Ecuador Day 60

Wow, 60-- that's a nice round number. I hope to make it home before 70! I think we are well on our way.

Flor is officially officially ours. I have seen the documents to prove it now! It kind of brought a whole new level of meaning seeing the official Decree, plus her new birth certificate today that says that she was born to Devin Luke and Kimberly Dawn Perry. Amazing.

Backing up a bit- MJ showed up to pick us up about 9:30 this morning. She drove us to a notary's office first (side note: her car is an automatic! The first and only I have ever seen here in Ecuador!). We waited an hour to get the Decree notarized (power notarized- I don't know the term, but higher than a simple notarization). Then we were off to the south, south, WAY south, of Quito to go to the Civil Service Registry. The city seriously just keeps going and going and going-- it is huge.

The registry was an...interesting experience. I will try to beta re-cap it to avoid all the mundane details. It went something like this:

MJ flashing Flor's disability card to get us in places faster. MJ dropping Flor and I off inside a door labeled "private entrance" with a guard staring at us. MJ leaving. MJ saying she is going to find someone to help us faster. MJ returning 45 minutes later. No luck. MJ taking us across the street to get Flor's passport pictures taken. MJ sitting at a computer for an hour checking her email. Me sitting there. Flor freaking out on the floor. MJ finally finishing. MJ taking us back across the street to the registry. MJ meeting with director. MJ giving in (apparently no one was going to do us any special favors and now that we had wasted 3 hours, we probably could have gone into the regular line and been done! sigh..). Flor throwing another fit on the floor. Me getting lots of stares. MJ sending me to desk number 21. Me feeling really awkward that I cut in front of a whole room full of people. No MJ in sight. Lady asking what I need. Me not knowing. Lady getting impatient. Me calling MJ. MJ not answering her phone. Mysterious man appears with Flor's documents. Lady now knows what to do. MJ still missing. MJ appears 20 minutes later. 6 official copies of Flor's birth certificate produced. Us moving across the room. Man looking at Flor's fingers and making notes. Lady taking Flor's fingerprints. Flor screaming. MJ and I holding her down (yes it took both of us to get the prints). MJ saying she is ill. Flor's picture taken for ID card. MJ saying she is ill. Us waiting for ID card. MJ saying she is ill. Finally done. It is 4:30 pm.

Looooooong day. But, we accomplished the cedula (ID card), birth certificates, and passport photos. Tomorrow we will go for Flor's passport and to the doctor. Everything will then be ready for us to go to Guayaquil, as long as the Article 23 is signed off on.

The lady from the consulate called MJ while we were at the Registry today and spoke to her and to me. She is so fabulous. She said that she will call again tomorrow to check on how things are going. I am going to ask her if they can do anything about getting the Article 23 clearance as quickly as possible. We'll see. 

Ohh...and one other thing I should mention. The Decree. Oh my gosh-- it's a beast. It is 8 pages long. MJ showed it to me when we first got in the car and said that she has never seen such a long Decree. Usually they are one page and one or two paragraphs on the back. I asked her why ours is so long and she said it is because the judge was concerned about our age and our already having two kids, so she wanted to write a really thorough report. What? I guess she wants to cover her bases should anything happen, but that doesn't really make sense because if anything were to happen (not that it will), Flor will be a US citizen and be living in the states, so it's not like she would be sent back to the orphanage in Quito. Anyway-- I guess I was a little harsh on the judge before. I thought that the Decree was just a form document (like we have at our agency) where you just change the names and dates, etc and then print it. No more than 5 minutes. Obviously the judge spent a lot more time than five minutes on this. I read the first page and a half or so before MJ needed it back, and the judge had pulled together all of our materials and was summarizing everything. She quoted from our home study, from the director of our agency, from Flor's abandonment papers, from the assignment committee when Flor was assigned to us, and even had a quote or two from Devin and I- probably from what we said when we finalized. Interesting. So much for thinking she was just buying her time. I take it back, Judge 6. Thanks for being thorough-- but might I add, you don't need to worry about Devin and I just because of our age. We love Flor and she is ours just as much as our biological children. We will take care of her, I promise.

Alright. Back to the day. After we left the Registry, Flor and I were famished. We only had snacks during the day (I think the lack of a larger lunch is what was causing Flor's melt downs-- remember at the OSSO house, our lunch is our largest meal) so we were really hungry. We decided to hit Mickey D's and invited the Schinnerers a long. Good thing they are always up for something. They are so great--I really will miss them a lot when we go home. That is going to be one hard thing about leaving here; it's not like we live close by and will be able to see them easily.

More tomorrow-- but here are some pictures from today (mostly scenery). 

The view from the registry-- inside the hall where Flor and I sat awkwardly for so long.

Here is the registry itself. Large. Lots of people, though today was actually not that busy. It was maybe 1/4 full inside. I am sure it can get much worse!

This type of scene right here is exactly how I imagine Quito in my mind when I am not here. I sure do love this city.

Another hillside shot.

The Mickey Dee's is right off of 18 De Septiembre. Great street name if I do say so myself. (that's my birthday for those who are wondering why I would even care)

Ronald and his friends Robin and Pablo.

Poor Pablo is going to freeze in Oklahoma. I tried to get a picture of him as he was covering his face with part of his coat because he was so cold. But this will do too. :) Just for perspective, I was standing there in a short sleeve shirt and feeling fine.