This is a picture of our hotel and similar to the buildings in Santa Fe. Then my camera ran out of internal memory...urg. I did not bring my computer to upload and make available space. But, this is the one picture I had left. I love how beautifully blue the sky is in New Mexico. No pollution here.
It has been a whirlwind of days since my last blog post!!!! We will be traveling the first week of March to meet our sweet little Katie Aunna. I am so excited that I can't stand it. I hope the next few weeks pass very quickly. But, at least we know we will travel on our first trip. We are praising God with great appreciation that He has seen to our needs in regard to visiting our little girl. I will try to fill you in on the last few days.
We got our travel date on Tuesday morning and I went into panic mode. So I began to fill in all the forms needed for the dossier. First we were told we would travel the last week of February. However, we were tentatively rescheduled for the following week. I called our home study agency and told our social worker, Heidi, when we were traveling. Next, the notary was contacted and our family doctor. All day Tuesday the notary and I went from one place to another gathering documents and signatures.
Tuesday night I did not sleep at all. I worked on the dossier. It was about to drive me nuts trying to fill in forms, get the order of the documents correct, and I had computer printer problems. Duane and I went to his office to print from the computer there at 2:00am. It was so crazy.
Wednesday morning we went and had passport pictures made for the visa in our passport. Then I FedEx shipped our passports and the pictures so they could get our Russian visas in place. I went to pick up and finish all the documents from our home study agency on
Wednesday afternoon. I am happy to say we have also received our I171H form. It is that precious document that we need to get Katie an American visa.
Anyway, on Wednesday afternoon (late), I left for Santa Fe. Of course, all the children wanted to go. I put the older children's names into a bag and drew a name. Karissa was the lucky winner of a trip to our state capital. So off she and I went to Santa Fe with our precious bundle of papers. That city is like a foreign country within our own state. Lots of very narrow one way streets and one wrong turn could mean lots of wandering. It also has a city ordinance that all homes and commercial buildings must be old Santa Fe style adobe flat tops. So, it is a very uniformly beautiful city nestled in the mountains and has a very unique flare.
I did not go to bed in our hotel room until 2:00am as I went over and over the dossier to make sure I had all the documents correct. Our appointment with the state notary was at 8:00am. Karissa and I arrived with dossier in hand and we were told it would take a couple of hours to complete. I took Karissa on a tour of the capital building. It was very cool. She enjoyed herself very much. The only problem we encounter was with my camera. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of Santa Fe to post. I did not have any internal memory left and so could only take one picture!!!
Any way, we left the capital building about 11:30 and went to an Office Max to make a copy of the dossier and FedEx it off to, Frank adoption Center, our agency. It was such a huge relief to get it off to them and know it was finished. The dossier weighed 3.8 pounds!!! lots of paperwork and it is difficult to get it all done. Thank God ours is finished!!!
Then Karissa got into the back seat and fell asleep for a nap. I did the wrong turn thing and wandered for hours trying to find my way back. I was screaming at my windshield and prayed for help many times when I kept making wrong turn after another. Finally, I found my way out of the city and onto the right highway to home. It was about that time that Karissa woke up....innocent to all my turmoil....ha ha.
After I located the right highway, I noticed my gas tank was low. This is so funny. I have been married to Duane for almost 35 years and during that time I have NEVER; mowed the lawn, washed my car, or FILLED it with gasoline. I had no idea how a gas pump even worked. I don't know if he has done me a favor or an injustice...ha ha. He has spoiled me like a child and pampered me like a princess. I would have come home on empty if I had not wandered for hours.
So, what to do about the gas issue??? I pulled up to the pump and I thought "Gee, all I have to do is read the direction, which are surely on a gas pump. Well, the directions were on the pump. However, my fingernails were too long to slide the card in and out rapidly. There was a young man (maybe twenties) who was watching me with a huge grin on his face. I thought, what to heck, he already thinks I'm hilarious. So I asked him if he could help me pump my gas. then this other young man who was also amused by my plight, walked over to join the guy helping me.
I explained to the men that I had never pumped a tank of gas. They thought that was the funniest thing they had ever heard before. They were quite amused with my plight, but, helped to fill up my van with gas. I left red faced, but, on full. Dare I say that I have survived Ukraine and am a world traveler who can not pump a tank of gas?!?!? We arrived home late in the evening last night. Thanks to two twenty year old kids....I still have not pumped a tank of gas!!!! Our dossier is done, the travel date is tentatively set, and we will now prepare to travel. BTW, my camera is now ready for action!!!
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