duplicate filing amd stop payment..help!

[sh0522]

The past 3 months, we are having bad luck..sob!Sob!...First,We send our I-130 and I-485 thought first class mail.Normally, first class mails are delivered within 3-5 days. However, after tracking the mail for more than two weeks and noticing that it was not delivered yet, we called the USPS. We were informed that the mail was probably lost, and we had to fill out a tracer form to try to locate the mail and to contact the postal inspector about it since there were birth certificates, passports and checks in the mail’s content. We were advised to do a stop payment for the checks that were in the mail and monitor our credit reports plus high risk of identity theft.Since we thought the mail had been lost, we quickly filled out another set of application forms along with the important supporting documents and checks, and sent them via Fedex. This time it arrived safetly. However, to our surprise, the USPS mail somehow *****ally appeared and delivered close to 3 weeks later after we first sent it. We received the first set of receipt numbers (from the application sent via Fedex) before we received the second set of receipt numbers listed above. When we received the second set of receipt numbers we immediately called the USCIS National Customer Service Center and were advised to write a letter to explain why the payments for the checks to the second receipt numbers could not be made. We were also assured that the stop payments would not affect our first set of applications (sent via Fedex) since the checks in that application were already cashed. Everything seems fine.but now we received a letter from the INS debt department and ask us to pay the penalty amount of stop payment. We called the INS again and they told us we shouldn't stop the payment and they said is depend on each department to decide whether to refund the money or not. They want us to send the amount and the penalty amount in again...we are confused now. Should we? what we should we do to ensure our application goes well? it is really painful to pay double amount but for the same thing. We are so panic now..should we hire a lawyer or who should we talk too?..help