day nine

Em is still sick; her fever was about 101 F this morning. I think she must still be feeling very yucky too or maybe getting an ear infection or something as the last couple days she hates sitting up or being upright at all (even being held) - she starts screaming like she's in pain, and only calms down once she's lying down. When we came for our afternoon visit today she was still napping. We waited for about 45 minutes but she was still asleep so we walked the mile back to the apartment.

Good news is all of the paperwork that must be done before the Minister can sign off on our adoption is done. Bad news is we are not sure when he's going to sign. He has been busy because of Biden's visit (I can't get over our luck - first time since Carter I think that such a high-level U.S. official has come to Belgrade, and it had to happen while we're here doing an adoption) so it will probably not be until Monday - at the earliest. Then we have to have the official ceremony. And only then can we start getting her passport and her immigrant visa. We are pretty concerned over still being able to come home on the 30th. If we don't do the ceremony by the end of the day Monday, I think it is unlikely we will get everything done in time. If we have to stay longer, it will have to be at least another 3 to 4 nights just to get to the next business days to continue doing the passport and visa stuff, meaning over $500 more in expenses for us. To top it all off, Matt's FMLA leave still has not been approved, waiting for some paperwork from his manager, and if it's not done by next Tuesday he likely won't get his next paycheck until it gets straightened out. Everything is always out of our hands.

Matt's more optimistic than I am, but really I think I used up all my optimism for this process many months ago. Right now I'm just drained. I miss my kids, I'm worried about Emerson, now I'm worried about spending even more to stay here even longer. And I just want one thing to go our way, just this once.