Feb 17, 2010 -- 2 steps closer!

Today we left the hotel early to get to the Colombia passport office for Wendy and Fer's new passports. It took almost 2 hours, between waiting to pay, waiting to be seen, waiting for the passports, and then waiting again for them to fix the mistake of putting the wrong girl's photo in each passport!! Both girls needed to sign and for the passports, they both put their first names only. But then Fer wanted to put her new last name for the legal document showing the change, so she signed that one Fernanda Weeks! We found that significant -- and lovely.

Update 2/13/2013: As I received my ashes this Ash Wednesday morning, I was remembering that the day we went for the passports in Bogota was also Ash Wednesday, and in the middle of all the waiting and paperwork, a priest came to offer ashes. Many of those, both waiters and workers, lined up to receive and then we all went back to our business.

After the passports, we went to ICBF to ask for a full copy of the girls' file. It turned out, however, that the 5 files were actually a mix of information about all the children, so we had to go through to find the pages that had to do with Wendy or Fer. We were glad that there was nothing new to us in the files regarding the girls' history -- we have heard of families finding out stressful or surprising facts about their children's background that they had not been aware of before seeing the full file. Manuela carefully went through and marked all the pages, and the copies should be ready tomorrow when we go back to get the letter that we need for the girls' visas.

After a little down time at the hotel, it was then time for the doctor's visit -- the U.S. embassy also requires a doctor's report in order to issue the visas. The girls knew they might need vaccines, so they were prepared. It turned out that Fer needed two, and Wendy one. Wendy took it like a trooper, just a little crying. And after a brief repeat of the earrings scenario (backing away, running into the bathroom, and twisting around to avoid the needle), Fer also got her two shots. The doctor was very nice and did a full report for us as well as gave us a report on the children's vaccination history, such as we have, so we are ready with that step as well.

Tomorrow will be somewhat free of appointments -- we just have to go back to ICBF in the afternoon to get the letter that we need signed for the visas, and also pick up the girls' files. Friday we go to the embassy to submit the visa application and then -- AGAIN! -- we are going to be interviewed for television, this time for a story about ICBF and older child adoption. And Friday night Chris will go home! And then it's just 3 more days here for me, and I follow with the girls! We are all really ready. Wendy keeps saying, "It's time to go home! It's time to go home!" It's a line from a children's book that she likes where the mother is telling the daughter they need to leave the playground, but it seems very appropriate to our situation as well!