Netherlands

[MarkTexas 3]

Hi Arazia & Ranmaru,

In the first place; I was NOT shouting OK?

If I was, my reply should have been COMPLETELY IN CAPITAL FONT!

Maybe I should have “formulated” my questions a bit different, I don’t know?!?!?

What I DO know is; that there was no harm intended, just curiosity!

We’re all here for support in these tough times, not to make everyone’s life miserable!

There are a couple things you have to consider when YOU post personal related info on a World Wide Website though!

(1) As soon as YOU post a message / personal related info on a PUBLIC website you open your self up for questions. Or in other words; don’t post if the replies are not what you WANT them to be!

(2) 100.000’s of people who read your posts are going to form an opinion about the posts YOU posted. Some people or replies will ask questions and others just don’t bother!

All I did with my previous post was; I formed an “opinion” and “questions” based on the info you yourself-Arazia provided to this website!

And BEFORE you say it“I know, I know, opinions are just like a$$holes everyone has got one”!

But all the info you yourself-Arazia provided on this website,…just didn’t make much sense to me, that is what my previous post was about; “clarification”!

Bottomline;

My previous post was NOT intended to attack / to harm you and/or your boyfriend!!!

It was intended for you to clarify your confusing posts, that’s all there is/was to it!

You and your boyfriend “Ranmaru” just clarified most of the “confusing” bits! Thank you for that!

Sorry that you are in THAT difficult situation Harry!

Hope everything will turn out perfectly OK for all of you guys!

And eh Ranmaru

Welcome to VJ!

Regards Mark.

PS;

I am NOT a “flamewar” person,…hell I’m hardly ever on here, but be warned there are some true “flamewar-experts” here on VJ!!!

Those "FlameWar-Expert Explanation-Clicky" can really “take you down” when you open yourself up for it!

Or in other words; Beware with what YOU post on here & be crystal clear plz! (it will prevent all of this!)

Edited November 25, 2006 by MarkTexas

[MarkTexas 3]

he mark, gratz on your visa. I am so joelous of you that your flying home within days already while i still have to wait till febr 8.

Were I have been? Ehhh packing, cleaning out my house and moving to my parents house ;-) Were I will stay till we move.

-hugs-

Thanks Jackybeertje,

Naaah don’t be jealous,…you’ll be flying soon very soon after me to be with your sweety!

Just hang on inthere in these tough times Jackybeertje,….you can do it!

About the packing,….isn’t it AMAZING how MUCH stuff there is ya gather over the years?!?!?

It sure as hell took me by surprise!

As a matter of fact I’m still packing!

Happy Thanksgiving to all !!! And congratz on all those with approvals, it makes it cloooooser to be with your other half Have a good flight!

And for us that are still waiting , we are almost there!

And Mark, thanks for the link for the international packaging, that's going to be helpful since I am sure that Pieter is going to bring some if his things He's a packrat LOL

Have a great day!!!!

edi :energetic:

Your very welcome Edi!

and just a little update from this homefront... Tobe is bouncing off the walls with pride... we are having a son!! just what he wanted... my daughter is very upset as she wanted a girl, but she is slowly coming around... now we have been able to go ahead and start buying some cute little blue clothes, etc...

hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and wish everyone a wonderful holiday season!

Congratulations!!!

Hi Michele ..... I bet you are just counting down the days now eh

As for us.....we got an RFE in my AOS case. They ask for things that we already submitted, so I guess we just have to make copies once again and send it in.....sigh.

Take care all

Hiya Em,

Michele and I are indeed counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds woooooohoooooooo!

Were getting more and more exited the nearer time gets!!! Joepiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

As for your RFE on your AOS,…well just think to yourself “De Aanhouder Wint!”

Everything will be allright eventually!

My internet connection is up till 30 November!

So maybe (if I have some spare time) I will come back here before it'S been cut off,…otherwise I’ll see ya’ll again from the Texan computer!

Regards Mark.

[Arazia 0]

Hi Arazia & Ranmaru,

In the first place; I was NOT shouting OK?

If I was, my reply should have been COMPLETELY IN CAPITAL FONT!

Maybe I should have “formulated” my questions a bit different, I don’t know?!?!?

What I DO know is; that there was no harm intended, just curiosity!

We’re all here for support in these tough times, not to make everyone’s life miserable!

There are a couple things you have to consider when YOU post personal related info on a World Wide Website though!

(1) As soon as YOU post a message / personal related info on a PUBLIC website you open your self up for questions. Or in other words; don’t post if the replies are not what you WANT them to be!

(2) 100.000’s of people who read your posts are going to form an opinion about the posts YOU posted. Some people or replies will ask questions and others just don’t bother!

All I did with my previous post was; I formed an “opinion” and “questions” based on the info you yourself-Arazia provided to this website!

