Here we go -- getting into the swing of things again. These last months have been some of the most crazy, mixed-up, sad, blessed, and grace-filled of my life. It's been 4 months since I posted anything and for good reason. With a brand new baby, my Dad's death, or quick trip to the U.S. to see him, Uncle Jeff's wedding, and our not-so-quick return to India, our days have been busy. My mind has been busy as well and I've got lots of stories to tell, but I was feeling such pressure to post lots of pics that I haven't gotten back into the swing of things. Also, I wanted to tell all the stories and not miss one and frankly, I didn't have time or concentration to do it. Now, here I am, 2 days back in India, and I'm feeling ready.
There may not be as many pics as there used to be on my blog. I'll try to keep them in, but I want to make sure the stories are told. So, here we go. The last time you heard from me, we'd just had our darling Lucy. She is still a joy and a blessing to us. We are so thankful for all our kids! We were also anticipating my parents' trip to visit us in India.
Christmas was coming. We sought to have a good time and make new traditions with our kids, but with trips to Delhi for paperwork and getting used to the new girl, and missing our families, it was kind of difficult. There were still a lot of joyful moments -- including our boys' first looks at their new bikes!
After Christmas, we started planning for visits. My parents were supposed to come in January and we were supposed to go to the beach to meet Chris' parents in Feb. As the days were approaching, we were wondering if my Dad's health would hold up for them to visit, but we kept praying. Just a few days from their departure date, I got a call from my Mom saying that there was no way that Dad could make the trip and, in fact, if we wanted him to meet Lucy, we'd better try to come. This was a shock, of course, because we were definitely not planning a trip back to the U.S. anytime soon, but God had other plans.
We started looking into flights and, at the same time, trying to figure out how to get Lucy's paperwork done. We hadn't received her passport yet, and then we'd need to get an exit visa. We prayed like crazy! Her passport was supposed to arrive in the mail and Chris decided he'd better call the embassy and ask them to hold it for us. He started calling every day to find out if it was there. It arrived on a Friday, so we had to wait until the following Monday to pick it up, so we started praying about that. We decided that, since plane tickets were fluctuating so much in price, we should just buy the tickets we found for 3am Tues. morning and pray that we'd get the documents in time. We arrived in Delhi and Mon. morning went to the embassy. We sat and waited for about an hour, but Lucy's passport did show up!!! We grabbed it and raced over to foreign affairs to try to get an exit visa.
As we reached the office, we could see a line out the door and around the corner. This line was for foreign refugees. We, thankfully, walked to a shorter line and went inside. Even in the shorter line, there were quite a few people and I sat down with the 3 kids while Chris waited. After an hour or two, he got to the desk only to have them say he needed paperwork. They gave him no information as to how to get it and sent him out of the line. Chris came to me and said, "We've got to get back to the hotel or something because I need papers from the website." Well, this Mother-of-3-grumpy-kids wasn't having it! I decided to pull a stunt I've seen done by people here before. I looked around the office and there was a desk with a man and piles of papers. Above his head, was one word in big, black, block letters 'INCHARGE'. Well, I thought, that's the guy in charge. So, I grabbed the boys by the hand, Lucy slung on my hip, and marched over to the desk and stood there with Chris until the guy looked at us. He turned out to be rather helpful to a Mom with 3 whining, screaming kids. He told Chris where to get the papers filled out. We headed out the door and about 100 yards to a guy on the street corner. He had a computer and printer set up on one side of his cart and cigarettes and chips on the other side. He found the papers we needed and got them to us. Woah, we're halfway there!
At this point, I was just looking for somewhere for my boys to be able to let off some steam, so I stayed outside with all the waiting refugees while Chris went back inside. The boys ran around and smiled at people and I shared snacks with some ladies. Meanwhile, inside, Chris had handed 'INCHARGE' Man his paper and it was put on the top of a stack. Promptly, it got covered by about 10 other papers and then taken back to a room somewhere. Chris waited about 1 hour and the other papers came back, but ours didn't. He came back outside and told me, "Em, I'm going to be here a long time. Why don't you take the kids back to the hotel." Again, not having it! I grabbed my still-complaining brood by the hands and marched back in to 'INCHARGE'. He seemed surprised that we didn't have our papers yet. He started barking orders and immediately people jumped into action, found our papers, and started processing them. As the papers were moving from desk to desk and getting stamp after stamp, a major meltdown began with Jed and Abe. They were screaming and starting to fall on the floor. About this time, an angel of mercy in the form of a sweet woman from the UK came over with her iPhone. She began looking up pictures of Star Wars and dinosaurs and anything that would keep the boys' attention while Chris finished up. Yes, we got the visa!!!! Our paper was #270 and they were serving #24, but we still got our visa.
