Frustration

We are so mentally spent.

Every time we think things should go smoothly, they don't. Keep in mind as you read this that in the daily activities of going to town to do these things, only about 20% gets on the blog and then even that isn't the full experience.

We thought we would show up today and do the physical and then go drop off the papers at the US Embassy and schedule an appoint (the final one). We arrived at about 7:30 AM and finally left around 11 AM. We had to struggle with Lou absolutely (ABSOLUTELY!) flipping out because a nurse/doctor wanted to touch him. He freaked. It was not fun and he has done this before. We managed to pin all of his appendages down so they could give him a little shot. The nurse seemed upset that I didn't know enough Kreyol and didn't speak French. "Only English?" she says? Even though she could speak English, she continued to tell this ignorant missionary-mechanic-wannabe everything in Kreyol/French until I could figure it out. Nice.

Why did he need a shot? They needed to test for tuberculosis. Guess what - it's a two day test and we'll get the results back Thursday. Yes, we are going out again on Thursday - we just can't get enough apparently...

What never ceases to amaze me is the amount of necessary details the orphanage director either does not know or does not tell us (I believe the latter based on my experience). After many years of doing adoptions, one would think that she would have it down by now. The tuberculosis test is not new - I asked the person who gave the shot (the one who wouldn't speak English). One more detail that wasn't mentioned...we needed US$65 for the doctor to do the physical exam and all related things. It was a good thing I was a walking "mugging waiting to happen" - I had US$500 on me and a bunch of Haitian cash. We asked the director yesterday if we had to pay for the doctor visit and she told us that she didn't think so. She didn't think so?!?! How long has she been doing this? She decided to not tell us that and to keep it a secret surprise for us - she has to know that because she takes other children to the same place for the same reason.

OK. We swallowed that part OK. Not a big deal.

Then we get home and check our email. The US Embassy in Haiti is saying that they sent the paperwork to the MN USCIS and they should approve it. The MN USCIS told us to contact the National Visa Center to see what the status is of their approval. The National Visa Center says we need to contact the US Embassy in Haiti to check the status. Round and round we go - where we stop nobody knows... The USCIS in Haiti says that we should contact the US Embassy/Consulate General (which is no doubt on the other side of the hall). In ALL of these cases (like just about 90% of all Haitian activities we have been involved with) if you don't ask your 20 questions correctly, you won't get the information. If you don't ask, they won't tell. Nobody tells us how to contact those places unless you ask and only one has responded in all of our adoption situations. This even includes walking around trying to find the door you are supposed to go in.

I am so glad that I didn't order plane tickets yet. It may be a while. We never know what the next day brings here. It is so different here than in the US where you can plan more than one thing and you can expect it to happen within 15 mins of that plan. Some day soon we hope we will have a day in the sun.

We continue to lean on our Lord...heavily - and He is enough.