Ghana Part 5- Sigh

My title for the day is Sigh.

All the way around, it was not a great day.

It started with the fun of the unknown. The driver who has been taking us to the orphanage to see Grace wasn't sure what time he would pick us up, and the last we heard yesterday is that he was going to talk to the other person (who would be taking us to the Embassy) to figure out what we were doing today.

Last we heard, Ghana contact 1 was going to pick us up at the hotel at 12 to go to the orphanage to see her, and Ghana contact 2 was going to pick us up at the hotel at 1 to go to the Embassy. Obviously that is a problem, thus why they needed to work it out.

No email, no call, no messages, so then we figured that what probably happened is contact 1 was going to still pick us up at 12. But we weren't sure, so we spent the morning wasting time in the hotel room, waiting for a call that could possibly come earlier. Then it was 12, and we still hadn't heard anything.

So I called Ghana contact 2, who was arguably more important for the day because it was all about getting our paperwork filed. He said he would call contact 1 and ask. He called me back, and said contact 1 was on his way to pick us up and then he (contact 2) would be picking us up from the orphanage at 1:30 (instead of 1). This was still close to 12, so we went downstairs and waited.

At 12:30 Ghana contact 1 finally arrived. We got to the orphanage, only to get to wait more. They were not prepared with Grace, so we just hung out under a tree with another adoptive family for another 15 minutes.

We did have a little silver lining in that we were able to sign a paper to allow us to take Grace with us to the embassy (though this turned out later to not be a silver lining).

After the little time of bonding with her, we started to look for contact 2.

1:30...
1:45...
1:50...
1:55...

Keep in mind our appointment at the embassy was at 2. I am NOT a late person. I typically run about 15 minutes before important appointments. This was incredibly stressful for us. We had been told that the embassy was very close to where the orphanage was, so I was just hoping that we would get there quickly, and just be a little late.

He arrived at 2.

We were anxious to just go... but first he had to take care of some business at the orphanage... then try to get copies made, but that place didn't have electricity... then we waited for him at another copying place.

All this while Grace is with us, in the car, but incredibly fussy (not crying, thankfully) but very wiggly and very much NOT wanting to be sitting in the car (which isn't that surprising from what we have seen of her, she is happiest being held, but by someone standing).

Blake and I were pretty fussy too (just better at hiding it) as each minute we spent at the various places to get the copies was a minute we were already late for our hard earned appointment.

We arrived at 2:40. Major sigh. Then he asked us to wait while he parked the car. Then we had to try to unload all electronics from our backpack (eventually just deciding to let them hold the backpack with all the stuff, there was so much).

By the time we got in to the embassy area, it was 3, and apparently, the people we needed had just left.

We were told they had been calling and calling for us, but we were not there. They told us to wait, but there was probably nothing they could do. We put our name on what I think was a walk in list, and proceeded to wait. A lot.

Grace, thankfully, by this time had stopped fussing and gone to sleep on Blake's shoulder. So cute! Couldn't get a picture though, because as previously mentioned they were holding all our stuff.

At 3:30, we had a glimmer of hope. The lady who had our name on the walk in list had found one of the people from the department we needed, and she would see us in the next room.

We walk in, with our paperwork, only for us to learn that this particular worker was really sorry, but she had never done one of these before, and she didn't want to mess it up, so could we come back tomorrow. She made us an appointment for 10 tomorrow morning.

We did hand her our paperwork (and are now not sure that was the right thing to do) and left.

So...

In short, we had very little time with Grace at the orphanage doing the playing, fun bonding time. We had a lot of time trying to keep a fussy baby happy in the car and in the U.S. embassy, and we haven't filed our paperwork, which, you know, is the primary reason for the whole trip.

We are trying to be positive. We are thankful that we didn't make our appointment on the last day of our trip, but made it a day before our last day so that if we needed, we could try for an appointment on the following day. We are thankful that our flight is late at night so we can spend a lot of time waiting at the embassy if we need to.

If we are late, if tomorrow doesn't work out in some way, I am not really sure of the next step. I am ready to go home, but it really doesn't make sense for us to leave, only to come back next week or two to do the paperwork. In all honesty, the most logical thing to do would be to stay until this is taken care of. Or at least until they say that our POA can do the rest. It wouldn't just be one day though, because they don't have appointments on Fridays...

Pray. Pray that all goes well tomorrow and we fly back home. Pray that contact 2 is on time tomorrow, and tomorrow is easy. Pray that tomorrow is a better day.