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.