The Magic Flying Envelopes

Happy Thanksgiving!! We sure are enjoying our four & three-quarter pound turkey!

Amber and Emily went to the children's hospital for her checkup today and she weighs 2.165 kg - 100 grams more than her birth weight! So she's doing well. She's the most we've had to be thankful for in a long, long time.

Brian just got back from Delhi with the second sealed magic envelope. Wow! What a process! Left at 3 am, back at midnight, six more hours of waiting. Thank goodness Amber and I are able to divide and conquer. Brian thinks that seeing his girls sleeping peacefully makes it all worthwhile, and then some.

To say that the exit visa process is inefficient and frustrating - if you're just looking at it from the perspective of our western expectations - would be true but oversimplified. I mean, even in my worst DMV/TSA experience ever I never waited as long as this day after day after day, and then at least when you took a number at the DMV you knew your number and could expect to be called sequentially! But there is something elegant and poetic about how things are accomplished here in the midst of what appears to us to be chaos.

But I digress. If you ever have to do this magic envelope dance, here's some advice. Be patient. Its going to take a while. Be persistent. Don't let yourself be the last person there who never got called. Stay calm and above all, bring a good book!!

So its one more step accomplished in the process and tomorrow morning back at the Hyderabad FRRO we'll find out what is in the envelope! Either its the detailed investigation and another trip to Delhi (another week? 2?) or its the inquiry and the exit visa (2-3 days, give or take) ..... hopefully the later!