slumber party in my room

I'm hoping I can put a few coherent sentences together this morning. Two children decided their bedrooms were much to scary to sleep in so they made their way into the safe house of my room in the middle of the night. And they can't use their ninja-like skills and lay a sleeping bag on the floor. No. That would be much too easy. They have to wake me up (me. Not dad.) and tell me that they are coming into my room to sleep. Then there is an Oscar winning production of making the sleeping bag lie just-so and re-doing it until it's perfect. And, just when I think it's over, the snoring and teeth grinding and talking-in-their-sleep begins.

Then, the cat realized there was a slumber party going on and - well - let's just say that bell on his collar? It shall be no more as of today.

So, it's no wonder that  in this comfortable, peaceful state I could sleep so well   my brain decided to think about everything from my to-do list to how Congress could solve the nation's problems. (Really. I figured it all out! Maybe I should head to DC today!)

If you read through all that, I apologize. Seems I'm a bit touchy about my lack of sleep last night.

So - back to Ellie.

Ellie and I spent the first evening getting to know other adopting families in our hotel. We had a common bond that drew us to each other, and, even though we had just met, it was like we all instantly connected. It was incredible to hear their stories and meet all the little ones who had new families.

The next day, our agency called with the doctor appointment for Ellie. She had to have one last check-up before being cleared to go home. I called Kyle and we arranged for him to fly down in time for her appointment and stay until we could go home. Which, theoretically, should have been the day or two after that.

Kyle came in, and we all headed to the pediatrician's office. While we were sitting in the waiting room, our agency director came in and knelt down in front of us. She said she had some bad news.

Our "pink slip" - permission to travel home - had not come through. Evidently a form we needed from USCIS (citizenship and immigration services) never arrived. It should have been an easy fix.  However, ours had been filed in the New Orleans office, and since Hurricane Katrina had come through. It was completely shut down. All files were in transit to another office and no one seemed to know where or how to find them.

I was very disappointed, but not too concerned. Yet.

We were told to head to Antigua for the weekend and enjoy the time sight-seeing with our little girl. Surely things would be taken care of by Monday.

So, we arranged a hotel and travel and left for a weekend adventure to one of the most beautiful cities in the world.