And BEFORE you say it“I know, I know, opinions are just like a$$holes everyone has got one”!

But all the info you yourself-Arazia provided on this website,…just didn’t make much sense to me, that is what my previous post was about; “clarification”!

Bottomline;

My previous post was NOT intended to attack / to harm you and/or your boyfriend!!!

It was intended for you to clarify your confusing posts, that’s all there is/was to it!

You and your boyfriend “Ranmaru” just clarified most of the “confusing” bits! Thank you for that!

Sorry that you are in THAT difficult situation Harry!

Hope everything will turn out perfectly OK for all of you guys!

And eh Ranmaru

Welcome to VJ!

Regards Mark.

PS;

I am NOT a “flamewar” person,…hell I’m hardly ever on here, but be warned there are some true “flamewar-experts” here on VJ!!!

Those "FlameWar-Expert Explanation-Clicky" can really “take you down” when you open yourself up for it!

Or in other words; Beware with what YOU post on here & be crystal clear plz! (it will prevent all of this!)

Heavy use of !?!? bolding, caps, etc can come off as shouting. Using all capital letters is not the only way of showing shouting on the internet. Perhaps you could be more careful in your use, and when you are asking clarifying questions, you could avoid using !?!?!?!?!, bolds, underlines, caps, etc. That would keep it from coming off as if you were shouuting.

As for posting on the internet, I am well aware of such things. Unfortunately, your 'opinions' do not seem to take into consideration all of the information we have posted in this thread. Much of our 'clarification' is just repeats of things I've said or posted before when telling about our story.

Perhaps the best thing would be simply to discontinue talking about any of the personal side of things. I had originally come here posting about that because I am not all that familiar with Dutch family structure or if some of the things going on in Harry's family were 'normal' or not. The conclusion I've come to is that it's not normal. We are not involved in a normal family situation. Thus not all the 'normal' modes of behavior apply when dealing with the situation.

With that said...

Harry knows quite well that I expect him to tell his parents the next time his father is home. As I have said in previous posts... it will be made known to them before we have our interview for the visa. I am an adult, as is Harry. I fully expect him to act like an adult and deal with his parents without my intervention. I was only posting here looking for some support because I was worried about the situation.

Anyways, I'm going to go back to quietly waiting for news on my application.

[jackybeertje 0]

Thanks Jackybeertje,

Naaah don’t be jealous,…you’ll be flying soon very soon after me to be with your sweety!

Just hang on inthere in these tough times Jackybeertje,….you can do it!

About the packing,….isn’t it AMAZING how MUCH stuff there is ya gather over the years?!?!?

It sure as hell took me by surprise!

As a matter of fact I’m still packing!

OMG Mark, you have no idea how long it took me to get all my stuff sorted out. I had to throw away a lot of ######. I had a very big basement that was filled from buttom till top with 32 years of memories. My mom was a pack rat as well and see kept all my stuff over the years. And then my house, so much storage space and all totaly filled. I am down to 16 boxes now and 6 suitcases. Maybe it will become 1 more box cause of the stuff I still use and want to sent as well. Still it is a lot. Ddidnt want to take more then 10 boxes, but yeah when you have a kid.....

[Em&Ed 0]

Hi Arazia ..... Well let me start by telling you that things that are going on in Harry's family is not your typical every day stuff that goes in Dutch family's. I can only talk from my own experience that even though I knew that especially my mum would have a hard time dealing with me leaving, I have always been upfront with them about my plans. My parents have always told me that I am old enough to make my own decisions in life and that they will support me no matter what. Harry is in a tough situation at home, but the longer he waits with telling them about the plans you two have the harder it wil be for him in my opinion. Plus this whole thing must be pretty stressful on the both of you as well. Anyways, I sincerely hope things will work out with his parents once he tells them about you plans. Good luck!

Hi Mark ..... Enjoy your last days in Holland! And I agree it is amazing how much stuff you can collect over the years.....and how much of that stuff is just that, stuff that you put away and haven't touched or looked at in years. Most of my things that are yet to be send over are still at my parents house and some stuff is at my sisters house as well. I am just waiting for us to have a new place before I let them send it here because we just don't have a lot of room here right now for more boxes etc.

I will have my biometrics taken tomorrow. From what I have read that only takes 15 minutes max so we should be in and out of there real quick.....or so I hope anyway. Oh by the way, no luck on our house hunting yet . The bank offered us a morgage that we don't accept and they made a mistake on not using Ed's VA thing even though we specifically mentioned it to them. They will now make us a new offer, but we don't know if we want to wait for that. The lease for this apartment has to be renewed before the end of the year and we just want to get out of here so we might end up just renting another place for the time being. Ah well, I will keep you all posted!

