Embassy Day

We left for the Embassy around 7:00 am. We wanted to make sure we got there by 8:00 am when it opened. It was still foggy in the morning, there was no traffic and for the first time, we felt a bit relaxed. On the way, we saw a pack of monkeys (15-20) of them by the side of the road. They were only as big as Jay...

Talking about our little monkey Jay, he's doing very good. He had a good Poop session (score) in the morning, had almost 5 oz of formula and a good nap. He loves food. That was the way he started calling me Momma. I'd hold out the food to him, he'd look up and say Momma (of course I wont mention that he called Lenin Dada from day 1, sniff sniff). I'm so glad he's doing good. He still needs to see Lenin for security, but he wants to eat with me and he'll hold my fingers and walk down the hotel floor. He also adores all the hotel staff ( I think they remind him of the staff at the orphanage).

Back to the Embassy, we reached there around 8:00 am, we get in a line to get frisked by security. They then tell us to go to American Citizen Services. There they frisk us again, they even make us taste any liquid we have with us (and formula tastes yuk!!!). Then we go in and we're made to wait in a big hallway. They then call our names and take us to the DHS (Dept of Homeland Security) section. There we meet Mr Manoj Mahay for the I-600. He is such a nice man, he asks about Jay and how he's coping (thankfully Jay is fast asleep). It takes about 15 mins. We have all the documents he needs, the only thing that was scary was that he said that it was good we had stated that we wanted to adopt from infant - 15 yrs, since Jay was 15 mths only. If we had put it as any number below 15 months, we would have had issues since we had had to wait so long. He also said that they were getting stricter and that the next families coming in would be required to show the NOC (CARA clearance). Note to self: Tell Dillon.

After the I600, we were escorted back to the first waiting room. Since we had done the doctors the day before, we went to apply for the visa. They gave us the form, we filled it, gave them the medical packet, payed the visa fee ($380) and they told us to come back around 2:00 pm for the visa interview. We went out and had lunch with Grace, Shane and Jadyn (they were with us the entire time)

Then we came back around 2:00 pm. They called us for the visa interview, there was a nice man called Eric Johnson who made us take the oath. He told us that we would have the golden packet in 30 mins if we wanted to stick around. WE DID!!!. The entire process took from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. IT WAS GREAT!!!.