AIT Appointment

We made it to our AIT (American Institute in Taiwan) Appointment without incident yesterday. We reviewed our instructions prior to leaving, so knew that the building would not be marked due to security reasons, but we should look for a building with a long line and not get in line, but go up to one of the security guards to be let in.

There certainly was a long line of Taiwanese outside the building and down the block. We were thankful not to have to stand in that line. We arrived too early (7 am) for our 8 am appointment and decided to stop at McD's for a coffee. The first real coffee I've had all week - ok, I use the term real loosely, but I've been drinking instant nescafe at the hotel. We went back to the security guards at 7:30 and they told us to come back in 15 minutes. So we walked around a bit enjoying the spectacle of rush hour traffic interspersed with hundreds of mopeds.

We came back and showed our passports to the security guard and confirmed we had an appointment. We had to leave our camera before going through security. They asked Troy for another ID and all we had were our passports. He tried to leave a credit card, but she replied with an emphatic NO. They finally just let him leave it and gave him a claim check. We made it through security A-Ok and per our instructions headed to the third floor Immigrant Visa office. Once the "Today's Appointment" window opened up, we stood in line and told them we were there for our adoption exit interview and took a seat.

Mr. Fu called our name and reviewed our documents with us. We had fedexed our originals several weeks ago for their review, but had a complete copy on hand in case there were any problems. Troy had to sign and date several documents and then sign Kaylee's passport on her behalf. He then gave us an invoice and told us to go to the 2nd floor to pay and come back with the receipt.

We went to the 2nd floor and once the cashier window opened paid our $380 fee, took our receipt and headed back to the 3rd floor, turned it in and were told to wait on the right side of the room to have our names called for our interview. Kaylee was such an angel the entire time. They had a little play mat in the corner of the room and I started playing with her. There was a little boy and his grandmother there who were enthralled with her and kept giving her all kinds of toys to play with or look at. The boy's little sister was apparantly jealous of all the attention she was getting and wanted nothing to do with her. Everyone has been calling her Mei Mei, which means baby girl.

After a bit, our names were called, we were sworn in regarding the validity of our statments and we were briefly interviewed by an American. The questions were very simple and the process went smoothly. He then told us we were done for the day and should come by Wednesday any time after 11:30 am to pickup Kaylee's Visa and passport. As we were leaving, we noticed signs saying the office closed from noon to 1:30 pm, so guess we'll make sure to get there at 11:30 am. We stopped for our camera on the way out and went to the opposite corner to try and take a picture of Kaylee and I with the AIT building behind us. No sooner was the photo taken and a security guard materialized and instructed Troy to delete the picture and watched while he did it.

Hopefully all went well with our paperwork and we'll have her final documents today - then no more appointments, just pure Kaylee enjoyment!