various museums, sitting to watch free movies as often as she could. Her poor pregnant body was so tired that she slept in on Tuesday until noon. She deserved it, our little girl is working her hard!