Another day....another dollar. For someone else. I cannot stand the immigration officer at INS. He has made things miserable for us! We should've been done on Thursday last week but he insisted we come back this morning. We finally have our Visa appointment for tomorrow morning but he told us to expect alot of questions and to even expect them to deny us. WHY!?!?! No one can tell really. No one knows. They just keep saying things like "She's slow, why do you want a slow child? One who is retarded?" And I just so wanted to ask him "why does your wife want a slow retarded husband???"
So, lemme go back a bit to last week. I am going to have to skip over alot that I wanted to say just to bring you all up to speed on the happenings. So we showed up for the DSDW meeting. We were early along w/ everyone else but it was a pleasant wait. Nok couldn't stand us and most of the time she still can't but she is tolerating us more and more every day. At the meeting we were given Nok's passport since they didn't get it to us before so we could get the medical done. We had tried to call for 2 days to get the passport and no one would answer the phone. Talk about frustration! Doesn't anyone have voice mail here!?!?! Anyway, we sat and waited and we were number 5. There were 17 families and they had 2 meetings going. We met a nice family from Ireland and a German family and another family from the U.S. There were quite a few French and German families there. The meeting went great and they absolutely loved us LOL. They were very pleasant board members and we got down to business right away and got that over w/ in about 10 minutes. Then we sat for another 20 minutes or so just chatting. I'm sure they were making mental notes but mostly it seemed to be curiosity and small talk. I asked if I could take their picture and they were very surpised and happy! We had the social worker take a picture of the three of us w/ the 4 ladies of the DSDW adoption board. We gave them a gift of a box of mixed tea and coffee and they seemed surprised again. We waited on that until just before we left so it didn't seem we were buying them off or anything like that. They were very grateful though and we were all very relaxed and enjoying each others' company. Well, everyone but Nok. They admonished her over and over for being rude (even to them she was rude!) and told her there were three rules to remember. The first was to be a good girl and then the others were things like helping around the house etc. After alot of talking back and forth between them and nothing from Nok they finally raised their voices and she suddenly plastered on a fake smile. As soon as we cleared the building she was back to her old self. Honestly, she acts like a spoiled brat rich kid who is being forced into working for her supper. But, she's getting better! Things are getting much better.
After that meeting we headed right to INS knowing we would never make the Embassy in time. We were right. That jerk kept us there for hours. Finally, we went in to meet him (Kenneth the nerd/jerk/ guy-on-a-powertrip-w/-the-worst-Thai-I-have-ever-heard). Right up front he says " What is the child's name?" When I told him he quickly interrupted me w/ his badly accented and quite horrid Thai and asked Nok instead. She didn't have a clue what he was saying because it was awful! He changed the question and wanted to know how old she was. I started to tell him and he interrupted again and demanded that I "let the CHILD answer". So I waited. I wanted to laugh the entire time. He was such a moron! He brought out a paper and pen and told her to write her name. She stared at it. I told him she couldn't read or write and he insisted of course that she could and she would. Then he changed his mind and told her to write her name in Thai. She couldn't understand his words so I told her to write it (I spoke this in Thai and it made the guy mad). She wrote it and then he wanted her to write something else. She can't of course but he just knew somehow that she was magic and in that moment he had mysteriously instructed her by thought process how to read and write! Then he decided to bring in a translator. Nok told her what her name was and how old she is. The lady asked her to write something and she told them she couldn't read or write. The guy still insists she can and she's just lying. Then the idiot asked who her parents are. She told them the names of her foster parents. He asked if we were aware she had parents. I told him they were foster parents. Then he insisted they were not foster parents, they were her bio parents. So at this point I am ready to leap across the desk and choke his scrawny neck myself! He had the translator repeat the question and had her ask if they were biological. Nok answered yes they were biological ....adoptive parents. Ok, so now the guy is angry at her and repeats the questions all over again. After receiving variations of the answer he asked when was the last time she saw them and she said Tuesday. Of course she saw her foster mother on Tuesday. That was the day we went out there and met her! We told him that. He insisted they must be her biological parents and insisted on getting their phone number. Nok gave them a number. They wrote it down and showed her and asked it if was right. She said yes then repeated a different number back. So, now the guy is angry because Nok is confused and I am patting my girl on the back and telling her telepathically to tell the guy where he can go....politely of course LOL!
So finally we made it out....and yes the guy was alive when we left. I will let him continue to live just to amuse the rest of the normal world. He ended up calling the orphanage to verify and then of course we had to pay for a fax and translations and all that. He wanted us back today. So we went back and he still insisted she could read and write and that he just knew in his mind these people were her parents all though there is no connection or documentation to tie the two together. Sigh....and another wasted day in Bangkok.....
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