Day Three - Embassy Day, and a Little Filling in of the Blanks for Ana's Life Book

Today was Embassy day! I'm going to recap the day, but if you are just here for the pictures, please feel free to scroll down! I was up at 4:45 this morning, Ana woke up early which was good because I was able to give her her cereal before going to the Embassy. It would have been very messy to have to do there!! We met at 6:30am with the woman who our attorney put us in touch with to walk us through the Embassy appointment. She had her son with her, and they were wonderful!! They drove us to the Embassy, and the son walked us to the gate (the woman had to return to the hotel to pick up another couple) and stayed with us while we waited for the Embassy to open. We were actually the first family there this morning, though it didn't mean anything as the appointments were numbered before they were issued and we were number 15. It was nice to be there early though. Wondering what the US Embassy in Guatemala is like? Let me try and paint you a picture. The road leading up to the entrance is like a back alley. I actually thought we were going in a back entrance! There are guards posted everywhere with shotguns and the tops of the walls surrounding are covered in metal spikes. There were two groups of several Guatemalan people, they would be applying for work and student visas. We learned that of all these people who were waiting in line today, very few would actually be granted a visa. It costs them $135.o0 to apply for the visa, and they need to pay whether they are granted the visa or not. That's a terribly large amount of money for some of them, and to think that after managing to save the amount needed, they may be denied and have to start over again, is just heart breaking! The opportunities we have as Americans are hugely taken for granted! Anyways, we were the only ones there for an adoption for a while. When the Embassy opened, it was very intimidating! Our helper directed Greg to go through first. They x-rayed our diaper bag, and Greg walked through the metal detector. I had to take Ana out of the carrier and the guard passed her through the detector first, and then let me through. They searched our bag, and then allowed us to enter. We walked down a hallway and into the room we would be waiting in. We took two seats in the front row, and waited. Our guide did everything for us and explained the procedure and even though the entire process took almost 3 1/2 hours, our actual participation time was less than 10 minutes! The first step was to meet with homeland security behind mysterious door number 10, families are called in groups to line up for this portion. You open the door and it's literally the size of a closet; there's a man sitting behind glass, and two chairs to sit in. He reviewed our I-600 application, looked at our passports, asked us if the information was correct and asked us if we had visited Ana before this trip. He then said that he was approving our application and to go back to our seats and wait for our names to be called. I have no idea how much time passed before they called us to window number 8. I do know that our number seemed to get passed over for a while as people with appointment numbers after ours were called before us. Anyways, we did eventually get called and talked to a woman who asked us to swear an oath that what we were presenting was truthful. She looked at our passports, and asked us some questions (what day we saw Ana for the first time, reviewed the embassy doctors evaluation that said she was healthy besides the respiratory bug she seemed to have, who our agency was and were we happy with them, who the facilitator was), and had Greg who is the "primary petitioner" sign various papers before saying that Ana would be coming home on an IR-3 visa which meant that as soon as we touched ground in North Carolina that she would become an American Citizen (yeah, that's where I started to fight back the tears!). If we hadn't visited her ahead of time, there would have been more forms to fill out, we would have had to have our previous years tax returns and W-2's reviewed, and we would have had to readopt her in the United States before she legally became a U.S. citizen. We were certainly blessed in so many ways to be able to make that first trip! Anyways, after leaving that window, we were free to go! Ana's visa will be ready to be picked up tomorrow at 11:30 (our new friends are going to pick it up for us and bring it to the hotel) and we will at that time have everything we need to bring Ana home! What an amazing feeling it was walking down those stairs after everything was said and done!!
When we got back to the hotel, we called our attorney as we had plans to visit the hogar where Ana has spent the last 8 months of her life. I was so happy we were going to be able to make that trip. She picked us and another family up at the hotel and drove us to the hogar. It was a very unassuming building, it could have been anything behind those walls! We walked in and were welcomed warmly by the staff. We were able to meet the care takers who have loved and taken care of Ana over these months, and we were given a tour of the facility. It's main room is a courtyard that is open air. There was a small group of children playing in a kiddie pool, having a grand time! Up a set of stairs and over looking the court yard is the room where Ana was, as well as the toddler room. There were maybe 10-13 cribs in the room Ana most currently was in and the care takers appeared to be very warm and loving to the children. When they saw Ana and the other little girl that was with us, they were very happy and scooped them up and spoke words to them I didn't understand, but they surely did by the look on their faces! Their smiles were so precious! We gave gifts of some beauty items and chocolates to the caretakers, and they shared the chocolate with the children. They all came up around us, and were so sweet. One little girl in particular took to Greg. He was stooped down holding Ana and this little one came up and started talking to her. She took Ana's little hand and kept pressing it against Greg's mouth to which he made exaggerated kissing noises. She got such a kick out of that! When Greg handed Ana over to me, this little girl held up her arms for him to pick her up which he gladly did. I do believe if it were possible we might have been coming home with an extra little girl, he was just very taken by her. Ana started to fuss, she was getting hungry so the care takers offered to feed her one last time which was so nice. I left there with mixed emotion today. I am so very happy to have seen what Ana has seen over these last eight months, to feel how the environment felt, to see the absolute adoration these women have for the children in their care. I was also able to get a little additional information about Ana's birth mother. At the same time, I can't stop thinking about the children who are left there. Many are in the adoption process, but not all of them, and in this unknown time for Guatemalan adoptions, nobody knows what will happen to these children. Would you say a little prayer for all the children who are waiting for families to love them, no matter where they are in the world tonight?

Well, as I was writing, Greg, Michelle and Ian turned in for the night. Seems like it was about an hour ago. So that makes 7:30 the first night, 8:30 last night and 9:30 tonight. Geez, by the time we get home, I'll have them staying up all night!!

Okay, without further ado, here are the pictures you've been waiting for. Please keep in mind that I don't have my photo software here to convert the pictures properly so lighting is not ideal. I think you will enjoy them anyways! Tomorrow we are going to venture out to the zoo, so be looking for that update!

Ian and Daddy fooling around!

The gorgeous "carpet" made entirely out of sand in the Marriott lobby. Ian watched them intently yesterday as they worked on putting this together. It is a tradition in Guatemala for various celebrations. The entire week before Easter is a big celebration in Guatemala. I'm going to get a better picture soon, and some video, it's just remarkable!

After the Embassy appointment today. Ian stayed with Auntie Shel, they went swimming and watched cartoons in Spanish, Ian loves it!!

Ana blowing bubbles and pulling on Ian's ear when I was trying to get a picture of them. She really follows him around the room, and he seems to really enjoy being a brother so far!

The outfit we changed her into when we got home from our appointment. Oh, yeah I never did mention that story! There was a reason we had to change her clothing. Moments before our name was called to door number 10, Ana had a big blow out poopy diaper. Only a little bit got on her tights, but I was mid way done when the lady helping us came into the bathroom to say they just called our name! I just knew that was going to happen! It happened to another couple just a little while before us, I guess the embassy is well known for it's poop inducing side effect!! The other picture is of her very long beautiful eyelashes. I'll have to lighten it when I get home. I hope you can see them, they are so pretty! Okay, that's all for now folks! Until tomorrow!!