Here's what's been happening the last few days, and some things I left
out last time. On Friday, we celebrated Veronica's eleventh birthday.
And since Loren's birthday has already passed, and Donna's isn't until
December, it should be the last birthday the girls will have in Peru.
Veronica's Birthday
Celebrating Veronica's Birthday with Maria Elena, Raul and their daughter.
Maria Elena Alva (the daughter)
The two Marias
Veronica with her present.
Raul Alva
Veronica's second cake
On Monday, our lawyers had the birth certificate officials correct
Andrea's and my age, we then went to SNA for the third and final time.
There we met the Chief in Lima, and for about the 10th time signed a
post placement agreement. Due to the limited hours that the Peruvian
passport agency is open, we were unable to get the girls their
passports, but they did take our money. :)
This morning (Tuesday), we went first thing to the immigration
department of the American Embassy (which is Homeland Security). But,
SURPRISE, they are out of the country for the rest of the week. And
since they are only open between the hours of 8:30 to 10:30 a.m., on
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we can't go back until next Tuesday
morning. Your tax dollars at work my fellow Americans! So, needless
to say, I'm a little irritated and upset. Our lawyer thinks that it
takes roughly three days for the American Embassy to do their
investigation and approve the girls. After that, we then apply for
their VISA's which I think we can receive on the same day. At this point,
our best hope is that it will be finished by next Friday. Of course,
this means we will not make our Wednesday night (Thursday 12:20 am)
flight back to the states. Either Andrea or I will go home that night with the boys, and the other will stay to finish with the girls.
The U.S. Embassy
With the help of my friend, Bill Glick, I started looking into how we
can reschedule the one ticket for whoever is left behind, and what kind of options we will have for booking flights for the girls. Unlike my original understanding of my
Orbitz tickets, which I thought would only have $130 fee for
rescheduling, it seems that they are making me go to Delta, who will not
reschedule the ticket, but instead refund the remainder of my ticket after the $130
fee. So, I'll have to buy another round trip ticket for myself or Andrea as well
as the girls. At least this is my understanding as of now. It also
appears that, as I thought, buying round trip tickets is cheaper, but I can't
use one of the cheap website offers like Orbitz because they don't book
round trip tickets originating from Lima. And if I buy the ticket
originating from St. Louis, which is where we flew out from, and then do
not use the ticket to get to Lima they'll cancel the return tickets.
That leaves me with buying four round trip tickets somewhere here in
Peru, if not from Delta directly, which is expensive. I'm sure that was
as about as clear as mud... Suffice to say, I'm not sure what to do,
but I have a whole week to figure out. Hooray! :(
As to the remainder of our tasks, we did manage to get the girls'
Peruvian passports today after this morning's fiasco. However, it was an
extremely stressful situation. It seems that in the passport agency, they
are very particular about the name on the parents passport being
precisely the same as that on the girls' birth certificates. At first
it began with a little argument about Andrea's name being different on
her passport. This is because of the cultural differences in how we do
last names. In Peru, everyone has two last names, first that of your
paternal parent, and second that of your maternal parent. Of course,
Andrea's passport only has Brooks, but the girls' birth certificate
required that we use her maiden name also. That conflict only took a
few minutes to resolve. However, it took over an hour, and talking to
three different agents, stacks of documentation to explain that Tim E.
Brooks (my passport) was indeed the same as Timothy E. Brooks which is
on my birth certificate and the girls' birth certificate. Maria Elena,
our lawyer, was very patient and eventually got it resolved. I,
however, was becoming quite red in the face. And I think smoke was
coming out of my ears. I even pulled out two credit cards, one with
Timothy E. Brooks and one with Tim E. Brooks to make the point that I'm
the same guy. Our adoption resolution even stated that it was the same
person, but the agent thought it should declare that "Tim E. Brooks is
the same as Timothy E. Brooks" instead of "Timothy E. Brooks is the same
as Tim E. Brooks". Little did I know when I was 16 and got my drivers
license with only Tim on it that it would cause such consternation to me
so many years later. Maria Elena worked her magic somehow to finally
convince the guy approve the passports. We then went and waited in
another line for passport photos, and then we waited about an hour for
the passports themselves. Today, was another lesson in why I dislike
bureaucracies no matter which country they belong to.
Tomorrow, the girls go to an American doctor which is required for the
American Embassy VISA's. After that, we wait until next Tuesday.
Pray that we figure out how to get Andrea or myself to the U.S. with the
girls relatively inexpensively and soon. A nice miracle of having the
Embassy rush the process on next Tuesday so that we could all leave on
Wednesday, would be nice too, but pretty improbable.
Chau,
Timoteo (a.k.a. Timothy, a.k.a. Tim)
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