Okay, time to catch up here..........

Hi Everyone,

Sorry we missed ya, but google put our blog on hold, while they checked it for spam. So now it is up and running and we got a lot to tell ya.......

So I am going to start from where we left off........

Friday July 26, 2007

Well, I thought today was going to be smooth sailing, but there were a few bumps right from the start. On the way to the bank, Margaret stopped at the post office to mail out our I600A form. The I600A form will approve us to adopt a child internationally. But just like everything else, it is also a process. They send us a letter giving us an appointment to go to Hempstead to get fingerprinted AGAIN, once are fingerprints clear, they send us another form approving us to adopt a child. This is the only thing that the lawyer will have to wait for, once our Dossier is mailed to him. But this we can just scan and email him it, we don't have to Fed Ex it to him.

So here is our first, but not last Bump! We had to go to the bank first and wire a payment to our lawyer. Last week, when I checked with the bank in town (not our bank, figured I would go right around the corner), the woman said it only takes 5 minutes to do. So we got to the bank at 9:05am, just to make sure we would have plenty of time to make the 10:06am train to NYC. Well, long story short, we didn't get done with this transaction until 10:10am, so we missed the train. We headed to the train station to see what train we get catch next to NYC, it turned out that we got the 11:06am. Peter enjoyed the train so much, he was just so amazed with everything he saw outside the window. Across from us was a group of boys listening to their music, so Peter had to show them his moves, it was cute. We got into Penn station and met up with my cousin. Needless to say, nobody knew where the elevator was for Margaret to take Peter up to the streets in the stroller. So Margaret lugged the stroller with Peter in it, up many many steps......wow, the boy is getting heavy. I couldn't believe that a "stud muffin" didn't offer to help - seeing Peter going bounce, bounce, bounce all the way up to the streets. We made it up to the streets, and started to head to our first destination. We headed off to the Dept. of State, to get the papers apostiled. A few blocks away from Penn Station, my cousin and I decided to take the taxi. So we waved down a taxi and packed the "kitchen sink" (stroller, diaper bag, etc. - and the most important pkg was all my documents for our dossier) into the trunk of the car. It took the taxi an hour to get there - I bet we could of walked there quicker. We managed to beat the mad rush into the place, because no sooner did I hand in all our documents there is about 2 dozen people on line, we were just like "wow!" Lunch time is rush time. We left there to head to the Guatemalan Consilate to get all the paperwork Authenticated. This time we walked a couple of blocks before waving down a taxi, just to make sure we got the taxi heading in the right direction. We told the driver were we needed to go (57 Park avenue, NOT 157), while driving there my cousin Marie questioned the driver to make sure he was going the right way. It was almost like he wasn't quite sure on the # we said but he did know it was Park Avenue. Marie then asked what language he spoke and Marie was so happy to know that he spoke Spanish..........so she began to flirt with him..........LOL. Just kidding, she spoke Spanish to him to make sure he knew where he was going. I told my cousin, all we had to do was to look for the Guatemalan flags up on the building, that is how I always found it. Sure enough, there were the flags, so I told the driver just to pull over. We got to the Guatemalan Consulate to get all our docuemtns authenticated. Pedro ( the man with that magic stamp) was talking to Peter and was very happy to see Peter. I thought for sure this was a sign that he would put that magic stamp on all the documents while we waited, but he wouldn't do it. Shoot, I even asked if he would at least Authenticate the Power of Attorny documents, and he wasn't giving in one ounce. I bet you if Peter gave him the high 5 he would of........LOL. So we were all done running all over NYC, now it was time to get lunch and head home. We decied (okay, I decided to walk back to Penn Station, because I knew it was only a couple of blocks away - and it would be a lot faster than the Taxis) - it turned out that Penn Station just wasn't one block over, it was a few. So here we go again, trying to get down the stairs with the stroller and Peter, luckily this time a "Stud Muffin" (okay, not really but he was a stud muffin to me, since he helped us out) came along and helped carry the stroller down the steps, and he said that the elevators never work in Penn Station. But we made it there and had lunch. Penn Station is not the place to be on a Friday Afternoon duirng the summer especially. Margaret decided to take the next train available just to get out of Penn Station and to make sure there wouldn't be any problems with the stroller on the train. So sure enough, while we were standing there looking at the train schedule - right at that gate was my next train........YIPPIE, but more stairs to deal with to catch the train that was leaving in a few minutes.......but "stud muffin" to the rescue.......he helped get the stroller down the stairs. Margaret's cousin Marie went to catch her train back home. Peter was so great in the City, he had such a great time and he was so well behaved, his mom was very proud of him. It was nice having Marie along for the walk, okay - the cab drives.....lol. We got back home, Peter was sound asleep so he was put into bed. As for Margaret.......I was exhausted, today must of been the hottest day in NYC, I got myself a tall glass of lemonade, and then took Peter's advice and took a nap myself.

We got a lot accomplished today, we left on the 11:06am train, and returned home on the 3:26pm train, and Pedro promised Margaret that her documents would be mailed to her Friday evening so she will have them first thing Monday Morning.

To my cousin Maria, thanks for coming, hope you had fun!