becoming american

Our trip to Curacao to go to the US Embassy was stressful and successful and exhausting.

Fletcher went on his first plane ride ever! it was on the smallest plane I have ever been on. It sat 8 passengers, but only 4 others flew with us over to Curacao. it was kind of scary, but it was a very short flight and luckily Fletch slept the entire time. Good boy. Unfortunately though our flight was delayed and so we got to Curacao a little later than we planned. That made us nervous because we had an appointment at the embassy and we didn't want to be late.

well we were late.

45 mins late.

not happy.

Brandon was taller than the wings!

when we landed Brandon got out of the plane first and got the car seat and stroller ready. I was the last one off of the plane with Fletch and as soon as we got off, Fletch puked all over everything. 

all over me. all over him. all over the stroller and the car seat.

yuck.

Brandon was the only one to escape.

Lucky him.

We hurried and rented a car and were on our way fairly quickly. the only problem was we didn't know what way to go. we had directions, but they had street names and apparently Curacao believes in naming streets, but not displaying the name. seriously. there wasn't one street sign. even on the big streets with stop lights. what is up with that?! so one very expensive map and 3 quick stops to ask directions later we finally made it.

The Embassy was at the end of a dead end road that was hidden, but once you saw it you knew you were there. There were huge fences with barbed wire at the top and guards everywhere. We were escorted by a guard everywhere we went. They wouldn't let us take any bags in--not even my diaper bag--so I had to carry a diaper with me. They screened us and scanned us and patted us down. it was pretty intense.

With the help of more than one guard we finally made it to the place we needed to be, 45 minutes after the time that we needed to be there. But luckily not many americans are having babies in the Netherlands Antilles so it wasn't a problem.

it was actually pretty easy to get Fletch's born abroad certificate and US passport. we just had to give them the applications I filled out, pay a bunch of money, and both take an oath and WHAM BAM we got us a little American citizen.

After getting escorted back out we checked out the island a little bit, ate lunch at McDonalds, explored a little more and then headed to the airport.

Before: Dutchie

After: Dutchie-American

Curacao is so different than Bonaire.  A lot more Dutch and so much more busy. They have stop lights and more than two lanes and tons of one way streets and no donkeys. I guess it is sort of like going from Laie to Honolulu (for those of you who live, have lived, or been to Laie and Honolulu).So back to the airport. First off they make you pay an airport tax for being on the island. so lame. we were there for like 12 hours and they charged us $20. boo. Second off our flight was delayed over 4 hours! usually that isn't that big of a deal, but when you get up at 5am and carry an infant around with you all day and don't get a nap and then have to spend the hours of 8pm-12:30am in a dirty airport where all of the food places close at 7pm, it becomes a big deal. We were supposed to be home around 9pm, but didn't actually roll into bed until closer to 2am. exhausted.

So that is it. we made it. callin' it good.