Relaxing Sunday

Relaxing. We flew to Juarez today on the easiest flight EVER. You must fly Aeromexico if you get the chance. First class doesn't hurt, either.

We are hoping that everything goes well tomorrow and that we can cross the border in El Paso with our newest little American!

Our hotel is across the street from a mall so we were able to get Cass a couple of new little toys today. Of course Michael picked outta hammer. :) Today I made Mike eat at Applebee's. I'm just not that adventurous. Sigh. Chili's in Mex City and Applebees in Juarez--poor Mike.

Last day in Mexico City--Touristas!

Here's Mikey getting his shoes shined by a street shiner. These guys are everywhere. Today, as you can see, we were tourists. And we were NOT alone. Mex City is VERY crowded on Saturdays. I am so relieved that we did not have to fight these crowds all week, it was exhausting.

We walked down to a Mayan Temple ruin that had been in use before the Spanish came. It was very impressive and beautiful, what was left of it anyway.

We also saw a couple of amazing cathedrals, very European in architecture and art. Mexico is such an amazing mix of native+settlers. There is also a huge building that Cortez built next to the Mayan ruins, so that he could make the statement of building on part of the ruins.

We saw vendors who I guess didn't pay for a license to sell goods at the square because the policia would regularly come blowing whistles and chase them through the crowds. Everyone laughed and Michael was like "take a picture of THAT".

We also watched some traditional Mayan dancers, the hardest working in the square. You could stand in line and receive a special blessing. Lots of spirituality today, not only in the plaza with the native blessings but also both cathedrals were pretty full of people praying. They didn't offer candles else I would have lit one for Myra Hartman.

And don't forget the tribute to Michael Jackson drawing a big crowd. This fella in the foreground is holding a sign, and "Smooth Criminal" was blasting from his boom box. The crowd was too thick for me to make my way around to see all of his work. I took a picture because I think this is the only Michael Jackson memorial my little family and I will witness. We didn't stick around, though, and Mike and I do believe his crimes against children equaled his talent.

We wandered through Juarez park again, I decided I wanted some precious little basket-purses for some of our "girls" that we have been buying for. We didn't see any, but we did get to experience Cassie exploding. Poor little thing was so over being out and about. She mewed like a kitty for a while then started screaming and holding her breath. Mike and I did as we were told and hightailed it back to the Sheraton! Here's a pic of her "all better".

Tomorrow we have a VERY early flight to Cuidad de Juarez. We had a little trouble booking our Aeromexico flight because first the travel agents booked us on a flight to Chihuahua! We are flying first class, though, because unlike Continental there was only about $100 difference. I really love that Mike will spring for the comfort factor for our three-hour flight.

Must try to get some sleep--up at 5 tomorrow!

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles

I cannot believe that we are DONE with all of our Mexico requirements! Here is a pic of Mike, Sari (our guide) and Cassie in front of the huge building where we picked up her Mexican passport today.

Hooray!

Her little Mex passport really does have my maiden name as her last name and there is a teeny tiny finger print on it. I hope we get to keep it.

We also were able to get our "golden envelope" of documents from the US embassy here to hand to the US embassy in Juarez. That's the next step, incidentally.

Sunday we will fly to Juarez, across the border from El Paso, and spend many hours in the US embassy there immigrating her. It seems strange, I know, but we are legally her parents and she is still legally a Mex citizen. I don't know why they couldn't have just done it in Mex City, but apparently they have to look at ALL our documents and she has to enter the country crossing a certain bridge.

Tomorrow we have a day off. We plan to see some sights and pack. I plan to try not to get too nervous about Juarez. I'm too much like my dad to just assume it's all a piece of cake from here on out. Working with all these officials, the Americans are much more intimidating than the Mexicans. When we go to a Mexican office they take Cass out of my arms and take off with her to go show her around. She has been behind more security lines than you would believe. Even the security guards in all these buildings with guns strapped everywhere smile and talk to her! The Americans, by contrast, barely crack a smile. Let's hope they are HAPPY IN JUAREZ!

Day 4, Finally realized where I am

So Mike has not been able to stop working. Here he is in histroical Juarez park, the oldest park in Mex City, talking to those work guys. I have shots like this of him at Disney, at the beach, basically all our vacations. :)

We have done all we can here in Mexico City. Now everything is in the hands of various officials.

We are still waiting on Cassie's Mexican passport from, well, the Mexicans. We are waiting on our approval packet from the US Consulate. That US Consulate is staffed with some freaky -deaky's. The immigration dept is only open Tues/Thurs and until 1. Seriously? It seems like any American embassy immigration dept would have LOTS more paperwork than THAT to handle. So weird.

So we wait. It would be amazing to get everything tomorrow. Seriously amazing.

In the meantime, it's like I finally realized we are in the middle of one of the biggest most interesting places. Mex City has about 23 million residents, compare that to 20 million people on the whole continent of Australia! We are in a touristy district near many historical museums and landmarks. Yesterday we walked by a few, didn't feel like going in, we were souvenir shopping.

Today we found a wonderful little museum that had a *fabulous* gift shop. We also went to the "mall" next door to the Sheraton b/c I needed new ear buds at Radio Shak. Yes freakin Radio Shak. Mike has been getting his Starbucks there daily. Oh and today I made Mike eat at Chili's. He could not roll his eyes enough but I've had tummy trouble and needed something familiar! All the food items were in English "Citrus Fired Chicken and Shrimp" but all the descriptions were in espanol, so it's a good thing we already knew the menu backwards and forwards.

