Bigs, Littles and More Littles: No es bueno

Thursday, 12/19

I really hate for this to be a negative post. Really. But sadly, there is not a lot of positive news to relay. Julieta and I left around 7:30 am this morning to apply for her Colombian passport. Our driver arrived to take us and another family to the office. Before we left the hotel, we waited for a taxi to arrive carrying our precious adoption decree and birth certificate. Diego's sweet wife had gone to the airport to pick the documents up this morning but could not bring them to the hotel due to restrictions on the time of the day certain license plate numbers can drive. So she sent the documents in the taxi to the hotel! I was so glad they arrived in time to make our appointment.

The passport office is really large and the applicants flow quickly through the process. They also have maids dressed in actual maid dresses, I guess you would say, who bring glasses of water and coffee to the people in the cubicles processing the passports. Unimportant to our situation, but interesting nonetheless. We began the processing of the passport for Julieta. The woman entered all her information as well as mine and Brant's into the computer. I checked over everything. She took Julieta's picture for the passport. We were in the final steps when the head of the processing center stepped into the cubicle. The agent processing the paperwork asked her boss what seemed to be an offhand question about something in our documents. Before I knew it I was being told that the new birth certificate that Valledupar had just sent us was wrong. No.

In Colombia, most people have two surnames. Your first surname is your father's first surname and your second surname is your mother's first surname. So, Julieta's newly issued birth certificate has her first name, middle name and Maynard Duckworth. The problem is that on the line for her mother's name, it lists me as Elesha Michelle Maynard. No Duckworth typed in there. The adoption decree has all the information just as we need it. Just not the birth certificate. Diego practically begged and pleaded for the office to just process us out but they adamantly refused. They said the notary who notarized the birth certificate needed to hand write in at the bottom of the certificate that my maiden name is Duckworth and then email the new copy. They close for the day at 3:00 so we were hoping to get it done before the cutoff for the day.

I went back to the hotel so Julieta could get a nap while Diego contacted our lawyer in Valledupar and she called the notary. The notary refused to make the addition to the bottom of the document. Refused!!! Our only hope was to go to another processing center in town. So around 1:00 pm I head out yet again with Diego's wife in a taxi to a much further away passport office. Diego met me there so he could once again interpret. We got back to another cubicle and they started typing in Julieta's id number and my passport number and the screen began populating with our information. The first processing center still had all of our information in the system and had put a lock on the file. We spent about an hour and a half there pleading our case. They said there is nothing they can do.

We then start out for ICBF to see if they can advocate for us. We spend another couple of hours there camped out while Diego and many other ICBF officers called officials and consulates and the embassy all trying to get this resolved. I spoke with the embassy on the phone and they promised something would be done about it, but it was too late for anything to happen today. We were able to go ahead an obtain our Article 23 from ICBF which we must have for the Visa. I was glad to have that off our plates.

Here is where we stand. We still do not have the modified birth certificate. We only need an electronic copy. They say that we will have it by the morning. I will believe it when I see it. First thing at 7:00 am, Brant and Julieta and I will go to the Immigration office to sign some forms and pay at least a $300 fine for not registering our visa within 15 days of our arrival in country. Which we were not told we needed to do. Then we will go to the passport office to try again for the passport. Only of course if we have received the new birth certificate. Another problem is we have to present the passport to the doctor who performed the medical exam before he will sign it. Tomorrow he leaves for vacation so how does he sign???? We must present the medical exam and Julieta's passport to get her Visa. The soonest this can happen is Monday. If we can indeed apply for her passport tomorrow, we cannot pick it up until Monday morning. So it looks like Sunday is out for us. I have begun checking into some other potential flights but we will not make any real decisions until we see how tomorrow goes. It has to be better than today!

I must give a shout out to Brant who stayed at the hotel all day with the kids minus Julieta. Plus he had two other children from 7:30 am until 12:30 pm while their family ran around jumping through paperwork hoops!!!

After the babies went to bed tonight, Brant and I walked to the grocery store to pick up some fruit and snacks for the room. We realized as we left the hotel that this was the very first time in 7 weeks that we had been completely alone. We should have walked slower!

Please continue to pray. Things have not gone exactly like I wanted them to but we still have some small sliver of hope for Christmas! Also pray for our health. Several of the children are suffering from upset stomachs and myself and two of the kids have a bad cold and cough. Sickness is not what we need right now. Can't wait to see you all!!!