Day 33- When it rains, it pours, literally...but then comes the sunshine.

Well, first let me start with some of the great stuff, and there is great stuff.  Monday we had our court appearance, and as you know now, it went well.  We dressed up.  Met a new attorney that was assigned to us.  Apparently, our attorney could not represent us for that because she is employed by the agency.  Not to worry, though.  All the new attorney did was be present.  We didn't need him to "do" anything except sign the papers on the dotted line, so to speak.  I made sure to ask him the process before we enterred the room, so that I was sure not to repeat our last meeting.  The court appointed translator arrived.  Everybody smiled, I even detected a small glimpse of a smile on the judge as we concluded.

Alejandro was still feeling a little under the weather either due to the Friday's vaccinations or due to our altitude changes from Cuenca to Quito and back to Cuenca.  I know I was feeling very poorly.  BTW, I received a package at the post office from my wonderful friend that sent me some over-the-counter children's motrin and sudafed I can't get here.  I exhausted my supply with the kids colds, bronchitis and recently, immunizations.  THANK YOU!!!  You can't find these OTC in Cuenca, local law.  I think it's different in Quito, because I saw some ibuprofen there.

Today is a gorgeous day. Absolutely gorgeous. The weather could not be more perfect. We're enjoying it from the apartment grounds because I didn't want to venture far from home...I managed to develop a bad stomach the last two days and I don't know how. Everyone else is fine, once again, and thank goodness.

Another great thing I discovered today is that the apartment owner has food delivered to her daily. She says its very good, freshly made and inexpensive. I jumped on that bandwagon, knowing well that she would know the best place to receive this kind of service from. No cooking, fewer dishes, fresh and yummy? Oh yeah, I'm on it. It was delicious and very geneous too. I thought two portions would be enough for myself and the kiddos, but it's actually too much, so tomorrow I will ask for just one portion. It had a potato and cheese soup called Locro, white rice (always), meatballs stewed in a yummy tomato sauce with fresh peas and carrots, and a banana puff pastry. I shared with the neighbor, Titima, who's Thai. Her son and Annalise have become good buddies, although the boy doesn't speak much English and almost no Spanish. Titima is married to an American and they moved here from Thailand three months ago to buy a pig farm. Wow. Our families have become quite dependent on eachother for support and we will miss them when we leave.

Yesterday, our reps husband came to take Jim to sign a power of attorney giving me permission to complete the rest of the process. From here on, he doesn't have to be present, as long as I have a power of attorney.  The two of them went to the notary public and were told they needed to bring an official translator with them, since Jim did not understand 100% of what he was reading or being told.  He says he understood about 90%.  Sooooooo, what was to be a 15 minute process, took about 4 hours before they could schedule both the translator and the notary public at once.  I wasn't allowed to be the translator, because I am the person receiving the POA.

All throughout the day, I worked on getting Jim flights back to home.  He has worked so hard trying to manage things from here with poor internet reception, skype and occasionally very expensive phone calls.  He's tried everything to do the best he can, more than anyone will be aware of.  He really needed to get home.  No one here in the process seems to really understand that, because they would be able to take off of work for however long they had to.  Crazy Americans, we are.

After hours of my being online and on the phone, Jim had to finally go to the airport to finalize flights.  The first available flight out with an exchange ticket would be for March 7th.  Oh no!  So, we had the privilege of buying a new ticket with a different airline at peak price.  Lovely.  This awaits me in a couple of weeks.

He had to fly to Quito last night, so he could make a connection today, and praise be, let him get home soundly.

A little while ago, the reps husand dropped off the POA.  I told him it was made of gold.  He laughed.  Along with that we received some bad news, bad to me anyway.  Sighhhhh...he just found out I have the "privilege" of going to Quito to be interviewed by some hoop-te-ha before I can go to the embassy in Guayaquil to get the little prince's final get out of dodge papers. This adds another plane trip, another two days (to the 2- 2 1/2 weeks left, and more stress to the process.  Originally, we weren't going to have to go to Quito, only the families that were already in Quito were made to go.  But, as many things keep changing in this fairly new process in Ecuador, there is now a new hoop-te-ha in that position that wants see everyone.

Lastly, the judge's house had an "emergency" during a HUGE hail storm we had two days ago...so...still waiting on him to sign off on the papers. Literally, when it rains, it pours. 

Looking out the window at the beautiful sunshine and awaiting my princess from school any minute.  Both reasons to smile, among many.  (***I wrote this much earlier today***)

Love, Lisandra
P.S.  The photo is of Annalise giving a brother a "haircut"...this could be bad...better hide the real scissors.