It’s Coming Together

What a whirlwind few days.  Remember me talking about that chore chart I made myself and how I was all caught up on my housework and getting quality time in with the kids??  Well, don’t stop by and see this mess and don’t judge that one day of fall break I had my kids in front of the TV while I spent the entire day on the phone and computer and then today was a little better because I took the big two to the movies, which I slept through except for excusing myself to take yet another phone call from the agency :), and then I took them to funflatables because I had brought Laila there during her break on Monday and I spent that time sitting on the couch there making more phone calls too.  They had a fun day and that’s what matters and they totally understand and don’t care one bit if it means we’re getting to their brother.  Have I mentioned lately how proud I am of them? When I’m making crazy travel arrangements where they’re gonna be exhausted, I don’t even really worry about them because they are amazing and while they’re kids, I know they’ll tough it out with only a little complaining.  I don’t regret making the decision to bring them and the agency actually seemed really on board with it too thinking it will be good for Ranjit to be able to have a little pressure off of needing to make an immediately parent/child bond and will be able to watch Emma & Jackson and model their behavior.  Thankful to have kids that I’d like him to model :)

We had hoped to leave on Oct 27, meet him on Oct 31, travel to Delhi on Nov 2 and then spend the rest of the time there getting appts done and just spending some time in India.  Well a lot of the staff is going to be gone that week and they weren’t too keen on us coming to take him while they were gone.  Dean said we could probably have pushed them into letting us but I definitely didn’t want to do that.  This is Ranjit’s family and they have been everything he has ever known for the past five years.  He deserves to have them there and part of his goodbye ceremony and I wouldn’t miss the opportunity to meet them.  So, this left us with two options.  We could leave on Oct 30 do a hectic compressed trip taking some chances or we could wait a few weeks to go until probably what was looking like Thanksgiving or after.  Guess what we chose??  Oct 30th it is!

In our original plan we were only going to stay in Pune for a few days and spend the majority of our trip on Delhi.  Now, we’re going to spend more of our trip in Pune before we meet Ranjit and then have a whirlwind trip to Delhi, pray all the appointments are actually scheduled (oh I’ll get to that saga next!) and head home.  We’ll have to have his medical exam the same day we fly into Delhi from Pune.  Ummm like we fly in at 9 and his appointment is at 10…….. I know it’s cutting it super close but it was our only option.  We’ve decided that whichever one of us that RJ is feeling most comfortable with will whisk him off the plane and straight into a hired car to the embassy and the other of us will take the other two kids, grab the luggage and head to the hotel in another hired car.  We also then have his embassy appointment that day but won’t be able to have his visa issued because we’ll need for his TB test to be read on Friday first.  Everything is pretty much going to hinge on us making that medical appointment and getting that TB test done on Wednesday.  It has to be read no earlier than 48 hours later and if we don’t get the results Friday early, we won’t have time to get to the embassy for his visa.  If we don’t get it done Friday…… one of us will have to stayed behind in India with him until Wednesday because the Embassy is closed on Monday for Veterans Day and closed on Tuesday for Diwali.  Prayers are appreciated and yes I know it sounds crazy but we’re crazy for our boy and have covered this with prayer :)

So the appointments……. I had to stay up last night calling the med centre and the embassy to try to see if we could get those appointments for the 7th.  Dean had told me it would be a little crazy, he was right!  First of all Jack got home and I said “Do you know how to call India because I don’t!!”  I googled it and then quickly remembered we don’t have a long distance plan on our phone and I figured that and the cell plan would both be very expensive.  I remembered we had a calling card from a long time ago.  It didn’t have minutes on it so I called and put $40 on and figured out how to use it for international.  It was $.69/minute.  I looked on the embassy website for their hours and they didn’t open until 10am (11:30pm our time).  I began calling at this time.  I called for an hour and a half.  I got disconnected, transferred, fake appointments, and finally had two different people tell me I need to call back after 2pm (3:30am out time).  I was crying and frustrated and exhausted.  It was my first real dealing directly with India and I couldn’t understand them most of the time, they lied and told me they knew what I was talking about but really had no clue (not being mean they just people please not wanting to disappoint so they just say “yes ma’am i can do that” or simply hang up) but a few minutes and more $$ down the phone line I would realize they did not have a clue.  I was woke up at 3:29am by a friend texting me that she had woken up and was praying (she had no clue what I had been through just knew I was staying up to try to get appts!!).  So I started at it with the embassy again and about an hour later got an appointment.  Then I started on the med centre.  I had about the same run around.  About an hour and a half later I had that appointment made.  Phew!!  By this time it was time to get up for the day because I had a doctor’s appointment in the morning!  I’d gladly do this all again to be able to get to my son.

The last piece to come together was getting the approval from the orphanage for us to meet Ranjit on Nov 5th.   And yes they did approve it!  They have blocked Nov 5th and 6th for us.  I guess this is typical in case the child is having a hard time the first day then you would wait until the second day to actually bring them with you.  They also have their goodbye ceremony with him and they were unsure of which one of those days it will be scheduled for.  If you’re sitting there thinking wow…. meet the 5th….. be in Delhi and at appointments the 7th…… yep!  It’s going to take some real intervening from God to help Ranjit to trust us and go on this crazy journey with us for the first few days.  Hopefully it will go fine but if not, we’ll tough it out.  Jack and I had a real honest discussion on whether or not this was a good idea.  We came to the conclusion that if it doesn’t work then it doesn’t work.  We’ll go to plan B and have one of us stay behind in India a little longer to finish things up.  We have to know and be OK with that plan otherwise we’ll spend those first precious few days with our son stressed and on overload and that’s not what I want him to see of me for the first time ( I’d like to fool him for a little while at least ;) ).  We’ll get to the airport plenty early, we’ll check and double check for our driver to be at the airport on time and if we happen to be late for the appointment, I’ll turn on the tears like nobody’s business and sit there all day if I have to begging them to stick that stupid needle in his arm. (Like how I assume that he’ll be more attached to me and want me with him ;) a momma can hope right?!?!)

Want to know something that was so fun today?  I had the travel agent book our round trip Chicago to India flights but I booked our India domestic flights because the airline that had the earliest flight to Delhi couldn’t be booked through a travel agent (though he helped me find it).  When I booked that flight it was for all five of us and I got to enter his full name and I got to enter his birthdate and make a reservation for him.  That may seem like no big deal to some but for me it was a big deal!!  All five of us!  And when we get back home to Laila, it’ll be all six of us!!  Also, I was out today and our nurse was with Laila.  I booked that domestic flight myself while I was out.  When I got home (about 15 minutes after booking the flight) I found out that a longtime had dropped off a check out of the blue as a donation to us.  It was within $3 of the exact amount of our domestic flights I had booked.  You know who you are and I’m so grateful.

We’ve booked flights, have our hotels narrowed down, have our malaria prescriptions at the pharmacy, had our immunizations, ordered Ranjit’s “I’m a Show Hope kid” t-shirt, copied all our paperwork to take with, got our pre-departure report with exact measurements of RJ so we can figure out what size clothes we need for him and we’re tying up some loose ends for an adoption workshop we have planned for Nov 17th at our church.  Yes, it is coming together and it’s really going to happen.  Thank you Lord.

What’s that you say?  Another picture of Ranjit?  SURE, here you go :)