Li-ittle Things

According to Trinity Roots, it's the little things that really matter. This has been a week of little things that have all added up to create one gigantic headache, and phew, I'm ready to curl up in a ball and just sob. In fact, I've done that a bit this week, hate to admit. Am tired, at the end of my patience, and daydreaming more than ever of the hundred different ways to smuggle a small baby back to Abu Dhabi. Actually there aren't a hundred different ways. There isn't even one way. We're waiting out the official way. That's the problem, as this never-ending waiting feels literally, never-ending.

Our enemy for this week has been technology. Our weak internet connection - through the neighbour's wireless - seemed to be fixed by the installation of a booster thingamigiggy. But once again, that was a short-lived victory, and once again, I'm sitting out by the neighbour's front door trying to connect. It's not the end of the world, as I can still hear Maya (if she really yells) from out there, so I go out once she's gone to bed at night. It's a bit chilly, but nothing a jersey and scarf can't fix. So I was willing to accept this less-than-ideal internet connection, until all our bankcard woes began. And the neighbour's extended family have come to visit and the father-in-law was looking askance at me this morning, as I was sitting in their garden desperately trying for a signal.

Turns out every single bank or credit card we have, between the two of us, has had some kind of block or cancellation put on it, due to some dodgy withdrawals in Russia, goodness knows where else, and as it turns out Mexico. Have been using my bankcard here with no issues for months, and suddenly the bank decides that hello, someone is withdrawing money in Tijuana - better block it. Weirdly, apparently I called our bank in Abu Dhabi to tell them about fraudulent use, so they cancelled it on my behalf. Huh???

Even my emergency bankcard has been blocked, apparently for quite some time, and I didn't know because I never use it, until in desperation, I tried yesterday. And apparently all these banks (all two of them!) have been trying to let us know this, but because I'm here, I'm not getting my mail. Ahhh, one thing leads to another and until things fall apart, we blithely march on, totally unaware.

So, Ahmed and I have been trying to sort all this out with gmail chat that dies every time I step more than a few feet away from the neighbour's house, or the wind blows in the wrong direction, or a bird flies past, or something, I don't know how these things work...

I would probably be dealing with all this nonsense better if we didn't have the frightening prospect of the whole adoption process coming to a standstill for a month while the court closes for Christmas holidays. We are still waiting for Maya's biological mother to sign off the adoption (that's a whole other story), after which there are ten working days of... something? until the final decree is issued. And with a total of fifteen working days left until the court's holiday, I'm getting nervous. So far none of the times we've been desperately hoping against hope that something will go our way has it actually worked in our favour. So my gut feeling is a whole extra month of sitting and waiting until court reopens.

Ok, finish off with a little nice news: Ahmed is coming back over here for a week from the 2nd December. He has a holiday then, and can't bear to sit around Abu Dhabi while we're still here, so once again, crazy long flight, a week to get over the jetlag, and then he's off again! He'll be bringing my replacement bankcard, and the next stage of Maya's clothing - 9 -12 months - and some cold weather clothes, and we can't wait!!! It's the prospect of visits that make this crazy process bearable.

Perhaps our bankcards/credit cards have all died from exhaustion after overuse on all these crazy flights back and forth...