Lotus Temple and Shopping!

On Saturday, after we had finished all of our necessary appointments, we enjoyed a free day. We toured the Lotus Temple, drove by the President’s Palace, ate at a revolving restaurant called Parikrama, and then went shopping. 

The Lotus Temple was really neat. It is a beautiful piece of architecture. We had to go through security and that took a little time. They made us pour out all our snacks and water. That was frustrating but I understand the need for the rules. You have to walk a good ways through the gardens and then you get to a point just before the temple where you have to remove and store your shoes. The rest of the tour is completed with bare feet. 

This temple is actually a Bahá'í House of Worship. The Bahá'í religion is sort of a universalist religion that believes in the oneness of God, the oneness of humanity and the oneness of religion. They have a heavy emphasis on silent prayer and their houses of worship are open to all for prayer. While I don’t agree with their religion I could appreciate the beauty of the temple and the serenity of the quiet within. I thought it sad how we, as Christians – believers in the One True God, spend so little time in the quiet focused on prayer. 

The kids did really well at the Lotus Temple. Afterward, while we waited for Ashu to come pick us up, we grabbed some ice cream from one of the street vendors. John also spotted an R.C. Cola sign which was pretty interesting considering our hometown is the birthplace for R.C. Cola. 

[Added at Lance's insistence] So, I totally forgot to mention that we watched a dude get hit by a freaking car! Lance said, "How can you blog about that day without talking about the guy who got hit by a car?" Yeah, I don't know... my brain is mush still. Anyway, we were standing there eating out ice cream and heard a thud and people shouting. We turned around to see a middle age man (Lance thinks he was Italian) getting up out of the road. He seemed stunned but not seriously injured. A policeman ran over and started yelling at the driver who never even got out of the car. The man told the policeman that he was fine and waved off the car. The car moved forward but the policeman was still talking to him. The man who got hit ran back over to the car, laid on the hood and had his friend take his picture. True story. We actually saw him later when we were shopping and he said he was fine. 

We hopped in the van and proceeded to the President’s palace and some of the other official buildings in the area. I honestly don’t remember much of this “tour” because I was in a battle with Rabina in the front seat. She wanted some water so I gave her her cup (that has a lid). I wanted water too so I grabbed a water bottle from the backpack. Well, apparently she wasn’t satisfied with her cup and wanted my full bottle of water which she ripped out of my hands. She spilled it all over us both and started having a meltdown. She was mad at me that she was wet. She yanked her shirt off and refused to put it back on until it was dry. I was less than thrilled by her stubbornness. I think we were all hangry... you know angry because you’re hungry. 

Abhi took us to a really nice revolving restaurant. It’s sort of like the Sundial in Atlanta or Sky City (Space Needle) in Seattle. We’ve actually been to both of these in the states but have yet to actually eat at them because of one reason or another. It was nice to get the full experience at this one in Delhi. The food was really good and pretty cheap compared to what you would pay in the U.S. at a similar restaurant. 

Once we had refilled our energy tanks, we drove to Janpath for some souvenir shopping. Abhi had told us about Janpath earlier but we thought she had said “jackpot.” She had a good laugh at us about that. Janpath is a whole road full of shops and vendors selling all types of colorful goods. It’s a good place to practice your bargaining skills. Abhi taught us that we should start by asking for “Two for the price of one” or half of whatever they were asking. We learned very quickly that the best thing to do was to state the final price you were willing to pay for the item(s) and then if they said no just shake your head and walk away. Eight out of ten times they would call us back to make the deal. It was a really fun experience.

Lance really enjoyed (total sarcasm) the old lady with zero teeth who kept following him around trying to hold his hand. She said he was like her son and therefore he should give her some money. However, she wouldn’t accept anything less than Rs100. She got the same number of Rupees as the number of teeth in her head. Haha. It was pretty entertaining to me. 

My only complaint was that all three girls had to go to the “toilet” and of course not all at the same time. Abhi was an angel and took the older two for me while I was bargaining with a shopkeeper, but when the little one had to go I had the pleasure of accompanying her. The bathrooms were nasty. The floors were soaked with who knows what, the smell of waste was pretty horrid and here I was with a potty-training three year old wearing a diaper who has to hold on with both hands. GAG! My solution? Rabina pee’d in the sink. 

We even saw a monkey hanging out above the entrance to the McDonalds.

Once we had our fill of Janpath, we went back to Dilli Haat. I felt a little more confident this time, so we actually bought some stuff. I spied a lady doing henna, so we promised the girls we would come back and have that done. 

