56 hours to go.....

OK, so we are seriously counting down the hours until we are home. We are done with everthing and have all of our documents from the embassy, so basically we are just waiting to get on the plane.

Yesterday we had our appointment for the kids' medical exams. The appointment was for 11:30, but it was almost 1:00 by the time we went in. It was so not fun trying to keep them entertained and quiet in the waiting room for so long. The good news is that we actually have some reliable info. Their weights, according to a real scale, are 17 lbs for Madden and 19 lbs for Jackson. I'm not sure what the purpose of the exam was because all they did was measure them, listen to them breathe, and look down their throats. I suppose if they had leprosy or something it might be obvious from this, but it really wasn't much of a screening by our government. You may wonder how I came up with such an obscure thing as leprosy, but that was just one of the strange conditions our doctors had to swear we didn't have. In fact, we actually had to arrange for a Notary Public to come witness the doctors signing that we didn't have any of the diseases. I'll never forget walking down to the lab with a form from my doctor saying I should be tested for HIV, syphillis, herpes, etc.... Such an experience this has been.

So, while I was with the nurse having Jackson weighed and measured, Kevin took Madden in to the exam room. Then the screams started. That girl is really something. 99% of the time she is smiling and totally mellow, but when she really doesn't like something she just starts screaming and screaming. It went on the entire time of the examination, which, as I said was very limited other than looking down the throat. She definitely has good lungs. It is just so hard to believe she can make so much noise. Jackson was perfectly fine with the examination, but for some reason really didn't want to have his pants put back on and started crying about that. Go figure.

Today we went to the embassy to get their passports and visas and immigration documents. And, of course, pay Uncle Sam. For some reason, in addition to the standard $380 per child, they also charge a $525 fee for processing two non-related children. I suppose we're supporting homeland security. Speaking of homeland security..... we met at our agency with our travel partners and another woman who is adopting with our agency and her mother who was with her as her husband had returned home to be with their other children, and then all of us, with all four babies walked to the embassy with a representative of our agency. So, as we approach the entrance, we see a guard raise his machine gun at us. Now, I'm sure this is standard procedure when someone approaches, but it was very odd to have someone point a gun at us. As we were entering the building, we went through a metal detector. Some of us beeped, but no one seemed to be concerned. Then, we had to have our bags searched. So, while we were doing this, I couldn't help noticing that many people coming in beeped the metal detector, and no one was doing anything about it. We, however, we being searched, had ID sticker stuck to each of us, and had to be escorted by armed guards up the elevator. We were allowed to bring our bags after they were searched, but for some reason they wouldn't allow Paula, our travel partner, to bring a tube of hand sanitizer. She had to leave it at the desk. We were joking about her having chemical weapons. Normally I am all for security and wouldn't joke, but after seeing everyone else coming through the door, setting off the alarms, and heading straight to the elevators unescorted, it was clear that security was selective.

We're pretty much just killing time until we get on the plane at this point. We will be heading to the airport at 1:00a.m. (yes, the middle of the night) on Thursday, which is I think 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday CA time. Needless to say we will be very tired and jet-lagged when we get home at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

We don't have a whole lot to do when the kids are asleep, but we do get ESPN and Fox News along with something called "V" network in English. Of course, Kevin is thrilled with the ESPN, but the times are so messed up that there is usually nothing on. He did manage to find the weekend football games on early in the morning. On V we watched a show called "America's Next Top Model", which was really entertaining. So many catfights during their little modeling competitions, then a panel of very, very non-heterosexual men just rip the girls apart. Pretty entertaining. It's been good to have Fox News to hear some of the things going on in the world because after a month we are really out of touch. It seems like there have been lots of issues with planes in the news, but I suppose that makes it more likely that we will be just fine if I remember my statistics. Anyhow, it is also entertaining watching Kevin get worked up over the station not giving equal time to Democrats when they discuss the issues. Although I am certainly not the Democrat my husband is, even I had to find it a little suspect when every single commentator they had agreed that the president's speech was great. Oh well, it gave Kevin something to get fired up about while he is suffering from sports withdrawal.

So, that's about it here. We can't wait for our flight to be over! As I predicted, today I discovered that Jackson has 4 teeth starting to come in, and Madden seems to be getting a cold. Should really be a fun flight for us- definitely a birthday I won't soon forget!