another day...

i don't really know what to post about... because my trips to the embassy really aren't that interesting and i'm sure you are tired of hearing about them. but, it's what i do. so here goes another post about the embassy anyway. today was a rough day. not that one day there is really any different than the next. but some mornings i wake up, and i'm totally ready to go sit at the embassy for hours on end. this morning was not one of those mornings. today was my 6th day in a row, and 10th out of the past 13 days that i've been there. i woke up this morning and i did not want to go to the embassy. soooo many things about todays trip frustrated and irritated me, but i won't get into those details. but something else made it hard, too. i looked around at all the faces i recognized. and i recognized them from being at the embassy. everyone there is in the same battle. one very sweet haitian-american couple lives in Florida and is in the process of adopting a 9 month old baby boy. the baby was staying with a care-giver who lost their house in the earthquake. the couple has been in Haiti since Monday trying to get the papers to take their baby home. but they can't. they've been told they need to be finger printed-- but they can't do it here (even though just last week, they were doing finger printing at the embassy). they were told they have to go back to florida to do the prints. and of course, they can't take the baby with them. the care-giver has no home and has since moved away. they have no one else here to leave the baby with. and so they wait at the embassy. wait for something to change. wait for someone to give them a reasonable solution. there is another lady i've seen for several days at the embassy. she has 5 girls, ranging from about 9-13 yrs old. they aren't her children, but she has been caring for them. she is all they have. she was told yesterday that 3 of the girls have sufficient paperwork to get humanitarian parole, but the other 2 do not. she cannot take them with her to the states. i was told by someone else that this lady has said that she will go to the states with the 3 girls and just leave the other 2 at the embassy. i actually do not like this lady, she is not sweet, she is rude and pushy. but my heart breaks for these girls. as i stood at the window at the embassy today, waiting to speak with someone, i had to force myself to hold back tears. i wanted to just break down. for the 5 kids that we are trying to get home to their families. for the other families that have been living at the embassy. waiting and hoping. for the families that i saw at the embassy all week but were not there today because they have given up. because they don't know what else to do. i want to break down because this is more than just 5 kids. this is more than just 5 waiting families. it's hundreds.