The Final Day

Starting with the most important, yet chronologically latest event, Karla is now officially the holder of a US IR3 visa and will be a permanent resident of the US sometime around 7pm on Wednesday, November 5th (right after we exit the immigration office). Like all other aspects of dealing with our case and paperwork, getting this was chaotic and down to the wire. We were late getting back from Antigua and I was concerned. We'd met someone last week who said that she was 10 minutes late getting to the embassy for her visa pick-up appointment and had problems getting in - said they were closed and to come back the next day initially. So I was very keen on getting there on time. We were supposed to meet Pablo at the hotel and quickly head over to the embassy by 3:30 (which includes heavy traffic on Avenida La Reforma, parking in one of the odd quirky parking lots in Guatemala City, walking to the embassy and getting through security). At 3:20 I was still standing outside of the hotel waiting for Pablo with Jennifer, Karla and Diana (who apparently were all waiting for me to explode). Finally we tried to call Pablo several times and he answered and talked to Diana. He said he was "10 or so" minutes away. So Diana and I rushed to her SUV and sped off for the Embassy, telling Pablo we'd just meet him there. We just sort of left Jennifer and Karla standing in the driveway to the hotel! We entered the embassy at 3:35 and they'd already called most of the people up to "Window 7" (said in hushed tones). We no sooner sat down, than "Karla Mac-mick-mac-corm-ick" came over the loudspeaker. She said another name at the same time which made me think we were one of two people who hadn't shown up yet. I practically ran over some Guatemalans waiting for tourist visas to get to the window. This was yet again another anti-climatic experience. I stuffed the receipt and my passport under the window, they got a cursory glance, and a huge sealed DHS CIS envelope, Karla's passport with a visa page and my passport got returned. I think this lady actually said "congratulations" but I was already reading over the detail page on the front of the documents and was heading back to Diana. Right after I stepped away from "Window 7" (again, hushed reverent tones) the lady read off two dozen Guatemalan names to pick up tourist visas and there was a mad dash for line. So I'm glad I'm not the person who still hadn't shown up yet. Diana helped me compare the CIS case number and the Guatemalan passport information to make sure it was all correct (it was!!) and we headed out the door - still Pablo-less. I talked to two of the families we met here this week and they were also reviewing their papers. The facilitator of one of the families we waited in line with stopped all of us and asked us to look at a line on the visa summary sheet to see if "mother" was the adoptive parent or the biological parent. Ours were all adoptive parent (which they should be because we're legally her parent already as far as Guatemala and the US is concerned) but this lady's was the biological mother. So her paperwork was still screwed up somehow!! Glad that wasn't us. Outside the embassy, Pablo was waiting for us. He looked at our paperwork as well, and said it was correct. He apologized for being late but said that there were workers at his house and he couldn't just leave them there. It was a polite but brief conversation because Pablo was parked along the street just outside the embassy. He shook our hands and said to call him if we needed anything else and then he was off. Diana had a good laugh about that. We got back to the hotel by 4:10 and I congratulated Karla on her US Citizenship. She said "Eeeeeee poppy!" and went back to playing with bubbles on the floor. Diana told me I wasn't excited enough and I explained that my excitement would start after we stepped out of the immigration office in Atlanta.

The earlier, longer portion of our day was spent in Antigua Guatemala (not to be confused with the island of Antigua). We went to an overlook that seemed to have some sort of religious significance but I never encountered any sign (English or Spanish) that explained what the place was and I forgot to ask Diana when we left. We then went to a large market in downtown Antigua and did some shopping for ourselves and for some souvineers for people. Karla "purchased" a cute little bird toy (too hard to explain what and how) that I'm going to put away for her when she's older. Jennifer and I bought some Guatemalan things for the house. Then we had lunch at the Hotel Porta on the terrace at a very nice restaurant. I had a very good Mayan/Guatemalan traditional dish that I can't even begin to pronounce. It was beef in a bowl with a thick soup-like sauce that you added rice and some sort of doughy ball to. It was quite good. Karla ate a bunch of my rice and Jennifer's rice though, in lieu of her own meal of chicken strips and "papa fritas" (french fries). She's probably tired of that meal but we're still trying to figure out what she'll reliably eat. After lunch we went to the Plaza Mayor which is the central area in Antigua. It was pretty but there wasn't a whole lot to do as we'd already done our shopping and lots of street vendors harassed us constantly. We did buy two items there that we liked, but had to stave off tons more, including one girl (probably 10 years old) who called us stupid for not buying from her. After that, we were ready to leave quickly. The only exciting thing about the Plaza Mayor was the very old fountains (circa 1730s) and the catheral (Catedral Metropolita). The cathedral was closed and a fountain is just a fountain even if it is very nice. The interestingly highlight was that Karla was splashing in one of the small outlier fountains and decided that Oso wanted to play in the fountain too so she tossed him in. We scared her because we both said "NO OSO!" at the exact same time. So now Karla has what I've been calling "Soggy Oso" or "Oso Soggo" (I call the big bear "Oso Grande"). It's funny because she'll ask for Oso or go to find Oso and then go "ewww" and drop him because he's, well, soggy. He's dried out enough now that we put him in the crib with Karla. Jennifer and I decided that this was actually probably a good thing because he's likely cleaner now than he has been in a long time. Oso Soggo is getting a VERY thorough washing when we're home. After that, we went to Santo Domingo which was a monastary for amost 500 years and is now a hotel, restaurant and muesum complex. It was a pretty place but we didn't pay to go into any of the museums so we just walked around and looked at some stuff.

We just finished packing to go home a little while ago. We've managed to get everything into 5 suitacases, 3 bags and a laptop case. Hopefully everyone who's meeting us at the airport is going to be in the mood to carry heavy luggage. :)

This will be our next last blog entry (Jennifer just informed me she's going to make another short one) and our last Flickr picture postings from Guatemala. We'll probably either blog here or start a new blog to discuss Karla in the US so keep checking back here in the next few weeks!!

Enjoy my volcano pictures.

When we talk again, Karla will be on US soil and a full-fledged citizen of the republic!