From: To: Subject: [MAG-ANAK] Hello All! Ray, I'm sending you a photo and Fe's Final Tuesday Update Date: Thursday, January 10, 2002 10:12 PM Hello All! It's been a great day at the McCoy house, as Fe arrived last night. Just the last 24 hours have made me forget most of the frustrations of the past few months. I am sending via email to Ray a picture of us at the Pensacola airport. Fe's flights were much less eventful than the day preceding them, and she was very thankful for that! I learned some details that made this past Tuesday even more miraculous, at least in my mind. But first, I really want to THANK ALL OF YOU who offered hope and words of encouragement of that day. Fe had quite a day on Tuesday, as she had went to the embassy as instructed to pick up her visa, only to find out is was back in her hometown in Cebu. It was finally located at the LBC office in Mandaue City, at approximately 10AM on Tuesday. We had thought about trying to change her Wednesday NW flight to Saturday, as NW showed a seat available on their websight. But when I called NW, I was told there wasn't a flight available I could exchange for until January 23rd. I called Fe back to discuss this with her, and we both agreed to make every possible effort to catch the Wednesday flight. So we went into action. She went to a ticket booking office to get a flight back to Cebu to get the visa. The earliest flight she could get was at 2:45 PM on PAL, which would arrive in Cebu at approximately 3:55PM. This would give her only 1 hour and 5 minutes to go to the LBC office in Mandaue to get the visa, and to the CFO office to get the stamp in her passport. So after requesting the ticket (and here's the amazing part), she was put 6TH ON A WAITING LIST, as the flight was already booked. This meant that there would have to be 6 cancellations or no-shows for her to take that flight back to Cebu. Fe didn't mention this to me on Tuesday, probably sensing my already apparent panic. Then she went to the NW office to get her ticket for Wednesday's 8:10 AM flight. And then she was off to the airport to await her flight. Meanwhile, the embassy calls me back at home to tell me they located the visa, and had requested the courier service to return it to Manila. They told me it would arrive either on Thursday or Friday. I immediately called the LBC office in Mandaue to inquire if the visa was still in their possession. It was, so I called Kathy back at the embassy, and requested her to call the LBC office to reverse her request of sending it back to Manila, as Fe was already on her way back to Cebu to pick it up in person. Well, Fe MADE THE FLIGHT to Cebu, even though she was 6th on the waiting list (miraculous, huh?). But then her flight arrived 25 minutes late in Cebu, meaning she now only had 40 minutes to get to the LBC office, and then to the CFO. She made it to the CFO office just 5 MINUTES BEFORE CLOSING!!! Now back to the airport to try and make the last flight back to Manila, at 7PM. I had originally sent Fe $200 for travel expenses, and these funds were now depleted due to the extra flights between Cebu and Manila. I quickly got online and sent some extra travel funds via Western Union, but I didn't want to burden Fe with another task on her busy timeline, so I sent the funds to her sister in Mandaue. But when her sister went to pick up the funds, they denied her because she didn't know my name. (My first name is William, but I go by my middle name.) Her sister called me at home, and I gave her the proper information, and she returned to Western Union and got the funds. Fe boarded NW flight 28 early Wednesday morning. All her flights were on time, with no problems. She went through the point of entry in San Francisco, and that was uneventful as well. They didn't even ask her one single question, just reviewed her documents and said 'Welcome to America'! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] WEBSITE: http://www.mag-anak.org PHOTOS: http://www.mag-anak-photos.com KUMARE (ladies only): mailto:kumare-owner@yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe From The List: MAG-ANAK-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Send Email To Moderators: MAG-ANAK-owner@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/