Sorry we haven't posted much in a while...been busy getting everything done to come home.
Walking to the park. I was trying to get a picture of that man walking all the dogs. I was impressed with how they all walked so obediently.
Gabi playing with all my kitchen supplies. This is her "job" while I make dinner.
Reading with her big brother.
Monday-
Gabriela and I (Gerri) were escorted to the Colombian passport office where we applied for her new passport. It was a crazy day! When we got to the office it was bursting with people (all of which needed a passport) and every seat was full and lines were out the door. We got in line just to get a number. Adoption passports are a priority, so we were hopeful that it wouldn't take very long. According to the number we got there were 68 other people in front of us! We had no choice but to get comfortable and wait. A few minutes into waiting, a man came out and announced that there was a major computer problem and that everything was shutting down. He said they did not even have phone lines running. He said it was unlikely, but we could check back at the end of the day and see if the system was back up. I looked at Gabi and said "oh man, we need to pray." She immediately folded her fingers and bowed her head! We asked God to give us patience and to help us know what to do next. (It takes 2 days to get a passport and this is just the first step in the process of what we needed to be able to bring Gabi into the US.) I asked our driver if there was anything else we could do in the meantime, so we ended up going up the street to get Gabi's Visa photos taken. As we walked back to the car, we decided to check back at the passport office. The system was back up and running! Praise God! We still had to wait for a few hours, but it went quicker than it would have because many people had left and we were able to complete the application on time.
Tuesday -
We went around getting other documents and appointments finished. It took several hours, but it was nice that everything worked out that we needed to get done.
Today -
Gabriela and I (Gerri) got picked up at 8:30am and we went straight to the passport office to pick up Gabi's new passport. When we got there the office was packed again and every seat was full in the waiting area for "pick-up." Our driver went up to the desk to get a number and when she came back she said we had been given a "priority number" and hopefully it would work. Just then the sign blinked our number and we went to the desk to request pickup! Five minutes later we were on our way to the US Embassy to apply for Gabi's Visa. This was great timing because we had to get to the embassy before 11am in order to apply for a visa. When we got to the embassy, there were more than 3 huge lines out along the streets full of people waiting to request entrance. We were able to show my passport and go right in without waiting. We turned in our paperwork and expected to wait. Thirty minutes later we heard "Parents of Gabriela Liliana VanAcker Rollins please come to the window." There were two quick interviews, some papers to sign and we were done.
I'll make another post for what's up next, in case someone wants to skip all the details and find out when we are coming home!