Catch Up This Week

Warning: if it seems like my mind is going a million directions all at once, you are perceiving things correctly.

So if I make it through this without choking the dude at the U.S. Embassy it will be amazing!  Last week he tells me, BEFORE I schedule my flights, that he will be in the states for most of the month of Oct & to try to arrive in Benin before he leaves so he can do Tatiana's Visa interview.  Side note, here when we need a Visa to enter a country we fill out some forms, mail our Passport & $$ to Washington D.C., and bada bing bada boom they mail it back to you stamped with your Visa permission.  In other countries, to enter the U.S., you must physically go to the U.S. Embassy and appear for a live interview, pay the $$, and they can still tell you no you are not admitted to the U.S., even for a vacation.  Makes me understand & appreciate our convience of living in this country a little more.  Ok, so dude tells me if I can't make it by his last day at work then someone else will be taking over his duties while he is not in Benin & it's not a problem.  So I proceed with booking my trip as soon as possible.  Dude's last day of work is Oct 5th, I send him an e-mail to let him know I am arriving on the 5th in the evening so I can be available for an interview on the 6th or after.  He sends a short reply to let me know he will not be in the country.  All righty then!  I call the next day to find out if I have to make an appointment for the Visa interview or how I go about all that.  He tells me that it can't be done because he will not be there.  WHAT????  I remind him that he said someone else would be there.  To which he tells me that person is to only do Visa's in emergency cases & our case is not!  Ok, stop, breath Tonya.......................  I told him the tickets were purchased, he said that wasn't his problem he told me all this Before they were purchased.  Then he tells me to call back in 3 hrs and he would see what he could do.  I'm here to tell ya, I didn't get upset because dude has done this to me before.  Grrrrr  Thank goodness Brian wasn't the one doing this.  God really knows what He's doin by having me take care of these things.  3 hrs later, to the minute, I call dude back.  What a surprise, he has someone who can do the interview on Friday the 8th at 9am.  Geesh!  So please pray that things go smoother than that & they know what they are doing more than dude.

In other news; I did receive my Visa to enter Benin, paid for tickets, & saw the doctor to get Malaria meds so I should be all ready to travel.  Somewhere along the way I picked up a fantastic idea, to make a picture book for Tatiana that shows different people she will be seeing, pics of our house, etc. to give her a frame of reference when she arrives.  I decided to do this with like a scrapbooking online kinda thing where they can do it in a hard bound book so she will be able to keep it forever, I also did it in French & English so she can read it now.  Anyway, I received the completed book the other day & it is SO COOL.  I am so glad I took the time, spent way too much, & decided to do it.  :)

During my trip I am planning to journal so I don't forget any details but I should also be able to update here while I am in the country.  Don't worry, I will post pictures too.

I'm Baaaaaack

Hello Friends,

I am going to start journaling again.  This will help me keep you all updated and help me to write things down so I can go back and read them too.

Well, we received our go ahead last Tuesday!  What an amazing thing, we have waited SO long for this day.  Everything is officially done and the next thing is to go with her for a Visa interview to get her paperwork to enter the US.  I am planning on updating while I am gone and when we get back so you can follow our journey of  adjustment together.

I leave in 14 days!!!  So much to do.  I need to make sure I pack for myself, Tati, and pack a suitcase full of donations for the orphanage.  I need to make lists of emergency information to leave for Brian, I need to make lists of information for everyone else.  We need to get things set up for when she arrives so it is like she has always belonged here.  I don't want to not have stuff ready and her think she was an after thought in our hearts.  Brian said it was like bringing home a new baby, except she is 8 yrs old.  So just like you get the baby's room ready, we are preparing things for her arrival as well.  The reason he says it is like bringing home a baby because of the things that differ from the world she knows.  Very basic, for example she doesn't use an indoor toilet where she lives now.  She will have to learn to take a bath, they take showers but I don't know if she has ever sat down in the bath tub and played with toys like a child.  EVERYTHING is going to be new to her.  Of course, we know she will adapt very quickly and with the love of her immediate and extended family she will be fine.

I will be flying out on Oct 4th and WE will return on Oct 17th.  We are going to be hunkering down for a while to get everyone used to our new life but once we venture out everyone in our life will get to share in the joy of our new child. 

More details as they come in.