Moroccan Palace

On our second night there, our friend Touria invited us to come to a wedding at a Palace. She said it would be quite the experience and we would only have to stay a half hour or so if we wanted. The weddings there, start at around 9 pm and last until about 6 am! They have bands & dancing, food served throughout the night, and the bride doesn't even make her "appearance" until about midnight. She also changes clothes any where from 3 - 7 times- all elaborate beautiful dresses!

This is the palace during the day as they were setting up for the wedding. Each red square is an individual rug. They covered the entire area. They had several huge flat screens set up so that no matter where you were or the bride was , you didn't miss anything!

This is a shot off to the right, we didn't get to go inside these buildings on this particular day, but if you want to see more of the palace when it isn't a wedding, look at Josh and Rachels blog. One of her last recent posts was her visit to this palace and she got some beautiful pictures of it.

This is inside the building that the first photo was "aimed" at. It is a rather large room and beautiful hand carved and tiled.

This is looking up into the dome in the center of the room. You can kind of see all of the different layers of work on the jagged edges. There were a lot of layers!

This shows a little of the wood work. This looks like tile, but it is really wood, hand carved into intricate little patterns and then stained and painted to look like tile. I can't even imagine how much time and effort went into this room!

This is at the wedding that night. This is the bride. She is carried in in this carriage on the shoulders of about 6 - 8 men. They do this dance and slowly move her forwards and backwards and in circles until she has been taken around to the entire area- I guess to show her off to everyone. While they do that the husband is in front of the carriage doing his own little dance, motioning her forward towards him and different gestures. It's all symbolic of a lot of things, but to us it looked like he was "trying to lure her to him" or something like that.

After her "dance", they are seated in front of that domed building from the first photo, and they don't even smile. I don't know if she isn't supposed to or if they were just "shy" or something, but they were very serious the whole time- even though everyone around the party was dancing and laughing, like a real wedding. But they sit here for about 20 minutes and family and friends come up to them and congratulate them and take photos of them.

This isn't a very good picture, but, all the women at the party are "decked out" in their fanciest Moroccan outfits. They are all very bright and usually have sparkles or shimmer of some kind. These girls are dancing and most of the girls all danced- but not men.

This is me with Touria on the right and in the middle is the US Ambassadors wife. Touria is friends with her. She is a really nice and she is the first US Amb. wife that Moroccan people like. She is very into service and humanitarian things. Apparently all of the other wives till now were snobby and didn't really care about the public. So she is really changing their oppinions of the US for the better and they all love her.

We ended up not leaving the party until 3:30 in the morning. Every time we said we should go, there was something else that was going to happen that we needed to see or food we needed to try. They served different types of foods through out the entire night. At one point they did the traditional hand painting that is very detailed with swirls all over her hand and ring finger. We only got to see two of the dresses, but they were very beautiful and had tons of matching jewelry. It was a really unique and interesting experience. So Thank You Touria for letting us experience it!

We made it home!

I was beginning to wonder if this day would ever come! We got in last night at midnight because our flight was an hour late from the NY airport. The kids did great on both flights! One flight was 7 hours and the other was 5. I had nightmares before leaving of what it might be like, but they did exceptionally well! Luckily they fell asleep while we waited to taxi out of NY for 2 HOURS! And slept most of the way home.

After meeting all of the new family members and getting luggage we headed home. We hadn't gotten very far when Jordan gagged and threw up all over himself. Luckily we had all of our luggage there and quickly pulled over, cleaned him up, and got him dressed again. So, by the time we actually got home, got all the kids in there beds, and ourselves into bed, it was 2:30 am. Just in time for Cohen to wake up to play! We had honestly laid there for like 15 minutes. We fed him a bottle and changed him and he seemed wide awake and we were both anything but that! So we decided to lay him between us and let him play while we hopefully got a little rest. Luckily he fell back asleep and we were able to sleep for a few hours.

Now it's 6:30 am and Jordans up, so I'm "introducing" him to the toy room while I'll post the blog.

I just wanted to tell all of my new Morocco friends thank you for everything they did to help me get this done! We had no idea going over there, what would happen or what it would be like. There were tons of people who helped us, but some who were truly God sent were- Mary, Holly, Rachel, Touria, Ouafae, and Marcy! You guys were amazing!


Mary helped us out with the living arrangements, and introduced us to almost everyone of these people and everyone else. She is the one who has helped me for a year to make this work! We sat up most of the night s that We were there and staying with her, talking and laughing about all kinds of things! I really enjoyed her company and friendship!

