By now most of you have either seen us, talked to us on the phone, or have figured it out on your own, that we are all back safely in the United States. However, I thought I would back track and fill you in on Andrea's final days in Peru, as well as tell you how we are all doing.
First Andrea's story, beginning after the boys and I left on the taxi for the airport, Wednesday, October 11th:
10/11/2006 - Wednesday: Andrea decided to double check the documentation to be sure she had everything. Unfortunately, there was one document not mentioned in our Adoption agencies check list, that was mentioned in a letter sent to us by the U.S. embassy while we were still in the states. This form was the very first thing mentioned in that letter. So, I'll take the blame for missing that one form. Big oops! I had focused on the Adoption agency check list, and hadn't, obviously, read the embassy letter carefully enough. So Andrea was thinking "Thanks a lot Tim!".
10/12/2006 - Thursday: The ladies went to the immigration side of the embassy to find out if they had finished the immigration investigation, and to get the missing document form. After sitting for an hour, they just told Andrea that they'd call her that afternoon. After that, she tried to go over to the consulate side of the embassy to get the missing document form, but the guard told her it was too late to get the form. He said they would have to come back at 8:30 am on Friday. Andrea called Maria Elena to explain that the guard would not budge even though she just needed to get a form. So Maria Elena was able to call a friend who works in the embassy. And the friend told Maria Elena that Andrea should come back again to get the form. However, when Andrea and the girls returned the guard still wouldn't let her in. So, she argued with the guard until he finally called the office who told him to let her come in. So, she finally got the form thanks again to Maria Elena's verbal magic. At noon, she also got a call from immigration in which they told her that the investigation was complete, and they'd be passing on the documents to the consulate side of the embassy which does the visa process.
So having received this call, and now having all the forms ready, she followed the next step in the procedure according to the embassy letter instructions and also according to the verbal instructions from the immigration side of the embassy. That step was to call the consulate to set up an appointment for the visa interview. These calls were limited to 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm, big surprise. Andrea tried calling beginning at 3:00 pm and received busy signals for the whole hour. At 4:00 she finally got through to an operator who quickly spewed out the hours and then hung up. She called back again, and once more the operator hung up on her. She tried again and got the operator, but this time she begged the operator, saying: "Don't hang up on me, please! I've been calling for an hour, and I need to set up this appointment!" The operator put Andrea through to her supervisor who told Andrea that they don't have the paperwork from immigration yet, and Andrea needed to wait for them to call her for the appointment. So, much for trying to follow the instructions.
10/13/2006 - Friday: At 8:00 am, Donna brang Andrea the cell phone, that the owners of the house where we were staying at were nice enough to let us use, just as it stops ringing and goes to voice mail. Andrea didn't have the voice mail code, so she had to wait until Patrizia, the owner, came home at noon to get the message. The message had been to set up the visa appointment for Friday afternoon. However, by the time Andrea called back it was too late to get the appointment for Friday, so they had to wait until Monday. She wasn't happy for another weekend delay, but at least things were moving. With this information, she went ahead and got flight tickets for herself and the girls purchased for Tuesday 12:20 am.
10/14/2006 - Saturday: Andrea and the girls were invited to Maria Elena's for lunch. Loren had been feeling bad that morning, and by the time they go to Maria Elena's she had 101 degree fever. So with Loren being sick they spent the rest of Saturday taking it easy.
10/15/2006 - Sunday: Loren was feeling better, so they went to a craft market with the girls in Lima. During their walk to the market, they saw some street artists, a magic show, other sites in the park (pictures attached). And for lunch they went with American cuisine and had McDonald's.
10/16/2006 - Monday: Andrea and the girls went in the morning for the visa interview. After she gave them all the documentation, they waited for an hour or so, then called her up to pay the $380 per child fee, and they waited another hour or so. Finally, they called Andrea and the girls up for the visa interview, which took all of 10 minutes. After that, they told her to come back at 3:00 pm, and the visas would be ready. The girls went home, did laundry, had lunch, then went back at 3:00 and got the visas. Hooray, they were free to go home at last! To celebrate they went out for ice cream. Just before 9:00 pm, Raul and Maria Elena came to see Andrea and the girls off on their last taxi ride to the airport.
10/17/2006 - Tuesday: After a one and half hour flight delay, I was finally reunited with the girls in St. Louis at 12:30 pm. There, they met their uncle Ronn, my brother, Aunt Barb, and their cousins, Jeremy and Chelsea. At 5:00pm we arrived back home where Grandma and Grandpa Wett were waiting to meet their new grandchildren. They were all tired from their overnight flight and three hour drive from St. Louis. So, their first impression of our house was mostly silent observation. My impression was that they were most excited about the pets, their dolls, our trampoline and bicycles.
Ok, that's all for the nitty gritty details. The rest of this week we spent registering for school, getting physicals and shots, and shopping for clothes, playing with their brothers, and meeting and playing with our neighbor's daughters. Also, this morning at church, so many of the people who made this adoption financially possible, finally got to meet Loren, Veronica and Donna.
Tomorrow, the girls will begin school, and we all begin learning our new routines. There are still many more things to do. We need to re-adopt the girls in Illinois and I still have paper work to complete. However, the next chapter of all our lives has already begun...
To Be Continued...
Love,
Tim
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