In one of those "laugh or cry" moments so common in government offices, Jake
said that I should be writing about all the ups and
downs of this latest round of paperwork. There just hasn't
been a lot of time to do so. In my limited free time I'm either reading a book on
childbirth (I have some veryyy interesting ones, thanks to
recommendations from friends) or catching up on sleep! Some nights I
sleep better than others depending on how comfortable I can get, but
naps are HEAVENLY. :)
So, as I mentioned in my last post on the adoption, I was given another list of paperwork "homework" by the lawyer. Two weeks later we have almost all of the documents in hand!! What a great feeling of accomplishment. It's a little bit more of a challenge to get done because of Jake's work schedule. At least as a teacher he goes in early and leaves earlier than a lot of people, but we just have an hour or two to run around before offices close. I do what I can without him, but he has to go in personally to present or pick up papers.
Those who live in Bolivia can imagine what an exercise in patience the whole process is. We had a chuckle last week where in the same building, at one point we needed TWO copies of papers where only ONE had been requested, and then just one where they had asked for two! This is why I've learned to just make a lot of copies here.
On the day we took in our documents to immigration for the "certificado de visa", mine were rejected because of one word that needed to be changed on the lawyer's memo. Since my visa is permanent (versus Jake's, which is for one year), my paperwork would need to go to La Paz instead of being done here in Cochabamba. So the next morning I went back to the lawyer, got her to change the memo, then returned to immigration. I thought it would be a pretty smooth trip since we figured out exactly how to do it the day before with Jake, after being sent to the wrong office or window a couple of times, but just as I got up to the "caja" to pay, the employees noted that the computer system had gone down. As I waited for it to come back up, I heard others say that the system was also down in La Paz. I think I waited 20 minutes to be able to continue the process, which really isn't bad. Sometimes you have to wait till the next day.
On the day we took in our documents to immigration for the "certificado de visa", mine were rejected because of one word that needed to be changed on the lawyer's memo. Since my visa is permanent (versus Jake's, which is for one year), my paperwork would need to go to La Paz instead of being done here in Cochabamba. So the next morning I went back to the lawyer, got her to change the memo, then returned to immigration. I thought it would be a pretty smooth trip since we figured out exactly how to do it the day before with Jake, after being sent to the wrong office or window a couple of times, but just as I got up to the "caja" to pay, the employees noted that the computer system had gone down. As I waited for it to come back up, I heard others say that the system was also down in La Paz. I think I waited 20 minutes to be able to continue the process, which really isn't bad. Sometimes you have to wait till the next day.
We picked up Jake's visa certificate two days ago but mine will take at least a month since it was sent to the capital.
We have picked up our local background checks after an interesting wait where the one man in charge kept going through the list of names to a room full of people, although many of our names were not in his stack of papers. Finally we were able to talk to him during a lull of name-calling and ask that he find ours. He asked why we waited so long to return (6 days past the day they would supposedly be done). But who would've believed that they would actually be ready the day he said?!
Then we had a scare as we immediately noticed the big stamp in the corner "not valid for judicial purposes". Uh, that's exactly what we need these for, for the minor court and a judicial process! I asked the man helping by the door what we should have done differently, to have the check stand up in court, and he sent us back to the grumpy guy calling names. When we finally got his attention, he explained that these documents were fine for an adoption. Shew!!
Now on Monday, I will go back to the lawyer for a memo that we will present together in court that afternoon. We will be asking the court to check on the work of SEDEGES, the ones who initially spent 30 days evaluating us to kick-start the whole adoption process. We traveled the day after that (June 13), and even though they had 15 days to get their reports in, I found out last week that these 2 1/2 months have not been long enough for the psychologist and social worker to finish our report and get it in!! We can't continue on to the next step, with the court's psychologist and social worker, until SEDEGES does their work. So, not surprisingly, that's a set-back for us.
Meanwhile, our second oldest turned TEN on August 23! Some friends were already putting on a party for the homes that day, so we celebrated A and volunteer Lindsey's birthday. Here are a few good pictures of the afternoon:
Then we had a scare as we immediately noticed the big stamp in the corner "not valid for judicial purposes". Uh, that's exactly what we need these for, for the minor court and a judicial process! I asked the man helping by the door what we should have done differently, to have the check stand up in court, and he sent us back to the grumpy guy calling names. When we finally got his attention, he explained that these documents were fine for an adoption. Shew!!
Now on Monday, I will go back to the lawyer for a memo that we will present together in court that afternoon. We will be asking the court to check on the work of SEDEGES, the ones who initially spent 30 days evaluating us to kick-start the whole adoption process. We traveled the day after that (June 13), and even though they had 15 days to get their reports in, I found out last week that these 2 1/2 months have not been long enough for the psychologist and social worker to finish our report and get it in!! We can't continue on to the next step, with the court's psychologist and social worker, until SEDEGES does their work. So, not surprisingly, that's a set-back for us.
Meanwhile, our second oldest turned TEN on August 23! Some friends were already putting on a party for the homes that day, so we celebrated A and volunteer Lindsey's birthday. Here are a few good pictures of the afternoon:
Ugg how frustrating! But Jake is right you should record as much of this as you can find time for! Thanks for sharing the update. Can't wait to keep hearing more!
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