Finally Court documents have arrived!

Thursday our court documents were finally in hand.  A week later then expected but finally here.  We had the Citizenship forms, supporting documents and photos all ready to go so it was sent off the same day.  

In addition to this application being sent the Citizenship offices requires proof of a number of applications filed with the South Africa government.  Name change, new Birth Certificates etc.  I have never had the pleasure of experiencing this part of the process as Adam always just went to the office of Home Affairs on his own but this time they were requiring mothers fingerprints and signatures as well.  So on Friday at noon we warned the kids this would NOT be a fun trip and we may have to wait a LONG time and off we went to the office.  

When we arrived the place was fairly packed.  We waited and then Adam handed in all the forms.  We waited a good while more, moved seats and filled in a form for our ink fingerprints.  We waited some more and then were in a group called into the office, waited some more and then had our ink fingerprints completed.  We were then told we needed a photo to go on our fingerprint page.  

This fancy business is parked just out front!

5 minutes and your photos are done😁

So outside the building we went, with all 4 kids, to this lovely establishment and had our photos in hand within 5 minutes.  Oh my!  We often just laugh about some of the things we experience because you would have to see it to believe it!

We then proceeded back into the building to wait again.  We paid the fees, were handed a receipt for documents filed(which is all we really needed) and finally were able to leave.  The entire experience took about 2 hours which considering a large number of the people in the building were lined up first thing in the morning and were still there waiting is really not that bad.  

Our representative here tries to prep us as much as possible but as the process is so dependent on who is behind the desk there are often additions and subtractions.  I asked the couple who were here just previous to us if they had to have a photo taken and they did not?  Always a mystery!  Just adds to the overall experience.  

We then emailed copies of these receipt to the Citizenship office so they have proof we filed them. 

Mathematically speaking we need to see S Citizenship granted sometime next week or we are looking at bumping our flights.  Praying it is so!  but ready to be flexible should that not be in God's plan.  

Kids are still enjoying themselves (Home Affairs was not their favorite) but we followed up with a milkshake at Wimpy's to make it more pleasurable. We do our best to get out every couple days to help pass the time and really experience the area we are in.  

Cargo ship watching on the Indain ocean

Ushaka Marine World