Holli is one of Mary's best friends and we just met Holly shortly after getting there. Holly jumped in and drove us almost every time I had to go (the 2 hour drive each way) to Meknes to the orphanage and the courts, and then all over the city of Rabat, and then to Cassablanca twice to catch my flights! She is amazing! Four weeks ago, she had no clue who I was, and then spent countless hours helping me out. Without her, I would have been stranded and trying to take taxi's and make my way around to places with no way to communicate with drivers or knowledge of the city. I owe a huge thank you to her!!!

Then there is Rachel and Josh. They are the ones who are adopting the adorable little identical twins. They are one of the few LDS couples who live in Rabat and hold church every Sunday at someone's house. They took care of us and made sure we knew where church was and that we had a ride, and helped us out with various things that made our life in a foreign country and 2 new kids a little easier. Having them doing the process at the same time was nice because we could bounce feed back and tips off of each other to help the process along, or just to have someone who simply knows basically how you feel and what frustrations you are going through when things happen and they were someone who could pick you up and remind you that it was all going to be okay.




Touria is one who has been helping me out for the entire year with details of a foreign country that doesn't really have direct rules of "adopting" yet. There are no cut out straight answers. You have to figure it out as you go. Before going, I had no concept of this and couldn't figure out why I couldn't seem to get straight answers from anyone in Morooco. Now my eyes have been opened. They call it "En Sha Alla" (spelling?). Everyone in Morocco says this and it means if God wants it to be it will happen. Basically- If God wants them to help you they will, and if they don't end up helping you, then God must not have wanted them to. But Touria was an awesome help! She arranged Taxi rides with her personal friend that she uses all of the time, so we knew we could trust him and he actually became like a friend too. It is Hamid in the picture playing with Jordan. She toured us around the city on our "time off" and made sure we had a cultural experience while we were there at the same time. She also threw us a "baby shower" of sorts for all of us that were adopting babies to take to the states. We knew we could call Touria for anything and she would pull strings and make basically anything happen. The other guy in this picture is Reda. He came with us a few different times to help us with translation. he was very nice and soon became a friend also. He comes to the US and to Utah, so some of you may be able to meet him someday.




Ouafae works for the orphanage to push the adoption -"kafala" through. She was amazing! She did our kafala in 6 days! That is unheard of!!! The only Judge on duty at the time of our kafala wasn't sure he wanted these Muslim babies going to the US and made her have to fight for us! She pulled through with flying colors. Then for the next 2 1/2 weeks, the judge made her do all kinds of extra little unnecessary steps and forms, just to make it harder, But Ouafae stuck to it and one in the end. Over the 3 week process, she became more of a friend than a paid worker!


And last, but not least is Marcy. She works at the Consulate in Cassablanca. She heard about me and my situation and ended up bending over backwards to help us out! She did a lot of paperwork ahead of time and behind the scenes to make sure that when we were ready, we could get it done. She met with me on a Friday when they don't even do visa's on Fridays, and then had the whole office working on my case to pull it together and actually finished it & hand delivered it to the ice cream parlor where we were waiting, in one day instead of the usual 2-3. We shouldn't have been able to get our visa's until at least Monday if not Tuesday or Wednesday - and we had them the same day! So a great big thank you to her to.

Anyway, I have lot's of pictures and stories. I will probably have to pick and choose which ones I share so that I don't bore all of you. But we had an amazing, miraculous, emotional, cultural, once in a life time experience to only name of few. None of which could have been possible with out the help of any of these people and without the help of all of you here at home that stepped in and took my kids, sometimes without much notice! We owe everyone so much and just know that if you ever need anything- Do not even think to hesitate to ask!!!!!!!!!!

okay, now we're HOPEFULLY coming home Tuesday!

We got to the airport and Delta had arranged all of our flights with their adoption plan, and had Cohen as a 6 month old lap child, but apperently Air Moroc doesn't do lap children. You still have to have a valid ticket and pay supposedly 10% of a regular person. So they wouldn't let us on the plane and by the time we got all of this figured out, they wouldn't even let us purchase a ticket for him. So we "missed" our flight, called Richie, and he worked it out with Delta for 2 hours on the phone- even Delta was mad at Air Moroc, and even tried going through Air France, Finally Richie said - forget it! I'll just purchase an entire ticket for the 6 month old- just get them home! So- quite a few hundred dollars later, we now leave tomorrow- Supposedly- and will be home at about midnight Tuesday. We'll see what happens!

