Disappoinment and some hope

I have been fairly quiet recently, and this is mainly because I felt a lot of tension because of my son Dan's USA trip.Ok, on my soapbox now:

As you might now, Danial has been granted a scholarship to attend Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire, USA for a summer school, running from 4th July to 7th August. Him and 3 other students from his school. We had to pay for the flights, visa fees, student exchange fees to the US goverment, doctor fees, immunisations etc which all together came to about £1000. So, he was supposed to fly out last Sunday. He didn't - because his student visa still hadn't arrived.

There was initially, when he had been granted the scholarship in March this year, some confusion about the need for a visa. First we were told that he may not need a student visa, as the summer school, strictly speaking, is not 'studying' in the traditional sense. But then we were told that it might be better if he did get a student visa - so off we went to apply for it. His three fellow students were given the visa within one week - and with Dan, they decided that they need further 'administrative processing'. We were never told why him... he hasn't got a criminal record and was never previously denied a visa or anything similar. Anyway, initially, it wasn't a problem... I just thought let them do whatever they have to do... so we waited... and waited. Than we became desperate, the day to fly was getting ever closer - still no visa. I have to say that his school and the school in the US helped us a lot. The day he was supposed to fly went by .... To cut the very long and boring story short - his visa was granted last Wednesday, but now I still have to wait to have his passport returned to us which may take another 2 weeks. His flight has been re-booked for Tuesday now, but I can't see his passport arriving before than. I guess I'm just too pessimistic now after that long wait. His teacher says if he can't fly by next Friday, than there is no point flying, as he will have missed too much of the summer school. But, they will automatically send him next year, and we will apply for his visa in January! And I will have to pay for all of it again... things we do for our children.

Last Sunday was the day he was supposed to fly, and in order to overcome major depression at home, I took them all to Thorpe Park (big amusement park here in the UK). I will post some pictures later. Cost me a fortune, but was well worth it to get away from it all.