I think this was a really long day for everyone. We were all tired and ready for bed, but of course we had to make it back to our hotel first. :)

Our Embassy Visits

I’m going to try my best to recount all of our Embassy fun for your reading pleasure. I think it will be like a brain workout for me at this point. :)

So, we went to our medical appointment on Tuesday. The embassy was closed Tuesday for Veterans Day, so we had made our visa appointment for Wednesday. We knew we would have to go back again later that week since we wouldn’t have our medical reports back until we had the girls TB test read. Oddly, we didn’t have a specific time to come to the embassy, so we just headed that way somewhere around 10:45. This was a solo mission since Abhi was with our friend Colleen for her medical appointment.

One of the most special things during our trip was meeting my dear friend Colleen, her new son, Elliott, and her mom, Nan. We met them in the lobby of the hotel while we both waited for our drivers to take us to our appointments. Colleen and I were introduced to each other through a small group of adoptive parents who were using the same agency (ICIA). Colleen had waited so long for a referral for a little girl but never got one. But then one day she saw the face of her son whose file was with another agency (this was before they stopped giving files to specific agencies). She had to make the hard decision of staying with our agency and waiting or going with her gut and switching agencies to be matched with this little boy. She took the risk, and it was such a joy to see him in her arms... her reward. Colleen stayed in our hotel, so we got to spend some time with these three in between our appointments. It was so awesome! Elliot is cute as can be!

So, after the always fun adventure of riding in Delhi traffic, we made it to the embassy. The driver and John dropped us off at the check-in point. Security is tight at the US Embassy. No electronics are allowed, so that’s why John didn’t stay with us and there are no pictures of the embassy. We gave them our appointment letter and the guard called somebody on the inside to let them know we were there. We had to leave our phones at the desk outside and then were sent into the security check room which is much like the airport with scanning wands, metal detectors and x-ray machines. They patted us all down including the children. While we were going through all of this they said, “You have a flashlight in your bag?” and I quickly said, “No, probably lipstick.” They pointed it out on the screen and sure enough it was Lance’s little flashlight. They made him take it out and put it with our phones. Then they made him take a sip of all the unopened water bottles. That was a bit odd.  

Finally we made it through the heavy doors into a courtyard area. We walked to the next building and were directed to a specific window... which was empty. There weren’t many people inside the Embassy and I felt like Lance and I were the only Americans. It was very quiet and sterile feeling. I stood at the window and finally somebody came. I don’t really remember what happened but I think I gave them some papers. I just know we had to sit and wait for a while. The kids did awesome. They had a small area with a few kid tables and some Duplo blocks and that was enough to entertain them for a while. 

I think we waited about 30-40 minutes and then got called up for our “interview” which was just a few questions like “Did you encounter any complications?” What a loaded question. Of course, we just said everything was fine since if you start from January 2014, everything WAS fine. They told us we would have to bring the medical forms back in before they would issue the visas, which we already knew. We headed out and collected our stuff. The driver and John picked us up. Apparently, while we waited, John got a nice little tour of New Delhi. 

The embassy is pretty close to the Lodi garden. There’s a restaurant right next to gardens called... wait for it... Lodi. Its a beautiful outdoor restaurant with a good mix of foods. Lance, John and I all ordered steaks. Haha! They were really good. The girls ate fish sticks, chicken fingers, pasta and potato wedges. It was so nice outside. We really loved this restaurant!

We went back to the hotel and took a nap. After a nice little rest, we planned to meet Colleen in the mall, which is attached to the Hilton, for a walk and then eventually dinner together. I had to wake Rabina up to go. I put her in the Ergo and she seemed fine but something freaked her out and she started crying unconsolably. So we headed back to the hotel room. We ended up ordering room service with everyone which turned out to be perfect... except for the rice all over the carpet. I really loved getting to know Colleen and seeing her with her sweet boy! 

On Thursday, we had to go back to the Max Med Centre to get the girls’ TB tests read. I was pretty nervous about Khushboo’s because hers was a little red where the others were completely clear. I wasn’t sure what the redness meant. We were in and out in a matter of 15 minutes. All the girls were clear. Praise the Lord! 

This was a pretty light day. I thought we would be able to take our medical forms back to the embassy directly after getting the TB tests read but that was not the case. They told us to come back the next day to get them. So, we spent a little more time at the mall with the girls. We hung out at Hamleys, a three story toy store. 

On Friday, we went back to the embassy. Abhi had gone with Colleen to get Elliott’s TB test read, so they all met us at the embassy with our medical papers in hand. We dropped them off and were told the visas would be finished that afternoon! Yay! We took Colleen, Nan, Elliot, Abhi and Ashu (a friend who drove us around quite a bit) back to the Lodi Garden Restaurant. Once again it was really good. I had a quesadilla. 

After lunch we went back to the embassy to wait for our visas. Ours were completed and Colleen’s came soon after! They gave us three envelopes filled with papers that were sealed. We weren’t supposed to open these but had to give them to the immigration officers when we landed in Atlanta. They gave us the Hague Adoption Certificates and the passports with the US visas! It felt so good to be DONE! That was the last step of our adoption! All that was left to do was to GO HOME!