Back at the hotel (dontcha love turn-down service?) I took a loooooong bath and we ordered room service. Just that general "RELAX, Bitch!" stuff I haven't been doing all week b/c of all the freaking out I felt needed to be done.

I hope and pray that my post tomorrow will be all about those wonderful documents we will be getting...............

Even though I have a cold and I'm TIRED, I'm a cutie.

Day 3, Montezuma's Revenge!

Well of course today I woke up sick sick sick. I'm sure it was a perfect storm of stress, anxiety, food, and travel. We had an early appt at the US embassy to have a form notarized stating I am who I am, regardless of the aliases. So I literally could NOT go, due to all the going.

I was on the floor in a fetal position, even more stressed b/c I didn't want to throw up all the Imodium I'd just taken and b/c I didn't want to have to set up permanent residency in Mex City to finish this adoption when our guide and lawyer called and told Michael just to come on and try. So he went.

And wouldn't you know it, America rocks. They had him write a one-sentence statement (en espanol) saying I am who I am, then they had him hold up his right hand and solemnly swear he was telling the truth. Easiest notarized document ever.

Then Mike met with the embassy worker who is processing our paperwork. Our timing has been divine as he is leaving town Friday for vacation! So he started our paperwork and Mike will go back tomorrow (no more early appts for me, just in case) to finish.

So back to Cassie's Mexican passport drama, which is why Mike has to solemnly swear and all that. By this time I'm back in the game, having ingested massive quantities of Imodium and that anti-seasick stuff. We finally get back to the barking Mexican civil servant and she said that the document wouldn't hold up b/c it doesn't have a presidential seal on it. Like Barak was supposed to type that up or something? No se. Then she makes Mike sign twice b/c she doesn't like his first signature, even though it's almost identical to what she was comparing it to, his passport. Then she disappeared for ten minutes to ask about Barak's seal while we sweated it out. Finally she came back and said okay. Sari (our guide) hustled us out of there so fast I think she was afraid the barker would change her mind. Hopefully we will get her passport this week also.

Mike, Cassie and I finally played tourista a bit. We walked down to a farmacia to buy toilettas (baby wipes) and Gerber (which is what they call baby food, good marketing campaign). Then we walked around Juarez park and bought some stuff for the son, nephew, and nieces. We also got a couple of little things for Cassie.

In a nutshell, the day started terrible and ended up pretty nice. Mike is, once more, the hero of the family while I am NOT.

Oh and poor Cassie is having a little respiratory distress. She's phlemmy in her throat and upper chest and can't seem to clear it. I had to feed her her morning bottle in the bathroom with the shower on hot so the steam would help open her up. She seems better this afternoon. Poor little girl! She's still very cheerful, though.

So this is what we need now:
US Embassy to issue "golden envelope" full of everything to take to Juarez
Casssie's Mexican passport

Then we can start the next step! We are ahead of schedule and will probably not be in Mexico a full two weeks, which is nice.

Day 2, A Snag

Well...
We hit a snag.

Remember how I was describing how in Mexico girls' names are different? Well our translator and then lawyer wrote up all our paperwork using my maiden name for my last-last name. Plus they are spelling my former middle name, Katherine, with a "C". I don't even use that name anymore! I dropped it totally when I married. So today when we tried to get a Mexican passport for Cassie we couldn't b/c my name is all messed up everywhere. Tomorrow we have to go to the US Embassy for an early appt and have a notary there notarize a list of my aliases, which is frustrating b/c we submitted a list like that in our dossier, but no one can find it now, of course.

Then we go back and try to get her passport again. If we get there early enough it may be sent "next door" today, then they will "send it back" tomorrow or Thursday. Then we head back to the US embassy to get going on her American passport. Tomorrow we are preparing ourselves to spend about 8 hours waiting.

I was quite bummed today. I don't know that everything will be okay tomorrow. You should have seen that middle-aged lady telling our lawyer she wasn't stamping or approving shit, then she looked at us and barking "sit down!" in espanol. Plus the list of fees our guide and translator are asking for are suddenly thousands of pesos (hundred of dollars) more than we thought we would pay. Of course our caseworker is in Guatemala this week, but what could she do anyway? We are not in her backyard. This so MAJORLY sucks b/c we are now eating into my maternity leave fund.

I stop getting paid after July, and I can stay home through October if we can afford it. I'm gonna be really bitchy if I'm at work Aug 15.

The bright spot is that we get to hang out with The Cass. Plus we hear from Jackie twice a day, which may actually make me miss him more. If we have Thursday off we can finally see some sights and try to find that crazy 8-year-old a bullwhip.

I'll try to take another little video tomorrow and post it on fb. Hopefully my blog info will be more uplifting.

Here in Mexico, Day 1

This morning we went to the national registrar to request Cassie's new birth certificate with her (our) name on it. It only took a couple of hours, warp speed in Mexican diplomat time. Something different about Mexico, her last name is actually the mother's father's last name. So her birth certificate will read "Cassandra Jeanne Dorris Mallard", Mallard being my maiden name.

Our lawyer Edith told us that it takes usually four days to get the birth certificate. Hopefully we will get Cassie's tomorrow, Edith stayed behind trying to hurry them up. She's also working with another couple adopting from America. They are from Chicago and are adopting a beautiful toddler.

Our hotel is REALLY nice. Mike got a great deal on a five-star Sheraton here near the US Embassy and many touristy places. On days we don't have to spend in offices we can walk around and see some stuff. :)

I forgot spoons! Can you believe that? I forgot bowls and spoons and dish washing liquid. Of course we are managing just fine, even though I'm so ditsy.