In my mind, this week was supposed to be the quickest and best part. Lots to do...passports and visas to get. And outta here! But the week here hasn't exactly gone as planned. Our attorneys believed we had everything we needed to take the new birth certificates (with our names on them) to get the kids passports. First hiccup, something extra is needed before the birth certificates are certified. That issue got resolved Tuesday morning, just to run into another hiccup. The law has changed (which is does way too often here) and now to get a passport, all 5 kids need a new Peruvian ID with the Sterling name on them. Their life story and new birth certificates are not enough. We ran around like crazy people, trying to have exactly what we needed to get these ID's before the office closed at 5. 5:01, the employees are rushing out of the building, pushing us out as well. No ID's. Apparently, the kids home towns, where we had to chase down the new birth certificates last week, also needed to send some other piece of paper. 4/5 are easier to obtain. 1 truly requires a man to ride a donkey again to the nearest city with internet! Yes, we have gone back in a time warp. We still don't know if the donkey rider moved at warp speed or not and got this document scanned. And by this point, I had lost my sense of humor. I cried. And had it not been for 5 faces that hadn't seen me melt down before, I would have cried harder. There is this feeling of complete frustration when you have no control over the inefficiencies and ridiculous rules! I can't even control when we eat. I just drag my 6 kids that are here all over the city with me! It's a little bit like running around with your eyes closed!
And I could go on and on. Today wasn't exactly the most productive day either. In the midst of trying to get some things done so that we can do what we came here to do....the attorneys got in a rush and sent our 2 taxis to 2 very different locations. I know when my car with the boys arrived that it wasn't where Scott's car was going. But knowing that and knowing how to get where I needed to go was a whole different thing. No phone. No kind person or business willing to let me use their phone. No taxi that knew where the street our hotel is on is located. It's a big city people, buy a Garmin! Fortunately, a Peruvian/American overheard me and offered to help. She walked with us to a Starbuck's to get Wifi and we had to show a cab driver a map to get us to our hotel! Scott had been waiting outside the hotel for over an hour, making up crazy stories in his head about what happened to us! I've never wanted to leave a place more in my entire life!
So here's the real deal--we need some miracles for this week to turn around. We need people to move fast and have customer service that is out of their norm. And maybe that is part of the "Sterlings Crazy Story" that God is writing. Maybe it isn't! Honestly, I have no gut either way. I am truly walking with my eyes closed, prayerful that some part of this is teaching my kids what it looks like to really trust God. Like really believe Him. We know that He is capable of the things we need done this week. They are a cake walk for Him in fact. We just don't know what He will choose. And that's okay, He is still God. And He still writes the best stories.
His stories are so good in fact, that we came home tonight, emotionally exhausted. And Scott looks up and sees this picture:
Continuing to pray. Looking forward to spending some time with Logan tomorrow. I asked her to come out to the office for lunch, visit, and maybe staff meeting in Scott's place.
ReplyDeleteLove the picture!