Ecuador day 2 Tuesday

We woke up bright and early at 4AM and quickly realized we could have slept longer...oh well.  At about 12:30 in the morning the Broaddus family realized the propane tank for the hot water was empty...and of course the owner of the place probably wasn't going to fix it in the next four hours.  I know Stephanie felt so bad...but totally out of her control..so all we could do was laugh!  Zac toughed it out...I did not.  Thankfully, a friend from MOPS and bible study had given me a can of dry shampoo...I used it and it worked wonders!! I highly recommend dry shampoo to anyone who might be forced to go without a shower for a day!

Our driver got to the apartment at 4:45 and we lugged our luggage down to him.  Andy and Stephanie came out and said goodbye and off we went... We didn't have any issues getting onto our flight from Quito to Cuenca.  It was only a 45 minute flight and I slept most of the way. (I've been fighting a headache since we got here...most likely from the sobbing at immigration LOL)They actually check you in and then you walk outside and get on a bus which then takes you to the plane...in Cuenca we got off the plane and walked into this very small area with one baggage claim and then got a taxi.

We easily found our apartment place after a very scary ride in the yellow cab.  I've ridden in several scary taxi rides in downtown Chicago...and these drivers make the Chicago drivers look like angels.

A few minutes after we arrived at our apartment our lawyer, Priscilla, arrived.  She doesn't speak much English so Xavier, the apartment manager, helped to translate.  She explained that we were going to meet our translator, Carmen, at the INFA office and meet with the INFA officials...so away we went.

We got to INFA and had to wait a while and they finally called us into a small room...board room type table. We met with the head of INFA as well as three other persons with INFA and the social worker that will be monitoring our bonding or empartiamento period.  So 8 people in one small room..good times! We talked for well over an hour about the process and happenings of the coming days.  They informed us that we wouldn't get to see Sister until Thursday.  WHAT?! We weren't very happy about that but knew that there wasn't much we could do to change it. =( They seemed to loosen up quite a bit the more I spoke Spanish and showed them I was learning their language and could somewhat understand what they were saying.  We did get to see a picture of Sister...at 8 months old, which brought both of Zac and I to tears and when I finally looked up, realized that most of the room was in tears as well.  Have a said yet this has been an emotional journey? 

As it turns out, Priscilla, our lawyer, is the same lawyer that took care of Sister's abandonment papers.  So she saw Sister when she was very young.  She was telling us that she is the doll and star of the orphanage and her preschool.  She said that she is so loving and caring...and I gathered, a little ornery....hmm....sounds like a little girl we have at home? =)  Yep, she's meant for our family.

We left the INFA office and took a taxi back to our apartment.  Taxi's in town are $1.50, outskirts $2.00, and out of town $5.00...I guess these prices are set by the government...but if you hand them $40 they'll take it without missing a beat.

When we returned to our apartment we took some time to get settled and Zac got the internet set up so he could start working.  We got a taxi ride to the Supermaxi (grocery store) to get some food to make here at the apartment.  At this point in the day we were both very tired, hungry, and ready to crash...there was a very nice pizza place next to the Supermaxi, so we stopped in and ate some pizza before returning home.

Tuesday night Zac continued to do some work and I got the apartment more organized and set up.  We were able to Skype with Addie which was nice, but she really didn't want to talk to us...oh well...sounds like she is doing well and having a good time with the gal that is watching her while mom is at school.  Such a blessing!

I crashed in bed around 9:00 I believe and didn't move until 5:30AM....only to return to sleep until 9:30AM!