Praise God!!!!! And thank you to the Blessed Mother and everyone else who has been interceding for us! Yay! Yay!! Yay!!!
I am so relieved that our visa appointment is for tomorrow! Yippee!! We have to be at the embassy at 6:45 with all our important papers, the $230 visa fee in cash, nothing electronic, and plenty of snacks and things to entertain a two-year-old. I can't even express how thrilled I am that the appointment is for tomorrow. I know of several families that had to wait a week or so, and although I would certainly wait if I had to, and would do so as cheerfully as possible, I am just so happy that it is tomorrow.
The embassy allows US citizens to walk in Monday through Thursday at 10 am to have questions answered, and I was planning on doing that this morning, but I received an email from them very early this morning saying that the appointment had been set. I'm sure I let out a very loud "yippee!" but what can you do. It is hard to contain such elation.
Little mister is down for his nap as I type. We have had another great morning. Maybe it is especially great because of our news. Noah woke up in the middle of the night a couple times crying, but went back to sleep rather quickly when I patted his back. Around 5 he wanted to walk out into the livingroom, and I opened the door for him, but he got back in his own bed as soon as he had made a lap or two.
We hung out quite a bit on the terrace this morning, chasing bourgainvillea petals and trying to entertain ourselves in new ways. Anyone ever played with dryer lint? Interesting, I know, but Noah will take it and rub it on my arm or leg. Maybe it is a skin treatment. Anyway, it is not something I would encourage at home, but it did help pass the time. We also really like to watch the gardener water all the plants on the terrace. Today he even put a new cedar border around the plants in the courtyard downstairs. It was riveting. And we made a pull toy out of the housekeeper's laundry cart. It's all good.
I've got to repeat that the staff here are tremendous. They are all very professional and do great work, and yet they are so warm and friendly too. They are all so sweet to Noah and greet him every time they see him, and they don't seem to mind at all when he growls at them or shakes his head no or high fives them a little too hard. They are really super.
I saw the flock of parrots again. They are so beautiful. I have seen them several times, and I am always so happy when they are nearby. They are a lovely bright green with a little red. I think they are called Christmas parrots, though they probably have a fancier technical name too. We've seen the resident hummingbird only a couple times, and there are some very pretty mourning doves that live in the trees in the Humuya courtyard. They look quite a bit different than the ones we have in our neighborhood, but that might just be a regional thing.
Oops, he's up from his nap.
And now he's down for the night. We had another nice afternoon: playing soccer with our little baby ball and the semi-deflated beachball (Jerry is the good blower-upper in our family), wandering around the terrace and courtyard, coloring, and anything else that occurred to us. At 2:00 sharp, I started calling the immigrant visa section to ensure that I was filling out the form correctly. Recall that "because of high workload and minimal resources," they only answer the phone from 2 - 3:30 Mondays and Wednesdays, so I was going to be sure to not let that hour and a half pass without confirmation on my answers. So, on my eighth or so call, I got through. Prior to that, the voice mail comes on saying "the party you are trying to reach doesn't have voice mail. Goodbye." And promptly hangs up. Good thing I wasn't calling from a pay phone! Anyway, it gave me a good chuckle, sort of, but only after I was able to get through and get the information I needed.
Had dinner in the dining room tonight, as a sort of pre-visa celebration. That and I didn't feel like cooking after all that soccer and wandering around. The food here is really good by the way. Met a church group that is in the country doing mission work. Was nice to chat with them and show off my adorable little son!
Then it was up to the apartment, another exciting shower for Noah, stories, prayers, and bedtime. I'm going to follow soon, so I am bright eyed and bushy tailed for the embassy appointment tomorrow. I truly wonder where that expression came from. Well, I don't wonder about it all that much....