It’s crazy to think that it’s already our last day in Delhi… it really feels like we are literally half a world away from our families… and the US seems forever removed from where we are right now. Returning to reality (fantasy?) will be strange after experiencing what the world is like outside the fluffy insulation that is the country we were lucky enough to call home. We have no idea what true poverty is like. For goodness’ sake… we have fat homeless people. No one sleeps naked on the street. We throw away more food in a day than some people here eat in a week. Processing this trip might take awhile.
The Fadelys started out with a little video chat with their family back home…
and then met the driver at 8 am to go to the US Embassy to (finally!) pick up Dorothy’s visa…
This is the road to the Embassy. We couldn’t do photos of the actual Embassy building (even just the outside)… in fact, there were no electronic devices of *any* kind allowed there.
When Eric and Tisra got back, they had some Very Important Documents in their hands (err… feet)…
and a very happy little Resident Alien of the United States of America…
We went to the hotel restaurant for a little lunch to celebrate… Dorothy showed off her skills with the sippy cup.
After lunch, we went shopping!
even Eric found some things he thought were interesting.
We got some clothes for all of us (even Eric got a couple shirts!).
The shopping emporium was pretty cool - at each little shop you placed your order and received a printed receipt, then you paid for everything at once at the register, and picked up all your paid items before leaving the building.
It was quite a successful trip…
for me too!
We spent the evening doing the final packing up our things…
Dorothy is getting better at entertaining herself…
Tisra dressed Dorothy in her new outfit from our day’s shopping excursion…
and we went up for one last meal before leaving the Saptagiri hotel forever. By this time, we were all pretty beat.
But we did make a new discovery of our Most Favorite Drink Ever in India, Limca! Of course it had to be mere hours before we left! haha!
At 8 pm, we leaded to the airport…
and unloaded the car.
It was time to say our thankful, tearful goodbyes…
and make our promises to email often.
And then we had to figure out how to navigate the foreign airport on our own. “The Enforcer” was already on his way to pick up the next family who was set to arrive within the hour.
It was time for us to go…
Dorothy got to show her passport for the first time!
Then she showed us how much of a Big Girl she really is.
Tisra got to call home and tell her kids it was time to bring their baby sister to meet them!
And once again, we were on an airplane.
and we discovered that Dorothy really really likes to push buttons. She spent much of her awake time on the flight playing with whatever buttons she could see.
and I enjoyed the fact that God was smiling upon me when I had an empty seat to my left.
We were close to the back of the plane, so this is where we hung out when Dorothy fussed or when we just needed to stretch our legs.
The flight attendants loved Dorothy and were so excited to hear about her adoption story.
The flight back to the US was definitely more comfortable than the flight to India!
Next post… Homecoming! ♥
by jessie
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