a seat at the table: Visa interview day.

Another big day began with lunch at 11:00. Miss Oh took us to an office building nearby the US Embassy to eat before our visa interview. We all put in requests for food and Miss Oh did the ordering, since you checked squares on a form to order which was written in Thai. A few minutes later, bowl and plate after bowl and plate showed up on our table. They were passed around family style so we could try lots of new foods and flavors.

Anyone want to guess what the brown cubes are in the curry above?

Coagulated blood cubes. Um, yes. I did say cubes of dried up blood. ...and yes, that is T about to take a big bite. Thai delicacy, for sure. I wasn't brave enough to try it.

J and T's daughter C kept us laughing by packing food into her mouth. Hours later J would have to fish it out before she fell asleep. Many orphanage children store food in their cheeks, maybe because they want to get as much food as possible? They may not trust when they will get more? Not sure, but Sweet P has started doing this occasionally since we arrived home.

Bathroom pictures don't usually make the blog, but I had to take this one for two reasons. 1. C is so darn cute and tiny! She is hardly taller than J's knee when she is standing! 2. I should have observed others grabbing toilet paper before entering the stall... that got me in trouble a time or two and I had to holler for help. Many Thai restrooms had both "western toilet" (as in the only kind you see in America) and otherwise (as in squatty potties that I first encountered in Japan).

We left from lunch to go across the street to the US Embassy. We were escorted into a waiting room after being screened and checking in our cameras. No pictures are allowed in or around the Embassy, including on the street outside. The visa interview consisted of us going up to a bank-like window and signing a few forms for our paperwork in front of an American Embassy employee.

So, here's where the huge smiles come from... the US govt was expecting a shut-down. When we went to the window to submit our paperwork, the lady told us Sweet P's visa would hopefully be ready in a matter of hours (instead of days) in case the shutdown did indeed happen. The guys in our group waited it out while the mommies took the kids back to the hotel to rest.

K returned with visa in hand just before dinner. HOORAY! Right away our wheels started turning, and K got on the phone to see about changing our airline tickets. It was Friday. Our flight home to our other two kiddos wasn't until Wednesday. Praise the Lord, we were able to change them without charge! Then days later our last three hotel nights were refunded! Blessings all around.

For our next-to-last night in Bangkok, we hit a really small night market nearby our hotel. I had a few more purchases to make for Sweet P to give as gifts later in life: graduation, wedding, etc. I was also able to snag a beautiful photo of a floating market that will hang in our home in Nevada.