119 minutes too long!!

Happy Monday!! We had a very busy day today - we had to go to Mi Familia first thing this morning and sign off on some paperwork that they were "suppose" to bring me last Friday - we also wanted to take this opportunity to meet with Arly - he is the boss and we had submitted a letter to him asking to waive our fostering time (usually 6 weeks once you have custody of the child) since we have been in the adoption process for so long.

Well, we arrived at Mi Familia at 9:00 AM sharp - signed our document and then waited for Arly to come back from a meeting. It was so hot today - that they shut the doors and turned on the air conditioning!!! Seriously, I think it was better with the doors open. We were all sitting in chairs in the center of the office - me, Martita, Lucie, Carlos (interpreter) and Nubia (lawyer). The girls were so sweet to eachother for about 2 1/2 minutes. I remember thinking, "aren't they the sweetest thing?" Then minute 3 began and Lucie decided she didn't like Martita and was yelling "no mas Martita" - Martita thought that was funny and started to pull Lucie's hair - I was giving them both the "drop dead eye lock" however, they didn't even look at me!! So instead I reasoned with them like those perfect Mother's you see on T.V. about how they were not making the right choices.

It is a challenge to dicipline Martita - she has received very little dicipline at the orphanage and I don't have all the right words to explain to her what I expect. If she doesn't like what I say - she turns her entire body around and ignores me. I don't know how to threaten her yet (I'm sure I will come up with a few options very soon....a couple are coming to me now) or to let her know that her behaviors have consequences.

For over 2 hours we waited and this behavior persisted - so much so that I had taken everything possible away from Lucie that I could! I even started to threaten to go buy her new toys and then give them away to the kids at the orphanage - her tears were in some way, comforting to me because she was driving me absolutely CRAZY!!

Our meeting with Arly went well - he is a very nice man - but we have a very short time-frame to get a lot of details to him. I want to do everything possible to ensure we are in the May Consejo and can be home by mid-July - I will keep you posted on our progress.

Coming here, I knew that Martita would be a challenge but I didn't give much thought to my Goose. Lucie has always been so close to Martita - so sweet - and so secure in our relationship. I think she can sense that this is different - that Martita really is her sister and that she doesn't know where she fits. She's hot, she's not at home, she misses her Dad and her sister and her dogs - she always has this look on her face like "Can someone get me out of here?" Then I get her back to the townhouse and to the pool ......and the Lucie I know and love is reborn.

So I have to come up with some alternatives on these meetings...our wait time was about 119 minutes too long!!

Buenos Noches