Yesterday we waited and waited and waited some more, but finally the obstetra arrived and was able to see us around 10:30–a two-hour wait isn’t horrible.
I am convinced the obstetra had not had her coffee that morning. She was rather unpleasant. She gave us an interrogación that lasted over an hour, during which she tried repeatedly to get us to confess to our babies dying during home birth.
I did feel sorry for her, though. I’m still struggling with my limited grip on the language, and that made answering her questions intelligently difficult. For example, she wanted proof that Stephanie and I were married, so I gave her a certificate from the States that I said proved we were cansado. She was very confused.
You see, the word cansado means we are tired; while the word casado means we are married. I assured her we were both. The pediatra said it was so much easier when my tall friend (Rafael) was here to translate.
In the end we did get the birth certificate from her. Praise the Lord!
She then told us we are to have no more babies because six is way too many. She said if our neighbors see us having more babies, they will want to have more. That will be a problem because that is too many children and would make more work for her.
We left rejoicing. We took the birth certificate to show Rafael and Elisabet. Rafael then offered to go with us to the municipio to get Walter registered. We were very thankful he did.
It was shortly before 1:00 when we got there, which is right after lunch. The man in charge was not grumpy, but he was not interested in helping, either. No puedo. No tengo stickers. No hay solución.
Rafael kept pushing him to look for the necessary paperwork. The man said it’d be maybe three months before he could help us. Rafael wasn’t leaving until we were taken care of. At last the man found his paperwork and his stickers–they were in his desk drawer–and started on the process.
The certificate is done. Walter is officially registered as born. The only mistake is that the document says I’m an extranjera. The official got a big kick out of that. He thought it was hilarious, but insisted he could not change it. I have my suspicions.
We then went to RENIEC again to apply for the DNI. They said come back tomorrow after we’ve gotten a picture of Walter for his passport. We tried stopping at a place to get the pictures, but Walter was sleeping. The man was very fearful of waking him up. “He’ll just cry, and I can’t have a crying baby! Come back when he’s awake and happy and normal.”
Of course, Walter woke up once we were on the combi headed home. He may have woken up from the noise the drunk man was making who was declaring how beautiful Steph was.
We had not eaten lunch, it was 3:30 when we got home, and I was exhausted from all the Spanish. I fell asleep on the couch.
Lamar’s had invited Fernando’s for supper and said we could come, too. We were glad to spend some time with their company before they leave Thursday. Esmeralda has missed several Sundays at church, so I suggested we sing together after supper. I hope it was the balm to her soul that it was to mine.
Fernando isn’t interested in church or God, so our singing is the only gospel exposure he gets. I pray God can use it to reach him.
We celebrated Lyndon’s birthday with a beautiful cake. Steph also had brought a delicious pumpkin dessert that served as a welcome companion. Since it was Lyndon’s birthday, and he is all grown up, he was given a new name by the Starbucks barista. I won’t tell you what it was, but I thought it was very lindo.
Today Steph and I head back to town for what we hope is the final step in this eventful journey. When we return home, Walter should be an official Peruano.
Thanks for praying.
Juan David 