Busy Week

It was busy, but productive. We left our house at 5:30am on Wednesday to head to Guatemala City. Our first order of business was Heidi's OB appointment to check on Mommy. Mommy is fine. She got her stitches out and everything looks great.

The next order of business was to go to the hospital to get Isaac's birth certificate. But there, amazingly, we learned about one more step. At the hospital, we didn't get a birth certificate. We got a letter saying that Heidi gave birth to a live baby - unnamed - and no father was listed. Thanks a lot.

So we had to drive across town (never fun in Guatemala City) and find a municipal building and wait in some lines and pay some fees and... and... and... Well, you've dealt with governments before, you understand.

However, the hand of God was on us and we actually secured an original birth certificate for Isaac Edward Bell Bell. No, that's not a typo. Here in Guatemala, the law states that your name is your first name, your middle name, the last name of your father and the last name of your mother. The girl at the desk wanted to know if we were brother and sister. Thanks but we're not from Arkansas!

Anyway, we explained that the custom in the U.S. is for the wife to change her last name to her husband's last name and that people only have one last name. She looked at us like we were aliens. The guy next to her obviously had more experience with gringos and explained the custom to her again. Same look on her face. We're aliens.

Anyway, we got his birth certificate with both last names, drove to the U.S. Embassy, secured a boatload of copies and (fortuitiously) some passport pictures of Isaac. Yes, even a two-week-old needs a picture ID to do international travel. Again, the hand of God was on us and we got Isaac's U.S. citizenship applied for, passport applied for, and were told that the whole mess will be ready in ten days. Ten U.S. days, even! (The exchange rate on "days" is rather variable.)

So, supposedly, in a week and a half, Isaac will have his American citizenship papers, his American passport, and we'll be able to apply for a social security number at that point. He will then be eligible for benefits he'll likely never receive from a system that's going bankrupt and some crazy crook will be able to steal his brand new identity. Whew! The joys of being an American! (Oh, and he'll be a birthright citizen of the richest, most blessed country in the world... just as an aside, though!)

After all that, we got to Isaac's pediatrician's appointment where we found that he has nearly regained all of his lost weight, looks healthy as a horse, and has several very nice (and English-speaking) pediatricians. Our pediatrician is a member of a practice in Guatemala City - and one of the members has a brother (also a doctor) in the U.S. who does mission trips to Guatemala. So we introduced ourselves (always working, right?)

Then we went to our hotel near the airport, crashed for the night, did a bit of shopping this morning, got Matt's parents off to the airport, and headed for home. The only bummer of the week was that we somehow managed to convince our computer that all websites are okay except hotmail. How this happened we'll probably never know, but if you want to email us, try the gmail account - we have no idea when hotmail will be working again! (Our "work" account is:

agapeinaction.gt@gmail.com

- don't forget the .gt or you'll get Carrie, who is very friendly and helpful, but is probably not the intended recipient of your note.)