Stay Tuned and Don't Log Off!

Today after I spoke with Anna, I was immediately contacted by Alan Dein with BBC Radio for another interview for his latest episode of "Don't Log Off" in London. It has been nearly 9 months since I spoke with him. He interviewed me in May of last year just prior to the time I visited Anna in Russia.
He has been following our story and will continue to follow our story as it unfolds.
Today he called me on Skype at 4:00 P.M. Mountain time. Unfortunately we had some difficulties hearing each other in the beginning, but in the end we were able to talk.
For those of you who have not heard the episode you can find an archived copy on his website http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/dlo. Our story is told on the "Hopes and Dreams" episode that is archived in the Podcasts on his website.
Hopefully our interview will be broadcast in London within the next 2 months. So, stay tuned and "Don't log off.". You will be able to hear my interview on his website soon after it aires to thousands of listeners in London.
I hope the next interview will be when Anna is on her way here.

A conversation of a million words.

Because every word we have spoken to one another (minus the words we spoke when I was in Russia) has been translated through Google Translator and pasted into Skype, all of our words have been stored in Skype.
I backup our conversation every week by copying our conversation from Skype and pasting it into Microsoft Word for safekeeping.

Today, after a year and 4 months of correspondence, I noticed our correspondence is almost 2,600 pages in MS Word and contains over a million words shared between us. One million words that will one day be edited and added to our book.
I hope soon that Anna will finally be here and we can finish our book. I can't say it will be easy but I think we have a story that is unique and will generate a high demand for our future book. In fact I have spoken to numerous people who think this could become a good topic for a movie. And to be honest I have had two different people that don't even know each other confront me to tell me Brad Pitt should play my part in the movie.
While it is nice to dream of a future that comes with a best selling love story and a movie, it is of little importance to me. My only desire is to finally bring Anna and her children to be here to be with me. That is my goal and that is the only thing I desire and that is all Anna wants as well. Everything beyond that would be icing on the cake as they say.
I only hope that our correspondence will not reach two million words or 5,000 pages before she can come. But unfortunately we are still in the process of waiting. We are halfway from the average time it takes to get our petition approved. We have waited 2 1/2 months of the 5 month average waiting period. I hope it happens sooner but it is completely beyond our control.
I can promise one thing, once Anna and I find out the good news, you all will be the first to know.

Current Status, "Initial Review"

It has been more than 2 months since the USCIS received our petitition and we are still waiting on a decision. I would be pleased to even get a request for evidence from them. But we are on hold.
It is unfortunate that every time I log in to our account to check on the status of our petition. It still shows the status "Initial Review". According to the website, it indicates "During this step, USCIS initiates the background checks of the applicant/petitioner and identifies issues that may need to be addressed either during an interview or by asking the applicant/petitioner to submit additional information or documentation. USCIS reviews the applicant's/petitioner's criminal history, determines if there are national security concerns that need to be addressed, and reviews the application/petition for fraud indicators."
It seems that I have a background that requires more than 2 months to check.
So I decided to check on the statistics that exist on the approval of our I129f petition. It seems the average processing time is 5 months in the nation. Fortunately our petition is being processed by the California office. It averages 5 months while the other offices average 6 or 7 months to process.
After further review, I discovered that the California office received over 27,000 requests for an alien fiance in October. But they made a decision on 4,000 of them in the same month. So it seems they have many people that are requesting the same thing as Anna and I.
Now, as in the past 2 months we still wait. In the mean time, Anna is trying to sell any property she owns in Russia as well as any other assets that she cannot bring with her.
But I must admit, every day is an eternity as we wait for this process to end.