We walked through the parking lot passing all of these lovely four-wheel drive vehicles. She stopped at an older sedan. Think aging Toyota Corolla equivalent. No problem, except that it was pouring and our hotel was on a dirt road. Amazing that our luggage fit in the trunk! Yay for small favors. After a long and laborious drive through town, we headed down a dirt road. Our guide really had no idea where she was taking us, which was a bit disconcerting. We found it in the end though - after going down one of the bumpiest and hilliest and wettest dirt roads I’ve ever run across. Charlie said he felt like a little kid again since he grew up on a dirt road not unlike the one our hotel is on.
After a beyond bumpy ride down this never-ending dirt road, we came to the hotel. Yep...the car got stuck going up the driveway. Over and over and over again. We finally got out in the pouring rain and the owner of the hotel helped us lug our luggage up to the hotel. We checked in to discover a quaint renovated home. We were lucky to be able to reserve Room #1 - the big one! It even has its own bathroom! No shower or AC though. We hurriedly changed into more mud friendly clothes and headed back downstairs to our waiting car. On the way to the hotel we chatted with our guide about all of the paperwork and legal requirements; we wanted to get started right away! We would be able to visit Home of Hope orphanage until 5:00pm so if we could get something accomplished we would feel good about the process. She said that everything is closed on Friday. Sure wish someone had told us that when we asked if there were any days that official offices were closed. So off to the orphanage we went.
We knew that the orphanage was close to Step Town Motel, which is why we chose it. The owner of the hotel, John, said that we should just take the first left after the hotel and it would lead us directly to the famous blue door. No sooner than we headed left did we get stuck. And by stuck, I mean, beyond all measure of being able to get out. And this is not just dirt, it is like Georgia red clay! And it could easily be described as a torrential downpour. The driver got out and ran down to get John to see if he could help. We hopped out of the car and after a bit, jumped into John’s van. The three of us sat in the van and watched John strategically spew mud all over the road and everyone within a 50-yard radius getting the driver’s car out. We are forever grateful to John then driving us in his van to Home of Hope. The orphanage is on a monster hill - he could barely get the van’s footing as we headed down.
We stood at the blue door and knocked in the pouring rain. A sister opened the door after a few minutes and we were welcomed with open arms and guided to a room out of the rain. After a brief discussion, the sister went to get some paperwork and sent for baby love. Makena was so excited she couldn’t see straight, so our anticipation of the moment of meeting baby love was occupied by taking care of M. She kept saying...”I’m so excited I don’t know what to do!” The original sister brought us baby love’s original adoption dossier, which we will submit to the MIGEPROF for our Act of Adoption paperwork...then we noticed a sister walking across the courtyard in the rain with a little bundle.
We will post pictures after we pass court and are confident that we can get her out of the orphanage quickly. Let’s just leave it at she’s a peanut with long legs and big eyes - and a smile that lights up a room! Having the sister place her in my arms is a feeling that I can barely describe. After many hurdles and so many dreams, to finally meet our daughter - face to face - was instant love. Like no other! We were able to spend about a half hour with her. Ahhh...there is nothing like it!
When we left HOH, our guide then tried to call the office where we needed to go (wait, didn’t she say they were all closed on Fridays?). They said that they closed early on Fridays and we had just missed them. Okay. Not starting off well, but we had given ourselves an extra day for paperwork so we could still stay on track.
Back at the ranch, we discovered how much we rely on the Internet. Especially when it isn’t working! We sat in the front room to have dinner and it seemed that someone was upstairs in the day room changing the channel, because you could tell someone was channel surfing, but the remote was lying on the table! The food wasn’t spectacular, but at that point we wanted it merely for sustenance. That it provided! Early to bed for us...we would be able to go visit baby love twice a day both Saturday and Sunday. It was hard to get to sleep that night - jet lag and all. We just wanted to go get baby love and hug her one more time...till tomorrow!
