More progress!

So today I woke up at 5:45am and loaded the girls' carseats, stroller, portacribs and diaper bag and took the girls to H's house at 6:15. I then took H's van to Meknes (2 hours away) to meet the judge to sign the paper that Rome wants.
I had packed something for breakfast in the car but forgot to eat it on the way. I wasn't hungry so I forgot.
I met the lawyer, H, and he had me follow him to this one courthouse and we waited for over an hour. H doesn't speak much English so we relied on gestures a lot. I was getting stared at a lot and the song from Sesame Street "One of these things is not like the others" was running through my head. It seemed worse today. Then again, maybe it was because I didn't have children distracting me so I noticed it more.
OK, this next part is gross but I have to share. :) If you have a weak stomach, skip down to the part after the astericks!
So, I'm waiting for the judge and I hear this guy coming up the stairs coughing up phelgm and I heard him spit it out. Now I'm thinking "Surely he didn't just spit that out on the stairs of the courthouse!" Then he came up the stairs and sat next to me. He again starts coughing up the phelgm and I saw the CLEAR plastic bag that he was spitting in! I thought I was going to be sick; especially since I didn't eat breakfast! I was trying to be polite but also turn away so I didn't have to see his bag. I don't know if my green face or the way I turned my body caught the attention of the policeman but he came over and started questioning the guy. The guy appeared to be homeless so he may have just been looking for a place to hang out. All I know is when the policeman finished talking to him he got up and left!
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So, the judge came an hour late and apologized. Although my friend, Z, explained what I needed the day before, the judge wanted to know again what I wanted. Fortunately I had a French translation of the phrase that Rome was demanding and in broken Arabic, French and English explained what I needed. He said ok, wrote some stuff down and then got on the phone.
Then he dismissed Hamid and I and Hamid asked me to call Z to translate.
Z explained that the judge that was going to sign was on vacation but we would go to his house and he would sign it there.
Hamid and I ended up going back and forth between the courthouse and his office and on our last visit at the courthouse, Hamid said the judge was here and he signed the document. By this time it was 1pm. I took Hamid back to his office and hit the autoroute back to Rabat to get the document to the translator. Normally, the translator takes about 4 or 5 days to translate a document like the one I got today. I was hoping they would be able to do it faster.
Fortunately H's car has diplomatic plates so the police never stopped me for going a bit over the speed limit.
At some point during the day when I called H to check on the girls she asked me if I had heard from the Ambassador's secretary because she was looking for me. I didn't get a call but I figured there was something to report from Rome.
I got to the translator's office in Rabat before they closed and they asked what I needed and I will admit that I batted the eyelashes, flicked the hair and smiled a LOT and asked if there was ANY way they could have the document translated by noon tomorrow. He asked me where Josh was and I explained how he and Andrew had to leave last week and how the girls and I were all alone and how we needed this one document translated and then we could go home! I was prepared to pay extra for the rush job but the guy said he'd do it for regular price. I then headed to H's to get see the girls and have dinner with H.
When I got to H's she told me that she had just forwarded an e-mail from the Ambassador's secretary. Basically Rome responded to the Ambassador's inquiry and made it sound like "All she has to do is 1) get her homestudy ammended 2) get the document we want with the specific words from the judge and 3) get her background check back from the FBI."
I shot back with 1) my caseworker faxed the ammendment LAST Friday but they claim that never happened. I have since asked my caseworker to scan me a copy so can send it again to Rome. 2) I managed, with the help of friends, to get the judge to sign what they wanted but they are still frustrated that I needed something different than the other Americans and 3) M in Casablanca should hear any day now about my FBI check but that I also had a contact with the FBI who had my fingerprints on a digital file and could send them to the FBI office of Rome's choice and have a background check within 48 hours but so far they have declined. I went on to explain that I have asked Rome if there was anything else that was needed and that they have told me that they will tell me after I get these 3 things resolved first but that it would make more sense to tell me NOW what I need to fix and give me the opportunity to do it now rather than sit on it.
So I had a delicious dinner with H thanks to her wonderful housekeeper and the girls were happy but tired from a fun day with H.
I got home and put the girls to bed and took a nice shower and plan to enjoy a good night's rest.
Tomorrow I'll pick up the translation and then scan and send it to Rome. Hopefully my background check will be finished as well and my caseworker will have sent me a digital copy of the ammendment so I can re-send that to Rome.
Please keep the prayers coming and hopefully I'll be done with Rome any day now. It will take about 2 days from when Rome is finished before Casablanca can pick it up and then they'll need a full day to issue the visas. Figuring all that in plus Labor Day weekend, I'm hoping to be home sometime next week. We'll see. I'm trying not to get my hopes up though!
--Rachel