SELINSGROVE -- One day before Thanksgiving, with their Selinsgrove home generously decorated for Christmas, Dr. Pedro Servano, his wife, Salvacion, and their four children, were thankful and excited to celebrate the holidays with a little more peace of mind than they had in 2007.

But they were all aware the peace could be shattered at any moment. The doctor and his wife are living in the U.S. on what the Department of Homeland Security calls a deferred action, basically a stay of deportation for an unspecified period of time.

The Servanos are using the stay to try to find a legal avenue to keep them in this country, while continuing with their everyday routines.

"Everybody has problems; this is just my share," Dr. Servano said. "Others have more serious problems than we do."

No holiday

Last October, the Servanos received a chilling letter from the Department of Homeland Security, ordering them to report to Allenwood Federal Penitentiary -- just one day after Thanksgiving -- to await their deportation to the Philippines.

"We could not even think of having a holiday then," Dr. Servano's niece, Christina DeHaven, of New York, said in a recent phone interview.

The Servanos' mistake? Getting married.

When their mothers, who were living in the United States at the time, filled out visa applications for their children in 1978, they marked them each with a "single" status.

Two years later, Pedro and Salvacion eloped in the Philippines. In 1982, Mrs. Servano's visa was granted, and she traveled to the United States. Dr. Servano joined his wife in 1984.

They spent the next few years in Philadelphia.

But it was in 1990, after a move to San Diego, that their successful and happy lives in America seemed to come to a screeching halt. They went to an immigration office to apply for citizenship and were told they would have to return to the Philippines because their visas listed them as single instead of married.

The Servanos, with two children at the time, were shocked at the news. They hired a lawyer to appeal this decision.

But their request for citizenship was denied by the Board of Immigration Appeals. They lost another appeal in 1993. In 2002, a final appeal was denied by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals -- seemingly their last hope.

Deportation date