So today was a whirlwind of a day. Eve threw up at breakfast and we decided to call the hotel doctor. Unfortunately, he was out of town. Anne and Eve were planning on staying in the hotel while I went to the medical building again to pick up her TB test results, but we decided to bring Eve with us to see that doctor again. He recommended some stomach medicine and fluids. We were able to buy the medicine right there and then dropped them back off at the hotel.
I’m happy to report Eve has been doing better as I write this at 7pm Wednesday, thank you God. She keeps drinking water and keeping it down as well as the medicine. She’s still incredibly weak and is sleeping a lot.
Once we dropped them off we went to the US Embassy again to drop off the medical report. That went pretty smoothly, and they told me they’d let me know when it was ready. So we left and then went to the FRRO office to tell them to hurry up and send us the payment request so we can pay and get the exit permits finalized (yes, you have to pay to leave India... it’s a little like leaving New Jersey...).
Anne rightfully so thought the travel place we stopped at two days prior to apply for FRRO was a little run down and shady... this by far was worse. Our guide and I get out of the car and then have to walk down this back alley where what looked like militia men were yelling at a guy in a car. I follow behind our guide, who I’m much taller than, looking to her to protect me from all the scary crazies. We then walk into a little room with of course a security scanner. We then proceed into a bigger room with some people off to the corner and one guy sitting at the far end of the room with a fold up table and a squeaky fan. The ceiling was dripping from the rain and some of it was actually dripping on him! Our guide explains our story and he scribbles something on a small sticky note and hands it to me. I then proceeded to hand it to another guard 20 feet away who lets me into a hallway. Once down the hallway (I’m by myself at this point), I enter another room with some people working at desks (no one acknowledges me...) After waiting a bit, I notice a “reception” sign near the one desk and walk over. I show the man my papers and tell him what my guide told me to say: “CARA sent an email confirming the adoption. We have not received the payment request yet.” He then goes over to another guy and reports back that I’ll receive the request by the evening. After that I scurried out of there and found my guide and we left.
I then went back to the hotel for about an hour and then our guide called that the passport was ready. So I hurried out the room and was off again to the US Embassy for the THIRD time in two days. All in all it went smoothly except by this time I was really getting sick of all the driving that day. At the embassy I got Eve‘s visa and the sealed packet for the US Immigration Officer. The whole place makes you feel a little uneasy with the security guards, long corridors and 4” thick HEAVY steel doors. But this packet really freaked me out since our guide told me to make sure it stays sealed because she once had a family that the packet got wet and the seal opened and they were denied entry into the US and had to fly back to India. So please, please, please pray that God miraculously keeps that packages sealed until I hand it to the officer.
Later in the day we were able to get our exit permits (they were emailed to our guide and I printed them using the computer in the hotel’s business center).
We were really exhausted by the end of today. We ate room service for dinner and Eve drank some water and slept.
Two other quick mentions: 1) the umbrella stroller came this evening! Yay! 2) I saw more kids working the streets today. They were in the middle of a busy intersection, about 200 feet away from a golf course. So what type of people golf with kids living in the streets right outside??
So we now have everything to be able to leave the country. We fly out at 11:45pm Thursday and will arrive in NJ around 4:45am. We are so excited to be home, especially because today is Levi’s birthday. So happy birthday my dear son. I’m so sorry Mommy and Daddy aren’t able to be home for it.
We’ll write to you tomorrow from the airport!
Bye bye!
PS: As I was about to publish this post there was a knock at our door - the hotel gave us a cake to congratulate us on our adoption! Thank you God, how sweet! 🙂