Take care all

[jackybeertje 0]

hi Em, good luck with your biomatrics tomorrow. I guess you will tell us all the detaisl of your 5 min thing ;-)

That suck about the morgage

O yeah feeling like comming to hawaii say around the 17 of march. How it is looking now we prob will get married that weekend or the weekend after. I want to get married on the 21st cause of the first day of spring, you know start of new things. But yeah a wednesday is not so handy for most peeps cause of work.

-hugs-

[Mel 0]

Hello all! How is everyone?

Keltic Congrats on the baby boy!! Very exciting news.

Em&Ed Good luck on the biometrics tomorrow. I hope everything goes well for you.

Sorry to hear about the house hunting/mortgage issues. I hope the right offer and the perfect home will be in your near future.

I got caught up reading the posts on the situation with Arazia and Harry. What a mess! I wish both of you the best of luck. I know this unusual circumstance must be difficult on you both. As if this process itself was not already difficult enough that adds even more stress to things

Rene and I are still waiting for word that NVC has received our case. We are certainly happy that CSC is finished with it anyway!

Best wishes to everyone!!

[wileastmot 0]

Reading through all the posts it seems everyone is busy with moving forward in the stage they are at.

Best of luck Harry and Arazia on your situation. . . I did not tell my parents anything about Wilmot until he moved here because of some difficult things in our relationship over the past years. So please do what you feel is best. It is nice to get other people's opinions, even if you don't agree because they can help you look at the situation from another point of view.

Em congratulations on your bio...

Mark I'm glad you have been able to get things ready to go, it must have been hard. I'm sure you and Michele are counting down the days!!!

Wilmot and I getting ready for his friends to come from all over the US and Europe for the wedding. We have everything in place for the ceremony to be on Friday, Dec. 29the and then a weekend filled with fun things to do with our friends for the New Year and our Wedding Celebration. It is a lot more work then I expected.

It is nice to hear the news from jackybeerte and keltic. Wishing everyone a happy week and I will try to stay connected over this busy month.

Rhonda

[tmma 467]

Hi all

Just a fly by "Hi" to check in.

Keltic-Whoo-oo! Congrats!!!!!

How did your biometrics go, Em? And the mortgage stuff.....It is different doing it as a VA mortgage ( that's what we have too)-hope it gets sorted before Christmas for you

WOW, Rhonda, not long now!!!!!!!!

Mel-there is a thread on the NVC forum detailing how to track the DHL packet from NVC to the foreign Embassy--

Arazia-How's it going? Ok I hope Not long now till Harry gets here

Hey Jacky-it's not long now-the whole Hawaii/Spring idea is lovely!

As for me- I am running round still-going NUTS seriously-SOOOOOOOOOOOO excited/nervous/excited/not sleeping/excited/twitchy/can't sit still, yet getting nothing accomplished because I am too EXCITED!

Did I mention I am excited??.... you all know what I mean-

Anyway there is a thread on Off Topic about " free international phone calls"--if you have unlimited domestic long distance on your phone already, you can call a number then call over to Holland and the call is FREE! Check it out. I tried it to the UK just now and it works!

Anyway, best wishes to all-I have to dash now.

regards to all

Michele

Edited November 29, 2006 by tmma

[Arazia 0]

Just a quick update to set some folk's minds at ease:

- Still no sign of that elusive NOA2. Some people with NOA1 dates the same as ours have gotten approvals so I'm hopeful. Even if we're one of those applications that got lost behind a toilet somewhere, it's okay. The waiting doesn't bother me all that much right now, as I have the holidays to look forward to.

- Harry tried for two days to talk to his parents. The first time they said they were going to bed and couldn't talk. The second time his father was angry about work or something and just marched to his room. So he sent them an e-mail explaining that he was planning on coming to the United States and marrying me, and that he'd like to talk it over with them. I guess sometime this morning they had their talk, and contrary to what both of us expected, it went fairly smoothly. There was no yelling, no tantrums, no hitting. They think he's an idiot, of course, but they aren't going to try to stop him. His father even said they had been expecting it, although not this early.

- A cousin of mine had a strange kind of cancer about seven years ago. She had a tumor in her arm, but the type of cancer was inconsistant with that location. If I remember correctly, it was a type of lung cancer... in her arm. Well, the tumor was removed, she went through a series of radiation treatments and scans and was cancer free for seven years. About a month ago, during a regular check up, the doctor found a strange spot on her arm. It is another cancerous tumor, skin cancer this time (if I recall correctly). She is going in on the 19th to have it removed. She seems to be taking it okay, but it has to be tough to have considered her battle with cancer over, only to have it come up again. I just hope things go okay with the surgery. She's one of my favorite relatives and I hate that bad things keep happening to her.

So, I'm going to go back to quietly waiting for approval, getting ready for Harry's visit and preping for the holidays. Best wishes to everyone else still moving through the system.

