Posted on 01/07/2007 1:51:52 PM PST by Hostage
I married 14 years ago and just had my firstborn, a son, this past September.
I met my wife in medical school. She was originally from Lithuania and when I met her she was on a H1-B visa working as an adjunct professor of internal medicine.
She had made significant contributions to medical science and had been asked to lecture at med school for the year. That was 16 years ago in the afterglow of the world of Ronald Reagan. She became a naturalized US citizen in 1996.
We've had a real love affair ever since but children did not come easy for us and we had given up hope the year before last when suddenly our prayers were answered with a 'miracle'. There were no fertility treatments, nothing artificial, just natural in its occurance but unexpected.
The birth of our son has been a joy without limit and it continues to be so. But prior to knowing of the miracle to come we had lived for years in despair (most couples with fertility problems will know exactly what I am talking about).
During those years of despair there was one other person whose despair seemed greater than our own, that was my wife's mother who still lives with her family in Lithuania. She wanted so badly to be a grandmother. She prayed and prayed and prayed. When my wife would call her on Sundays, her mother would always cry and it always fell to my wife to calm her down. This constant weeping, in addition to our own despair, was more than we could take and as a result my wife began to look for excuses not to call her mother.
News of the coming arrival of our son made my wife's mother a changed person. She wanted to come immediately but my wife's father has a herniated disc and cannot move unless heavily dosed with painkillers. We are trying to save money to get for him an operation that we hope will give him many years of freedom to move his body. He would also like to see his grandson.
But grandmother was able to get her sister and her son to look after grandfather while she travels to the US to see her blessed treasure, her grandson.
So we bought her a roundtrip ticket on Scandinavian Airlines and she connected in Copenhagen before setting foot in Seattle last night.
Her son had taken her to the US consulate last week to make sure her visa was in order. As she does not speak English, he wrote her a note (he is fluent in English and works as an IT professional throughout Europe) to present to customs that she was traveling to see her grandson and numbers to call if there were any problems. On the note he wrote our names, address, telephone numbers. He also gave her a cell phone and called me the day before she left to make sure I had her cell number.
Last night grandmother was making her way through customs and we were outside waiting for her with our 3 month old son. We were waiting a longtime when suddenly my cell phone rang and it was a customs official telling me that they needed to contact the daughter of a person they were holding. Knowing they were referring to my wife's mother I said "no problem, her daughter is right here waiting with me" and I handed the phone to my wife.
The customs official asked my wife to talk to her mother and to tell her to answer the questions they were asking her. My wife said she does not speak English and asked what questions did they have for her. They said to ask her if she had any cigars, weapons and so on in her possession. My wife was then put on the phone with her mother and repeated what the customs official had asked. They then let grandmother go.
Grandmother came up an escalator into the international baggage claim area with tears in her eyes and she at once saw me, then my wife and the baby. I thought the tears were of joy but my wife later told me they were tears of fear, fear that customs was going to send her back to Lithuania. But there were also tears and smiles of joy as grandmother and grandson immediately fell in love.
Here's the story and the reason we are "fed up".
Customs had asked grandmother a series of questions and she could not answer. She kept telling them "no English, no English" but they took her out of line and then called for a detail to escort her to a retention room, a room that was according to grandmother a long long way through many doors and up and down many floors. In this room they made her strip to her bra and panties and would not allow her to make any phone calls. She was left in this room crying when the customs lady called us on my cell phone.
She was let go out of the retention room but no one escorted her back to the customs line. She had no idea where she was and how to get back to where she was, in other words she was lost. I haven't asked yet how she found her way out because she is bonding with her long awaited grandchild and I don't want to spoil the happiness we all have now by pressing her for details.
Today she is doting on her grandson and both are all smiles. But her impression of America or at least Seattle SeaTac airport is forever a memory of fear.
I asked her if things went well when connecting in Copenhagen and she said "Copenhagen good, Seattle no good".
I'm so sorry for your MIL. That story is truly dreadful.
Call your local newspaper and your local congresscritter -- someone needs to put this front and center... and soon. It's an outrage.
It would seem that Lithuanian grandmothers send shivers of fear down the spines of customs officials. Yet mid-eastern men in garb that says "I am a radical" are waved right on past, lest we be accused of profiling.
Today she is doting on her grandson and both are all smiles."
So, she's fine?
But her impression of America or at least Seattle SeaTac airport is forever a memory of fear."
Take her to a Walmart superstore and she will forget all about it.
No problem at all! Very thick skin here!
Regards, Ivan
My next door neigbor is 88. Her husband is 91. They will not fly anymore because of the way they were treated by airport security on their last trip.
Heh, heh. Seatac is where my wifes friend turned a corner in the lower level maintenance area and found three TSA agents rifling through a large suitcase, clothes strewn everywhere.
But it is not just Seatac. If you don't speak the native toungue of a country that is seriously concerned about who enters, and then try to enter that country, there is the potential for a major Fubar. Personal ones are the worst kind.
Looks like we need more interpretters.
Keep us up-dated...
You, and others, were implying that this wasn't a big deal, and you used anecdotal evidence that you suffered much the same during jury duty, etc. I was just surprised to find out that they strip search people at jury duty and at the MVD.
How do you know she was stripped searched?
How do you know she wasn't? We're going on a freeper's word here, as opposed to the media or government. I give a little more weight and the benefit of the doubt to a freeper until proven otherwise.
Besides, we all know how bad TSA can be. With the multiple occurrences of TSA abusing their authority and doing their anti-profiling, this is entirely possible.
The Freeper wants a autographed photo with an apology from a government official. That's not Freeper talk.
What would you say about the TSA if another 911 happened?
Even the TSA is innocent until proven guilty.
Calvados?
The easiest way would be to fly her into Tijuana and run her across the border in a rental truck.
Your web page is really fine. And I will be thinking very hard about your comment.
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