Visa application

(North Korean Embassy)
Today we spent most of our day at the U.S. Embassy applying for the American Visa. What this means is that the girls will travel to the U.S. with Colombian passports and special U.S. visas. When we get to the US we can then apply for their US passports, as the girls will forever be dual citizens ( I think we explained this in another blog).
We got to the embassy at around 9:30 and did not leave until 1:30. The girls were very patient. We had the idea that the wait would not be that long but it was. We did not prepare ourselves for the long wait because we were told we would be out of there by 11 am. I ended taking any piece of paper from my purse to have the girls draw, write etc.
At the Embassy we ended up meeting another couple that was adopting 4 children. We saw them there and we were curious to meet them so we went over. The couple happened to live in St. Paul and the lady or mom had been born in West Allis (Milwaukee Area). The couple was younger than us. We started talking mostly because we were curious how and why they had chosen four children. As we were introducing our girls, the father said he recognized the girls. We then found out that the couple had actually seen our girls profile and had tried to apply for them, but were told by Children's Home, our agency, that they were too young. They then switched to Bethany Lutheran Services and by then we had already started our process with the girls, so they ended up with a sibling group a tad younger than our girls (three girls and one boy ages 11 to 5). What was amazing was that they said that the profile on our girls was what motivated them to apply for a sibling group of older kids. We did not tell the girls this yet, per their request. We exchanged e-mails as we wanted to keep in touch and see how they were doing with their kids.
We were not allowed to have cameras at the US embassy. We brought cameras but they were confiscated when we got there. They were returned to us when we left.
The rest of the afternoon was spent here in Casa Lanthana watching movies, playing,drawing and spending time with the other kids. Our girls are great with the other kids. It's nice for us to spend time with other parents. We also spent a long time talking to the sister of the owner who is also a representative for other agencies. She has great stories about all the families she has dealt with in her 37 years of experience doing adoptions. She has also told me several times that she thinks our girls look great, and that they are 'juiciosas' a word used often here-- it basically means that they are 'good decision makers'. This made us proud as we know that she has seen many families come through these doors.
Alex wants me to mention that we in our neighborhood there are two of the axis of evil embassies: North Korea and Iran, as well as Venezuela. The North Korea Embassy is right behind this house. By Colombian diplomatic standards we are on the 'bad side of town', even though this is a nice neighborhood.

I can't wait to go home and have my own room. We have been sharing the same bedroom (not apartment) with the girls for 6 days. (One more to go)...