Coming Home!!

The calf is roped, feet tied, hands thrown in the air, call it, "TIME!!"

I am both optimistic and fearful even as I write this post.
Today, we pick up our visas.
Tomorrow, we board a plane.

Monday was our appointment with the embassy. As usual, we had a hiccup.
When we went on Friday to have our paperwork reviewed, it was pointed out to us that on one of the papers, Flavia's birth father's name was misspelled, but that, "We could fix it."
Now we had already used some white out on other papers, so we figured that would be the same for this error as well.
When we showed up to pay for the visas on Monday as we were told to, the woman asked if we got the new corrected document from the lawyer's office.
We looked blankly at her and said, "You never said to get a NEW paper, you said we could fix it."
She shook her head and said, "No, you need a new paper."
I ran downstairs to where our phone was kept in a locker, and proceeded to frantically call Rashid repeatedly every 5 minutes for almost a half hour. Luckily he was already going to meet with our lawyer about another family, so I needed to catch him before he left his office.
God was with us, and got us the new paper that very day before our interview.
The rest of the interview went smoothly and we were granted the visas, then told to pick them up Wednesday, which is standard.

We then went home to book a flight. Then had another hiccup.
I have been watching the flights diligently and noticed the prices going up, up, up. Most flights were averaging $1700-2000 per person, 36-43 hours total.
Imagine the thrill when I found 4 tickets for a 26 hour flight at $1300 per person.

Now imagine our panic when our bank card kept getting blocked.

Apparently our bank has a limit set on how much can be charged on the debit card, and we were going over it.  We attempted to call the bank, and learned that the touch-tone system was not compatible with our borrowed over-seas phone.
::This is the part where I started to panic thinking I would never see U.S. soil again::
Luckily for us, a loving family member let us borrow their card, and all was right with the world.

So, pending no more hiccups, we should be boarding Turkish Airlines Thursday morning at 5:20 am local time, and arriving back to Albuquerque on Friday night.

Please pray for visas in hand, and safe travels. This has been enough excitement for one month already.