Hurry up and wait.

In front of the adoption office in Lima, Monday morning August 4th.

Inside the adoption office, waiting to meet with a social worker and attorney. Looking at the "Waiting Angels," kids who have been identified as priority to be adopted. All four of our kids' pictures were on the wall.

Entering the adoption office in Arequipa, Monday afternoon August 4th.

In the living room of the orphanage director's home, waiting to see the kids for the first time on Monday afternoon, August 4th.

So, here we are. Waiting. For the first week or so we rushed from one office to another, four kids in tow. It seems like we're always waiting on some piece of paper to make its way from one place to another. Currently we're waiting on two things: someone has to go on our behalf to the jungle to request an original copy of one of the boy's birth certificates. Three of the kids were born here in Arequipa, so those were easy to get. But for this one we had to give power of attorney to someone to go on our behalf and get the fourth birth certificate. It's been over a week and we've been told at least four times that "it'll be ready tomorrow." ("It" being the power of attorney, not the birth certificate. That's yet another step.) The woman from the adoption office explained yesterday (only partly joking) that in Peru you really should ask "which tomorrow?"

Anyway, so that's one thing we're waiting for. The other is Step 2 with the birth certificates. Once we have the originals we have to register them with the kids' new last name (ours, that is!). That was supposed to happen yesterday with the three birth certificates that we have, but the woman who normally does this task was out sick. So we went back today, and she's still sick. Her colleague who theoretically could do it happens to be of the opinion that once kids are older than 14 or so, they shouldn't be adopted but should stay here and work. Hm. You might think her opinion doesn't matter, that she just needs to do her job. But the person in charge of the adoption office went five times today to her office to speak with her, and she managed to stall every time. So we're supposed to go back... you guessed it: tomorrow. Hopefully she's in a good mood tomorrow or her co-worker is back in the office.

In the meantime, the kids are great. It's really been a very special couple weeks. The kids have been with us 25/7 for two full weeks now, and they are wonderful. (Ha! I just noticed I accidentally wrote 25/7 instead of 24/7. I was about to fix it, but I decided not to since the days feel so long. I'm a night person, but these days I'm ready to crash by 8:30.) But really, with the kids, it's hard to imagine how things could be going any better. They are (for the most part) polite, affectionate, obedient and kind to each other. We credit Jose and Gloria, the orphanage directors, for 6-8 years of hard work with them. I can think of a dozen ways it could be much, much more difficult, and I imagine that it is much more difficult with adoptions from other orphanages.

While we're waiting, we're working on becoming a family. We've been doing a lot of fun things around the city and the house -- all things I'll post photos of as soon as the adoption is final and the kids are officially "ours." Right now we're legal guardians, but I've been asked not to post photos until they're adopted here in Peru. So... sorry. No photos yet. We have to wait, and so do you.  :)

Actually, if you want to see pics, just email me and I'll send you some.