Somewhere in the depths of the fortress-like United States Embassy in the city of Santiago de Chile, there is a woman who made a difference in our story of adoption from Haiti.
I remember our first meeting well. Having made an appointment for fingerprinting, Pedro and I arrived and waited for a summons to a small private room off the main waiting area. We were somewhat surprised to learn that our fingerprints would be taken the real "old-fashioned" way - ink smudges and all - and somewhat amused when the Embassy liaison who would be taking our prints arrived dressed in white from head to toe. By her own admission she had forgotten about the prints when choosing her outfit, so she asked us to please be careful not to touch her! For our part we were just thankful to check off another step of our lengthy process and did our best to comply.
Months later, we were no closer to bringing the boys home and fingerprints rolled around again. We met with the same woman (not dressed in white this time!) and on this occasion our children accompanied us. I think they helped to put a face to our names and from that point on our communication via e-mail was quite cordial.
After the earthquake, she was quite anxious to help us and did her best to communicate with the powers that be on her end to see if there was something that could be done to expedite our boys' extradition from Haiti. God saw fit to intervene and do things in His own perfect way, however, so by the time the consul gave us a personal phone call we were already on a flight to pick up our sons. Even so we were very appreciate of the efforts made of our behalf by this woman.
Since the boys' homecoming, we've had occasion to communicate with a few questions by e-mail and her responses are always prompt and very helpful. In fact, she was able to clarify for us that we could indeed apply for Ian and Alec's social security cards through the Embassy and so we made an appointment to do so this week during our visit to Santiago.
At the appointment, we asked to see her and she was delighted to appear along with several co-workers to meet the children she had worked diligently to assist in coming home! It was a special moment to witness this process come full circle, and to personally thank someone who played a small but important part through it all.
I remember our first meeting well. Having made an appointment for fingerprinting, Pedro and I arrived and waited for a summons to a small private room off the main waiting area. We were somewhat surprised to learn that our fingerprints would be taken the real "old-fashioned" way - ink smudges and all - and somewhat amused when the Embassy liaison who would be taking our prints arrived dressed in white from head to toe. By her own admission she had forgotten about the prints when choosing her outfit, so she asked us to please be careful not to touch her! For our part we were just thankful to check off another step of our lengthy process and did our best to comply.
Months later, we were no closer to bringing the boys home and fingerprints rolled around again. We met with the same woman (not dressed in white this time!) and on this occasion our children accompanied us. I think they helped to put a face to our names and from that point on our communication via e-mail was quite cordial.
After the earthquake, she was quite anxious to help us and did her best to communicate with the powers that be on her end to see if there was something that could be done to expedite our boys' extradition from Haiti. God saw fit to intervene and do things in His own perfect way, however, so by the time the consul gave us a personal phone call we were already on a flight to pick up our sons. Even so we were very appreciate of the efforts made of our behalf by this woman.
Since the boys' homecoming, we've had occasion to communicate with a few questions by e-mail and her responses are always prompt and very helpful. In fact, she was able to clarify for us that we could indeed apply for Ian and Alec's social security cards through the Embassy and so we made an appointment to do so this week during our visit to Santiago.
At the appointment, we asked to see her and she was delighted to appear along with several co-workers to meet the children she had worked diligently to assist in coming home! It was a special moment to witness this process come full circle, and to personally thank someone who played a small but important part through it all.
1 comment:
I love this, thanks for sharing. :-)
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