Another Day of Driving- By Rob

Well, it was another day today of driving. Now that we had Lucy's Birth Certificate changed, we needed to take the round trip 4 hour drive again today, this time with Lucy to get her passport paperwork all sorted out. Was not sure how she would react, but I was just going with the flow.

The morning started out a bit on the rocky side, but not everything can go perfectly smooth. We had a glitch in the paperwork that delayed us getting going this morning. We had to call the director of the orphanage directly at 8am on a Sat morning. I am pretty sure we got her either out of bed or out of her robe. She showered quickly and we picked her up at her home, then went to the orphanage to finish some paperwork that passport agency would need. I picked up Lucy and off into the car we went. Yulia called me earlier and asked if I would be ok with Lucy on my own and said the orphanage was willing to supply a caregiver for the trip just in case. I politely said no as I wanted to give it a shot by myself. She seemed to be fine with me yesterday and I have done alot of parenting to a child in teh last 4 years. I was very certain I would be fine. But, they insisted and actually Nico insisted as well, so I backed down and let her come along. Wanted everyone to feel comfortable.

So off we went. Lucy did great on the way there. She slept for about an hour and then we played together for about an hour. The caregiver and Nico talked the whole way there. Once we got to the passport place, we were there for about 30 min. They took her picture, one shot and done. They then sent the info and pictures to the capital city for processing. I took a few min to feed Lucy some juice and a banana and then we got back going again. The caregiver really didn't do much, she wanted to be involved and help, but I was pretty forward about this being my job and wanting to show Lucy that I was the caregiver. In a few short days I will be the only one and I wanted to get her used to this today. But the caregiver I think was very good for Nico. Because on the way back two hours more, it was hot, very hot and Nico was having a hard time with getting tired. Don't blame him one bit. I get crazy tired driving at all and then add in the sun and it doubles. So, she was great cause they talked alot again and it kept him going after all the driving he was doing the last two days. What a trooper that guy is. Wonderful driver, but an even better person!

The day was pretty uneventful. Got the shots done, headed back to home town, dropped off Lucy and the caregiver and then back to the hotel. A long day again for all involved, especially Nico driving all that way again. But we had a successful day and in fact a very smooth couple days. We got the birth cert done yesterday and the passport stuff done today. We now will wait on the passport to be complete. This should be Wed of this coming week. Then Nico will drive to pick up the passport and then come over to pick up Lucy and I. So, if all goes according to plan, we should be in the big city Wed nigh, Embassy on Thurs for appt and the doctor clinic visit, Friday we pick up the travel visa and Sat morning we head home on an early morning flight. That is the plan. But as Dena always says, you know how to make God laugh, have a plan!

So I will continue to just go with the flow and depend on our incredible in country team to make things work. I just can not rave enough about how hard they work and how they do an incredible job at keeping up with all the madness. God does very special work through these people here and I thank God every night that we have them on our side!