Can You Believe This?

First - here's our official certificate stating that we have permission to adopt Gabriela Lynn Ollmann .... signed by Ganka, Rossi and Tatiana (otherwise known as The Social Worker Lady) -- the only thing I can read is my signature ...... Gabi's first night with us went so well -- she slept all night, woke up this morning and was dressed and had her bed made before I was done with my shower. If that's what happens once she's in school, mornings will be a piece of cake .....

Our ride to the passport photo office cancelled so we walked the 2 miles, at least the rain stopped this morning. Once we arrived they ushered Gabriela back for her picture -- she was told not to smile but no matter how much she tried she could not keep a straight face so she's going to be grinning on her visa and passport. The strict passport picture taker was not a happy lady!From there we went to the passport filing office and in 15 minutes we were done ..... that's all we needed to do today -- the longest part was the walk!

We ventured out again after lunch and found a little book fair going on at the park -- we checked things out and were just heading to the playground area when a call came through on the cell phone I was given .... it was Rossi and she said there was an URGENT SITUATION -- my heart dropped, I know what happened when Yulia called and used those words ...................... Gabriela can not be issued her Visa because the US Embassy in Sofia does not have/can not find the cable 37 from the Milwaukee office of Immigration .............. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

And then, it's 3 p.m. here but it's only 7 a.m. in Wisconsin and I need to call Jack to see if he can contact the necessary offices -- I'm told I can use the cell phone they gave me to reach him. I try to call the USA but am locked out and need a pin # -- no one here knows the pin # ..... how am I supposed to reach Jack????? He's not on his computer at work much -- who could I e-mail, everyone would be getting ready for work or still in bed EXCEPT .......... Mary @ EMS -- I sent off an e-mail and within 15 minutes Jack was e-mailing me --- THANK YOU Mary for calling Jack and asking him to check his e-mails!!!!

Here's what the poor girls did while I spent the day working on the computer -- they both know something is going on -- Hailee understands but I had to have Rossi explain a bit to Gabi because she was following me around constantly and the look she gave me told me she was feeling the pressure.
The problem is being worked on ........ that's all I know right now. I've exhausted every person/office I can think of to e-mail, Jack's made phone calls, Kay from TOL is calling & writing, we've contacted our homestudy agency -- there's nothing more I can do from here ..... except WORRY that is!

Once again we are told this is the FIRST TIME anything like this has happened .......... why to us???? Someone said that they know God has a sense of humor but they wish that he would stop trying it out on us ............. I wish that too!!! Asking for prayers once again that this gets straightened out quickly -- I haven't asked what it means if it doesn't, I'm too afraid to know what the answer may be.

Had to get out of the apartment after awhile so the girls and I decided to go out for dinner .... guess where we went????? Here's another clue ..............................
And if you haven't figured it out yet ......

This was Gabi's first time at McDonalds -- when asked what she wanted to eat she pointed to the fries ..... she got a happy meal cheeseburger -- which she loved. I think she's hooked! The food wasn't too bad really -- no salt on the fries which has a different taste to them. Hailee and I had the "chicken pieces" which tasted almost like home. Gabi wanted to try the ice cream cone -- not sure if she like it as she only ate about 1/2 of it - -then again, she might have been full.

By the way Payton -- check out the shirt Gabriela chose to wear this morning ... does it look familiar??? It works well because it has a tie in the back that we could pull tighter - just a bit long.

I think that's it for today ..... it's going to be another long night I think ......... hoping that God has a plan for all this .......