Every time I travel, there's always something I leave at home that I wish I had packed. This trip it's a straight jacket. This adoption scavenger hunt is so draining in the US, but in a foreign country it is ten times as frustrating. (By the way, when I post from Guat. sometimes it caps words in the middle of sentences and moves words around so if this is a crazy mess like the last post, bear with me till I can fix it.)
It's only 11:25 a.m. here but feels like 11:25 p.m. I hardly slept last night. I had trouble falling asleep cause I'm so stressed about possibly being stuck here over Christmas. When I finally drifted off, Alex (the little boy I'm caring for till his mom can join me this weekend) woke me up because his ear was hurting. Poor thing. I felt someone standing over me about 3:00 a.m. I woke up to see him standing by my bed with tears rolling down his face, holding his ear. He didn't want to bother me but was in such pain. I gave him the pain meds and ear drops that I was able to get from a pharmacy over the weekend. He finally fell asleep about 5:00. I'm going to try to take him to the doctor today.
This was the second night that I didn't get much sleep. (Warning for little eyes and ears here!) My second night in Antigua was, ummm, interesting. The walls were paper thin so I could hear all the street traffic and parties and, well, some private adult parties on either side of our room. (I'll let you connect the dots.) Never have I been so grateful that Alex and Daniel are heavy sleepers and that I have a limited Spanish vocabulary. I was on ick overload and never fell back asleep.
Anyway, Alex went back to sleep but I couldn't. I needed to get up at 5:30 anyway so that we could show up at the US Embassy at 6:30 a.m. to get a number. We went back at 9:00 for our appointment (another long wait) but the woman at the USE was super nice and helpful. (I'm so grateful for little angels God sends along the way.) We also met two other precious adopting families. It just makes me realize how many dear families and children are going through the same thing we are.
Speaking of angels, our friend John has been a tremendous help showing me what to do and where to go for this stage of the adoption. I would be a huge mess if he weren't here. It looks like he'll be leaving some time this week, praise God (he and his wife have been taking turns fostering their son here since last April). When he and another dear adopting dad leave this week, I'm going to just move into the nice lady's office at the USE. I'll fit fine because I'll be rocking back and forth in the fetal position at that point.
The boys are swimming in the pool now. We just got Daniel's birth certificate delivered to the hotel from our attorney's office so now we're going to grab lunch, then get Daniel's HIV test and see if we can find a doctor for Alex's ear. We're also waiting to hear if Daniel's orphanage has two critical original docs that we need to continue with the USE. If not, then we're going to have to hire someone to help us get these and it could take weeks. (Blood pressure rising!!!) If they do have them, we'll be visiting the orphanage today.
That's all for now. Thanks for your love and prayers.
Muchas Gracias,
Kathie
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