Thursday, February 3, 2011

American Soil

Today was the first time that the squirts were on American soil.  (Sorry, but just about everything is a "first" for them, so even trivial things get lots of ink.)  Yep, we took a short family trip to the US Embassy.  Just going there made me miss home.  Notwithstanding how much we miss America, we were ecstatic at how short the trip was.  We arrived early for our 10 am appointment, were met early, and, even after a detailed review of all of our documents, we were out the door by 11.  The best part, we picked up the Twinkies' passports at 2:30 pm the same day.

First, a big thanks to the folks at the Embassy, especially to Nancy Hamilton.  If any of you are going through the same process in Delhi, please contact the Embassy early and keep them up to speed on your baby's (or babies') progress.  Nancy, in particular, was a great resource, helping to ensure that we knew what documents we needed and had everything ready before we arrived.  It was the kids' first trip since they left the hospital and her help keeping it to a minimum was much appreciated.

Fortunately, the kids were both great all day.  They only woke up for a few seconds each.  After a 30 minute effort yesterday to wake them up for their passport photos with them closing their eyes just when the picture was about to be taken, we got to the Embassy to find out that the photos were the wrong size.  They have a photographer at the Embassy (we should have just used him in the first place) and the babies each work up perfectly on cue and them promptly fell back to sleep.  Maybe they do have a future in film.

So, for anyone who's keeping tally, we have the birth certificates, we have the passports, and now we need to exit visas.  In the past, that has taken up to two weeks.  Hopefully, however, we will benefit from the work of folks who have gone before us and the process will be a bit faster.  Fingers crossed.  Then the kids can see more American soil.

Oh, and in other good news, they have both doubled their food intake with each feeding, we've shortened the time between feedings a bit, and they are still usually hungry when feeding time comes around.  Granted, they tend to get very sleepy for the second half of their feedings, but they are definitely eating more.  Can't wait for their checkup on Saturday to see if they've continued to gain weight.  Jenny's probably not quite as excited, since she will have to start her Hep B vaccine if she breaks 1.85-1.90 kg.

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