Day 30

FINALLY, WE HAVE SIGNED THE ADOPTION DECREE!!!!!!!!!  What a relief.  This has been such a difficult and stressful time.  The waiting and waiting at IHNFA has drained us all.  Ali has not been sleeping, is home sick and has been very difficult.  Ricardo is upset everytime we go to IHFNA.  I am just so thankful that this is now done.  I sincerely hope that no other family has to go through this. 

We were downstairs and waiting for the lawyer at 8:30 this morning.  At 9:00 she had not come so I decided to walk to IHNFA since it only takes 6 minutes.  The lawyer was there and I did not see the other family so I assumed that they were already signing the documents.  We played paper airplanes again for half an hour when Ali had to go to the bathroom.  We had to walk through the room where the other family was and they were sitting there.  They had not signed and they were not sure what was happening.  We went back to waiting in the lobby when the head of the adoption department walked by and told me in Spanish that we would sign today and gave me the thumbs up sign.  We waited until almost ten when the other family emerged.  They had signed!  What a relief! 

The "official" photo (taken by Ali)

It was my turn.  We went back to a room with a big table.  The head of the Commission was there and some other officials and my lawyer.  I signed one document and had to put a finger print on it.  They then checked my passport, read out a document in Spanish and then had me sign four copies of the decree.  We finished off with photos.  This all took less then 10 minutes.  All these weeks of waiting for 10 minutes.  The only emotion I felt was relief.  We can now start thinking about going home. 

Next, we went to get the photos done for the visa.  We drove there, had the photos done and were back before 12.  My lawyer discussed with me that they were working to get everything done quickly because we have waited so long.  I know that for week she has been discussing the issue with the other offices involved so that we can get the registration, birth certificates and passport done in record time.  We will know more by the end of tomorrow. 

The kids have been waiting all week to go to the children's museum, Chiminike so after lunch we took a cab and spent a couple of hours there.  The kids loved it and I was happy that they got to do something fun after the week we had.  It is a great museum full of hands on activities.  They both loved the giant nose that sneezes and the big operation game.  They were too fightened to try the bed of nails though. 




Tree house



Giant operation game



Big nose



Water room



Climbing

 

Fun with masks

I had arranged for the taxi to come and get us at 4:30 but after 20 minutes of waiting it hadn't come.  The museum was almost closing and I didn't want to waiting alone so we walked to the street where there was a beat up old taxi.  Smashed windows, ripped seats.  But it was our only option.  He didn't know where our hotel was (and of course I had forgot the card from the hotel) so in Spanish I had to direct him.  We got back fine and I was really glad that I knew how to find my way back to the hotel.