Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Be Careful What You Wish For!!

Today has been a great but long day. We started off by getting up at 6:30 to get the 3 of us ready, eat breakfast, and meet everyone at 8:15 to go to the Thai board meeting. This was the day to dress up and hear the words "you can keep her"! The board consisted of about 4 people, and they were very friendly and easy to converse with. We were in there around 5-10 minutes, signed the paperwork, and we were finished. There were other families with other agencies and from other countries, so we visited with some of them. We noticed one family was adopting an older child with behaviors similar to Ians. Brian began visiting with them and the boy was in fact blind, non-verbal, etc. They were from the UK.

When we finished there, the van dropped Brian, Olivia, myself, and our worker (Mo) off at USCIS to file our I600. We were there a long time, and I started getting a little nervous. They were looking for a paper we didn't have, and people were making phone calls to track down this paper and confirm that Olivia was an orphan. Anyway, after waiting about 1 1/2 hours, they called us in and we were approved. What a relief! We immediately ran across the street to try to get our meeting for tomorrow scheduled. The office closed at 3:00, and we got there around 2:30. This means that tomorrow we will be able to join the other families at the US embassy for the next step of the visa process, which is one last interview. (For those reading this who are in the process, it is not typical that you file your I600 in Bangkok. You usually do it in the states and have the approval before you leave to come to Thailand. Ours just didn't work that way, and I just don't want to cause you any confusion.)

So, tomorrow we meet everyone again at 8:00 to go to the embassy. We will then get Olivia's visa either tomorrow afternoon or Monday. I think when that's done, we're set! We also are planning to leave tomorrow evening to go to Hua Hin, which is a few hours drive. Brian arranged for a car and driver this afternoon, so we will leave as soon as we finish at the embassy. We will be at Hua Hin (a beach resort) until Sunday, and then Monday pick up our visa if we don't have it already. Because we couldn't get a good flight schedule on Tuesday, we won't be leaving until Wed. I can't believe I'm already mentioning that word. The time is going by quickly! Brian is packing for our trip tomorrow right now.

As far as Olivia's transition goes, we got our first smile today! It came as we were on the bridge crossing a major street from one gov building to the other. She even let out a little laugh! Brian was the one holding her when she did it, so it made his day! He said he will never forget it and neither will I. I said "be careful what you wish for" because I was really wanting Olivia to bond with Brian and let him carry her, care for her, etc. And, this morning she was all his! I thought I was going to have to jerk her out of his arms! Well, I did finally get my turn again this afternoon! Of course, I am so glad she will come to both of us!

I guess that's it for tonight. I've got to run across the street to the store and pick up some things for our road trip tomorrow. I'm not sure what our internet situation will be in Hua Hin, so I'm not certain we will have an opportunity to write. We'll just have to see when we get there. When we return to Bangkok on Sunday, we'll be back here at the Amari Hotel, so we'll definitely have service that night. I'll try to write while we're gone though too.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Leah

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Leah and Brian,

I am glad to hear that everything is going well! Congrats on finally getting what you two deserve and beautiful little girl! I hope you guys have fun at the beach resort and be safe getting there and coming back to the states. You guy are in my prayers.

--Nikki

Julie said...

Enjoy the beach resort with Olivia. Gald you had your first smile!

Anonymous said...

Leah and Brian,

Thanks for sharing all of your experiences. It means so much to hear about everything as my husband and I hope to go to Thailand late spring/early summer to pick up our daughter. Good Luck on the remainder of your trip! We are so excited for you!

Amy and Carter Holland