We're coming home Monday!

After finishing visa's yesterday, we had about 10 minutes to freshen up and go to a little tea party for a friend which was a little stressfull and hard with the 2 kids. We had been gone all day to Cassa in the heat, and in the the evening here it cools off with a breaze and poor little Cohen had spit up and drewled (because of teething) so much that his shirt was drenched and he was kind of cold. I didn't realize that Amina had used the last diaper, so we had no diapers. Luckily someone had one for us and let us borrow a blanket too. Between that and Jordan acting up because he was tired and hungry for more than tea and cookies, I just felt a little out of control and like everyone here is looking at me like I was crazy, pregnant and adopting and how many kids back home? A lot of people probably think that, but oh well.

Anyway, we came home & had some dinner, and Dallas hardly even ate, and was going into the TV room, so I went to join him and then he walked out really funny and I asked him what was wrong and he burst in to tears and said he just wanted to go home. So after having a little heart to heart for a minute, he said he wants to go home to dad and the girls and he was sad that we had to miss the 4th and the 24th, and I think us going to miss his dads birthday on Monday was the kicker. So we put the kids to bed and emailed his dad to make him feel a little better. So Richie tried calling the airline now that we are done, to see if he could bump up our flights. Apparently the first guy he got said there was nothing he could do, sorry, but Richie called back and got a woman who was a little more sympathetic and ended up getting us on a flight Monday and a $140 credit! So yeah! we're finally coming home! It will still be at midnight, but who cares!

When you have time, everyone needs to get on the Josh and Rachel link and read what happened to them in their adoption process too. You have to skip a couple of the beginning posts or you'll know the ending before you know beginning and the cool middle. Just scroll down and start after the packing up entry. Everyone needs to pray for them too because they are having a stressfull hard time right now and they just want to come "home" too.

We have Visa's in hand!!!! We are done!

This is Jordan playing with Hamid our Driver and friend. He has taken us lot's of places while we have been here. This is while we waited for our visas to be printed.

This is Dallas "riding a horse" while we waited- you could tell he was bored!

This is Dallas, Cohen, and Amina our "maid" eating icecream while we wait for our visa's. She was Mary & Neils maid while they were here, and when they left she didn't have a job for a few weeks, so we hired her for a week to help us with kids, food, and translating. She was awesome and we will miss her! She really got close to us and the kids. We have been with her basically every day since we got here! She is an amasing cook. Everything she makes is so delicious. Her dream is to come to the US and open a restaraunt. It would definately be a hit. Dallas is a picky eater and he loved every thing she made. And every meal had like 5 courses. It was awesome! She took us to the Market here and bought fruits, veggies, and meat- we only spent 200 dh which is about $30, and we ate delicious food and plenty of it for the entire week she was here! My bill at the local store for cereal, milk, bread, jam, eggs, and some spaghetti and sauce (with a few other things) was almost $600 dh (ya- like $86) only lasted us about a week before she got here! And that was things like a sandwhich. She was awesome!

This picture needs some explaining. This is Marcy. She works at the Consulate. We have been dealing with her for the last couple of weeks trying to get visa stuff ready to roll (while we ended up waiting 2 and a 1/2 weeks for the passports). But she is also awesome. Between emails and phone calls, she helped us get so prepared for the visa process- which is actually really detailed and took like 4 different forms and several pages each. But then, to accomadate me, she met with me on a day that they don't even do visa applications, had the whole office working just on us, and spent from 10 am to 3 pm doing our visa's. Normally after turning in all the paperwork, you would go home and return back to the Consulate 2 to 3 days later to pick up your visa's when they were fininshed. She had them that day by 3 and then even hand delivered them to the ice cream parlor, where we went to kill time till they were done! She was amazing and took a huge load of stress off of me! Sorry for the ugly picture but you have never spent 5 hours in Cassablanca heat and humidity, wrestling 2 kids and waiting for visa's- we were all so hot and sweaty- just like every other day we've been here.

Dallas took this picture, it is a guard in front of the consulate. He is quite proud of it because the other day, we got pulled over by a cop for taking his picture. The cop was nice about it but made me erase the picture because here, they work for the king and it's illegal and I guess dangerous to them, if we take their picture. Dallas is sitting here laughing at his Mommy's for her near fellony. But who would have known that. Ah the memories!

