September 26, 2015

Ecuador days 13 &14

Friday 9/25/2015
We planned on going on a bit of a field trip on Friday to get out of the house, but that didn't happen. The Baumers told us about a fun water museum that we want to try, so that will have to be on the list for later. MJB called us first thing in the morning to let us know that she was going to stop by sometime that morning to get copies of our passports and the payment for the Power of Attorney Devin needs to sign before he leaves. We didn't know what time she was coming, so we hung around the house for the morning. We got a lot of school work done. :) We were getting stir crazy by the time she came around 10:30. She told us that she had been to MIES that morning and bugged Cecilia to get her report done. (Why it was not done yet, I have no idea...). Cecilia promised it would be done at 2 pm and MJB could pick it up from her then. We made plans to meet MJB at 3 pm at a McDonald's near MIES so that we could get everything signed and then into court that afternoon as soon as possible.

We decided to leave a bit early so that we could get to the McDonald's an hour or two early for the kids to play and for me to finish a home study that I needed to get done, but it was difficult to do that without internet. We were there for a few hours and I did get it done- but not without a splitting headache. This particular McDonalds had hoards of school kids there for some reason and they had this kiddie music blasting so loud...oh my. Anyway, we survived. MJB showed up right at 3 with the documents for us to sign. I read them all over and they all looked good except the Power of Attorney document (which we will sign and notarize later). On that, they had listed Mishell's name as Mishell Alexandra Dawn Perry. MJB was thinking Dawn is my last name. Since they use both mother and father's last names here, Mishell will be assigned two last names, like Flor. Flor is Perry Perry. So I pointed out that Dawn is my middle name, not a last name. That will have to be fixed, so she will also be Perry Perry legally. Gotta love it. Last time, Devin's middle name was spelled wrong on the document, but we didn't notice until he was GONE and Flor and I went to get her new passport. I think it was a near huge disaster, but MJB has special powers and encouraged someone to get it done, even with the name spelled wrong. So this time, I was hyper vigilant reading it over to make sure it is all okay.

The other thing I thought was interesting as I was looking over the documents was that the bonding report she showed me (what we have been waiting on ALL week) was about a half a page long and looked like it was really a form that our information was input with a little bit of room for writing additional information. Seriously? I was thinking it was like a supervision report that we do in my business for couples who have adopted babies. These supervisions are usually 5 ish pages long and I usually get them done in a day after the visit. So yeah, I guess I better lower my expectations of people around here. You'd think I would know that by now. :)

A huge blessing is that MJB was able to get us into court in Tumbaco. She is being just quite magical this time. I will have to tell the story of how we got into court there later and also how I almost ruined it because I am a dummy. Anyway, Tumbaco is about a 1/2 hour away from Quito (close to where we went with Hector for our bonding day at that mall) and this is a GREAT thing because it is a smaller town and apparently they process adoptions much more quickly there. YAHOO!

I emailed MJB to find out if she got the documents to the court Friday afternoon before 5, and she did. YAY. Now, we have a three day mandatory waiting period before we can go to court, so the soonest we can go is Thursday. If all goes well, which we pray it will, we should have court by the end of the week next week. Devin leaves the following week, so we're praying that all goes well.

Anyway, so that took up most of the day Friday, but we were happy to give up any plans to get that done. We stopped at the park down the street on the way home to let the kids get a little more energy out.  One thing I have noticed around here is that we do get quite a lot of stares. (What did I expect, though, right?) We just definitely stand out. There are quite a few shades of skin here; so often I see people that look white but then start speaking fluent Spanish. I am fooled a lot. So seeing white people isn't that rare, I don't think, but seeing white people with two blonde kids, one brown kid, and one black kid is a little different I guess. I think it was yesterday that we had a taxi driver who just could not get over it. He asked Devin questions about which of the kids were ours and then when we were stopped at any lights, he'd turn clear around and just stare at all of us in the back seat (all of us but Devin-- yes it's tight!). I love the question- "Which of the kids are yours?" We reply "All of them." And then they usually say, "But which ones are YOURS?" to which we reply, "Oh you mean which ones are biological?" I think it's important for people to know that each of these kids are ours, no matter how they came to us. I know that people don't mean to offend with those questions, and they don't, but any implication that the kids who joined our family through adoption are any less OURS needs to be corrected gently. They are all ours. No difference in our love or care for them. Truly. I have had some people tell me in my field of work that they fear that they can't or won't love an adopted child as much as a biological child and to me this is just silly. I understand some of the fear if you have never done it, but when you have kids who came both ways, those fears immediately disappear. DNA and blood can't be seen. Why they mean so much as to how people think they can feel toward a child is truly a mystery to me. What truly makes a parent/child relationship is time spent, care given, and connections spirit to spirit.

That's totally rambling. Oh, well.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the park day:


Toys made of concrete. Super fun.

Those cuties


She wouldn't look at me for a picture, but she is cute!

Poor daddy had to haul her up the hill on his back...
Saturday 9/26/2015
Today has been a rather uneventful day. We got up and did our chores and then walked to the Mega Maxi. I did some googling and it seems to be about 1 3/4 miles away. Not too bad. We bought some groceries and a few other items and then took a taxi home with all our crap. I stopped at a bread store down the street on the way home to get some fresh baked rolls. We have been smelling them every time we walk by so we finally got some for sandwiches for lunch.

We were super excited that the Baumers told us how to get American TV channels on the internet so we could watch the BYU game. That excitement only lasted for about 10 minutes and things were downhill from there. That was a BAD game. Anyway. We then took a walk to the church (.8 miles away, according to trusty Google) because the kids were supposed to have primary program practice. We were told no less than 4 times last week to be there at 4 pm. Well...we got there at about 5 minutes to and there was not a soul in sight. Everything was all locked up. We waited for about 15 minute and still no one showed up. So we are guessing they changed the time and had no way to tell us. So we got an extra walk in today. Walking back was quite miserable as the sun was high in the sky and it was all uphill. Why we insist on living at the top of hills, I have no idea. :)

We have been burning time by reading the second Harry Potter. We finished the first shortly after we got here and watched the movie, so now we are on to book two. We found a Spanish version at the Mega for Mishell so she can follow along.

Tonight, I've been listening to the Women's Session of General Conference. I love that I can just sit here and listen at home in a completely different country. This gets me really excited for next week and the rest of the sessions, especially with all the changes that will be coming with new apostles to be called. Conference is my favorite time of year!

Okay, I suck at pictures today. But here's two:
Check it out! The guard's station is being rebuilt in record time! The old toilet is back behind there on the road- I am thinking they are saving it for use again.?? Oh and that's our house that can be seen in the upper left corner. We have the 3rd floor. I will have to take pictures of the inside soon.

In case you want to know what Mishell's hair looks like without us doing anything to it! I did two braids into it tonight after she got out of the shower. I think I am getting better!
Happy Sunday tomorrow!

1 comment:

amy said...

Yess cheetah leggings for flor! Also, I love mishell's afro puffs! Thanks for updating Kim. I do like to know every detail.