Declaring the birth

Baby and family are doing well and adjusting to the routine. Well, maybe you should check back in next week. After all my mom is still here helping out. Next week may be a whole other story. So far though Charlotte seems to be a calm baby who sleeps a lot.

We went to declare her birth today and of course ran into tons of snags. In Mexico when you have the baby at the hospital you get a birth certificate with the sex marked off and an imprint of the newborn's footprint. That's the only thing that really identifies the baby before leaving the hospital. Then within thirty days afterwards you need to register the birth with the government, declaring the name and recording the child as a Mexican citizen.

The office for the declaration was really difficult to find. Luckily we had someone help us find it, someone from the first office we accidently went to. He was really nice and said "You aren't at the right place but I'll lead you there." He was really sweet and drove across town just to help us. When we found the office it was really shabby and so dirty I refused to sit or put the baby seat on the floor. I'm not being a snobby American germ freak either. My god it was filthy with dirt piled up along the baseboards. And it was very poorly furnished. The front desk was a dirty, old chipped up folding table. The only other visible office equipment was an old IBM typewriter from 30 years ago. This was a government office? I was really shocked.

We discovered we couldn't do our declaration today but we'd have to get our marriage certificate (livret de famille) translated, show up with a few more papers and bring two Mexicans as witnesses. We asked for exact instructions on what we'd need and the receptionist pulled up a folding chair, took a scrap of paper and typed what we'd need on the old IBM typewriter while a line of people waited. It took her ten minutes. As we waited patiently I watched the man next to me struggle to fill out a document on the edge of the wobbly folding table. He wrote everything in giant, two inch high capital letters. It was clear to me that he didn't write much and I felt sorry for him --and suddenly as is often the case here, very grateful for what I had and for the privilege of my education.

We got sent on a wild goose chase for a translator. We finally found the one the office had reccommended to us and then discovered that she only translated Spanish to English. She then sent us on another chase to the Alliance Francaise to find a French translator. We gave up and Seb decided hat maybe it was better to call around first. We were all exhausted.

Charlotte will hopefully be declared soon so that we can begin the process of getting her French and American passports. We'd like to visit France, see the progress on our house and see the family. Our first visit back will probably be in January if all the paperwork gets processed and we can get her legal. We're eager to show off our little bundle and of course eat some cheese and fill our suitcases full of wine.