As we walked out of the office, my heart soared knowing that my Dad was going to meet our baby girl. At the same time, my heart broke for the hundreds of refugees who weren't fortunate enough to have white skin and high status. They had lost their homeland, maybe families, probably most of their possessions. Still, they had to wait in that line for days to get their papers. God, please work in our world to help those who have to wait in that line!
Less than 12 hours later, we got to the plane, had 3 meltdowns in 3 airports, but arrived in the U.S. to Grandpa Adamow bringing us straight to the hospital.
God is gracious. Even when we don't know what to expect. Even when we don't know what to ask. Even when it's not like we wanted. There's way more to the story, so stay tuned.
There may not be as many pics as there used to be on my blog. I'll try to keep them in, but I want to make sure the stories are told. So, here we go. The last time you heard from me, we'd just had our darling Lucy. She is still a joy and a blessing to us. We are so thankful for all our kids! We were also anticipating my parents' trip to visit us in India.
Christmas was coming. We sought to have a good time and make new traditions with our kids, but with trips to Delhi for paperwork and getting used to the new girl, and missing our families, it was kind of difficult. There were still a lot of joyful moments -- including our boys' first looks at their new bikes!
We started looking into flights and, at the same time, trying to figure out how to get Lucy's paperwork done. We hadn't received her passport yet, and then we'd need to get an exit visa. We prayed like crazy! Her passport was supposed to arrive in the mail and Chris decided he'd better call the embassy and ask them to hold it for us. He started calling every day to find out if it was there. It arrived on a Friday, so we had to wait until the following Monday to pick it up, so we started praying about that. We decided that, since plane tickets were fluctuating so much in price, we should just buy the tickets we found for 3am Tues. morning and pray that we'd get the documents in time. We arrived in Delhi and Mon. morning went to the embassy. We sat and waited for about an hour, but Lucy's passport did show up!!! We grabbed it and raced over to foreign affairs to try to get an exit visa.
As we reached the office, we could see a line out the door and around the corner. This line was for foreign refugees. We, thankfully, walked to a shorter line and went inside. Even in the shorter line, there were quite a few people and I sat down with the 3 kids while Chris waited. After an hour or two, he got to the desk only to have them say he needed paperwork. They gave him no information as to how to get it and sent him out of the line. Chris came to me and said, "We've got to get back to the hotel or something because I need papers from the website." Well, this Mother-of-3-grumpy-kids wasn't having it! I decided to pull a stunt I've seen done by people here before. I looked around the office and there was a desk with a man and piles of papers. Above his head, was one word in big, black, block letters 'INCHARGE'. Well, I thought, that's the guy in charge. So, I grabbed the boys by the hand, Lucy slung on my hip, and marched over to the desk and stood there with Chris until the guy looked at us. He turned out to be rather helpful to a Mom with 3 whining, screaming kids. He told Chris where to get the papers filled out. We headed out the door and about 100 yards to a guy on the street corner. He had a computer and printer set up on one side of his cart and cigarettes and chips on the other side. He found the papers we needed and got them to us. Woah, we're halfway there!
At this point, I was just looking for somewhere for my boys to be able to let off some steam, so I stayed outside with all the waiting refugees while Chris went back inside. The boys ran around and smiled at people and I shared snacks with some ladies. Meanwhile, inside, Chris had handed 'INCHARGE' Man his paper and it was put on the top of a stack. Promptly, it got covered by about 10 other papers and then taken back to a room somewhere. Chris waited about 1 hour and the other papers came back, but ours didn't. He came back outside and told me, "Em, I'm going to be here a long time. Why don't you take the kids back to the hotel." Again, not having it! I grabbed my still-complaining brood by the hands and marched back in to 'INCHARGE'. He seemed surprised that we didn't have our papers yet. He started barking orders and immediately people jumped into action, found our papers, and started processing them. As the papers were moving from desk to desk and getting stamp after stamp, a major meltdown began with Jed and Abe. They were screaming and starting to fall on the floor. About this time, an angel of mercy in the form of a sweet woman from the UK came over with her iPhone. She began looking up pictures of Star Wars and dinosaurs and anything that would keep the boys' attention while Chris finished up. Yes, we got the visa!!!! Our paper was #270 and they were serving #24, but we still got our visa.
As we walked out of the office, my heart soared knowing that my Dad was going to meet our baby girl. At the same time, my heart broke for the hundreds of refugees who weren't fortunate enough to have white skin and high status. They had lost their homeland, maybe families, probably most of their possessions. Still, they had to wait in that line for days to get their papers. God, please work in our world to help those who have to wait in that line!
Less than 12 hours later, we got to the plane, had 3 meltdowns in 3 airports, but arrived in the U.S. to Grandpa Adamow bringing us straight to the hospital.
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