[tmma 467]

Just a quick update to set some folk's minds at ease:

- Still no sign of that elusive NOA2. Some people with NOA1 dates the same as ours have gotten approvals so I'm hopeful. Even if we're one of those applications that got lost behind a toilet somewhere, it's okay. The waiting doesn't bother me all that much right now, as I have the holidays to look forward to......

- Harry tried for two days to talk to his parents. The first time they said they were going to bed and couldn't talk. The second time his father was angry about work or something and just marched to his room. So he sent them an e-mail explaining that he was planning on coming to the United States and marrying me, and that he'd like to talk it over with them. I guess sometime this morning they had their talk, and contrary to what both of us expected, it went fairly smoothly. There was no yelling, no tantrums, no hitting. They think he's an idiot, of course, but they aren't going to try to stop him. His father even said they had been expecting it, although not this early.

WOW! That's great! They had " the conversation". It's not an easy thing for Harry to do-or for his folks to hear-and I am sure their reaction ( you just detailed) was probably similar to most parents reactions....( the "idiot" bit)....LOL. I know I have had similar said to me also ( mainly from non-relatives and friends in the beginning) ( and I think Mark may have heard similar from that side too). It's hard for people to understand who have not been in this position. But now, Harry can maybe rest easier now the talk is done and over with?

- A cousin of mine had a strange kind of cancer about seven years ago. She had a tumor in her arm, but the type of cancer was inconsistant with that location. If I remember correctly, it was a type of lung cancer... in her arm. Well, the tumor was removed, she went through a series of radiation treatments and scans and was cancer free for seven years. About a month ago, during a regular check up, the doctor found a strange spot on her arm. It is another cancerous tumor, skin cancer this time (if I recall correctly). She is going in on the 19th to have it removed. She seems to be taking it okay, but it has to be tough to have considered her battle with cancer over, only to have it come up again. I just hope things go okay with the surgery. She's one of my favorite relatives and I hate that bad things keep happening to her.

I am hoping and praying all will be well with her. She has conquered it once, and with catching it early and treatment-there is every likelihood of a full recovery.

So, I'm going to go back to quietly waiting for approval, getting ready for Harry's visit and preping for the holidays. Best wishes to everyone else still moving through the system.

Have a wonderful time together! I am hoping that Santa has an NOA2 in his bag of pressies for you and Harry

regards

M&M

Edited November 29, 2006 by tmma

[Em&Ed 0]

Hi all .....Well, biometrics was over and done with within 30 minutes! This includes waiting in line, filling out a form and the actual fingerprinting. Oh yeah, and they take a picture of you again as well. All in all this went very smoothly and we were back home around 9.30 am (we left at 6 am to go to Orlando).

Arazia .....Good to hear that Harry tol his parents about your plans! Sorry to hear about your cousin though!

Mel .....You're bouncing off the wall eh . Just a few more days to go till you and Mark are together again

Take care all

[SoL. 0]

Arazia,

I am glad that Harry finally could tell his parents, that must have been a relief for you both! I wish you guys the best of luck on getting that NOA2 soon! Maybe while Harry is here at the holidays with you so you can celebrate together?? Also, sorry about your relative and my best wishes for her health.

Em&Ed

Congrats on getting done with those biometrics, it seems like it was a breeze!

Keltic,

WOW congrats for your baby!

And for the rest of you guys, my best wishes and stay warm!!

I don't know when I'll see my Pieter for the next time, I just know it's gonna be sometime next year, but when? Not until we are done with this K-1 process... So I'll have a long cold winter, brrr....

Groetjes!

edi :energetic:

[jackybeertje 0]

Arazia: I am glad that Harry got around to tell his parents. And good to hear they didnt freack out. Or not totlay ;-) Man he had a hard time getting them together. I know from myself, dont have a good relationship with my parents. I dropped the bomb on my b-day a year ago. I didnt discuss it, but just anounched that I was going to work on my visa and move to Hawaii. Got a very distant and cool responce. I guess it is better then they starting lecturing, but you always hope that your parents burst out in tears and say they will miss you so much but they understand you go cause of the love of your life and bla bla bla. But maybe that only happens in movies. So i kind of understand why he didnt tell them sooner. And with him living at there house can make it harder.

Michelle, keep it together. Going to be hard. I understand. But just ehh what is it 9 more days? I can see you run around in your house from exitment and such. I am so happy for you. For me its 70 more days.

[Arazia 0]

Just a quick update on things...

Still no word on our application.

But... you all remember the emotional abuse storm we were expecting to come down from Harry's parents when they found out about our plans? And we were so surprised they seemed to accept things? Well... it seems that was the calm before the storm. He is now the 'scapegoat' for everything wrong with the family. He was blamed for his sister getting a tongue ring. His father is claiming that he is doing all of this on purpose to drive the family into the ground.

So... things kind of suck at the moment.