Dallas's pictures he drew using programs on the computer

It took him about 5 or 6 days to make these. It is his way of resting I guess from being such a big helper all of the time! He did them using print shop pictures and putting them in the paint program and coloring over them to make them look how he wanted them to. Some of the pictures even had cartoon faces he had to draw over. we couldn't print them out so he took pictures of them instead. He is quite the little artist!

Jordan's shoes- funny story

There is a reason for the picture of the shoes!!! Today we took Jordan and Cohen to the Dr for their Consulate exam, and the Nurse pulled off one of Jordan's shoes and a live 2" cockroach came running out!!! He had his shoes on for like 2 hours by that point. He had fiddled with his shoes in the car, but never really complained about them. Amina was with us and took off her shoe and had to hit the cockroach a few times- they are not easy to kill!! Everyone was squealling and laughing- They said that that was the 1st time they had ever seen that happen! Ah! The unforgetable memories we will have!

Jordan getting his chest listened to

Cohen being weighed

Cohen getting his chest listened to.

They both got a clean bill of health and are ready for the states! Jordan needed one MMR shot but Cohen was all caught up. Here, they write you a prescription for the shot and you leave and go to a pharmacy, buy the shot, bring it back, and then the nurse gives it to the child. What ever! I figure they have survived this long doing it that way, one more shot that way isn't going to hurt! The only place they sell infant formula is at a pharmacy too. Kind a funny. Anyway, it's back to Cassa tomorrow to meet with the Consulate for visa's. Wish us luck!

5 Nurses all say these are Jordan!!!

Yassine (Jordan) and Richie's dad, Dell,

at about 10 months

Yassine (Jordan) at about 3 - 4 months

For any of you that I have shown pictures to for the last year, know that I really wanted to come and get these 2 certain boys. The one in the crib, is one that I have been hoping for the most. And we thought it would be cool if we could find out who the one Richie's dad is holding. Well on the 1st day at the orphanage I gave the pictures to a nurse and asked her if she knew who the babies were, (at that time I did not ask about the one Dell is holding), she left to her office and mean while, we started playing with this really cute little boy (aka jordan now). When she came back she said that one of the little boys had already been adopted to France and the other one was still there and available. Excited, I said where is he? And she pointed to "Jordan" and said that was him! yeah! I think I have already shared a portion of that story on the blog, but now, today there is more. I went back to the orphanage and asked about the boy that Dell is holding because it looks so much like Jordan and Mary was thinking that that was him. So I took it to the head nurse and didn't tell her anything about me or the other pictures and she said " this is Yassine, but he is already gone- not remembering that we were the ones that had adopted Yassine already- So I asked again and confirmed that this picture was Yassine and then told her that I had adopted him and that this was my husbands father holding him last year!!! And that I had come purposely to find this little boy. Then- because it is too miraculous that I would have 2 pictures of Yassine, I asked again about the picture of the baby in the crib, and by then about 5 nurses had filtered into the room and were in on the conversation, and they all jabbered in arabic back and forth and they all said quite knowingly and surely that that too was Yassine. I need to confirm some how with Connie and Mary as to when this picture was taken, but according to all the nurses there, I have 2 pictures of my little boy that I have been carrying around for a year now, and who's face popped into my head everytime I would feel the spirit and feel like we couldn't give up! How amazing and meant to be is that! He's been waiting for me, literally, for a year, to come and get him. And then, we technically wouldn't even have needed the pictures, because while the nurse was in her office, we had already started playing with Jordan and he had already started to capture our hearts in just the 1st couple minutes! As hard as it is here, there is no doubt in my mind that we were supposed to come and get these 2 little boys to be part of our family. Only time will tell us as to why.

Step #3 - Passports are here!!!

We still aren't finished, but the step that has been taking 2 - 3 weeks is finally over!!! I am done with the orphanage and the city of Meknes! We have everything we need to turn into the consulate on Friday. Tomorrow we take them to the Dr in Cassablanca, Friday we turn in all the forms and paper work to the Consulate, and hopefully if all the forms are right, pick up Visa's on Monday!!! And catch a plane home on Wednesday with one day to spare! Until it's done and I'm on the ground in Utah- please keep praying because everytime it's looks like it's going good, something swings bad. It's not over - till it's over!

Cohen's 1st bath (not in a cold bucket of water)