Ready for School to Start?

I was so excited to come to Chile for 6 months so that the kids could go to school and get really good at Spanish. Then it was pointed out to me by Corey that it's summer in Chile in December, and that means summer vacation. The kids and I arrived here on December 9th, which was the very first day of their summer break. Another summer vacation?! I love having the kids home, but was also bummed cause I knew that would be time when they weren't learning Spanish as fast as they could be if they were in school. Still, what are ya gonna do.

We've been spending the past 2 months trying to figure out what we needed to do to get them enrolled - The problem is that the schools here in Chile wouldn't talk with us without being able to show them records to confirm what grades the kids would be in. And federal law in the US won't allow parent's to request school records, the request has to come from the individual school, so we were in a sort of catch 22. Luckily the people at Start Up Chile are amazing and super helpful and have connections with the Ministry of Education and were able to help us out and pull some strings. After helping us get temporary visas for the kids, we then got them their Chilean ID cards, and we were ready to talk to the school, and after 3 trips and a few emails and phone calls they were officially registered yesterday and enrolled today. And just in time to, since school starts tomorrow! Corey just left with them all to go back to the school again to get their uniforms. :) I sent the video camera with them, so I'll post that when they get back!

It was quite the run around process getting the visas (but much better than paying $400 a pop in Costa Rica, or driving to Argentina after our 90 days in Chile were up...) - We did it last Thursday and Friday - it involved a cab ride to the the Internacional Police Office -


to checking our background and such (Corey thought the cab ride would be best so we didn't get lost or have to worry about parking - it was smack dab in the heart of the city). Not too long of a wait there, still it takes a while to repeat the process 8 times (Corey's already got his visa). Then it was off on another cab ride to get the Chile ID cards


Lily entertaining us with kisses in the car. And do you like her outfit? She dressed herself and insisted on wearing Abi's dress that fits length wise, but it a little large around the neck and shoulders. Lily accessorized with a matching pastel pink hat.


She also had us laughing as she said a prayer - I'm sure praying that we'll arrive safely since she'd be the first to die if we crashed. 5 people in the back of a cab. Corey and the other 3 kids were in another cab - we're a 2 cab family.

Trying to focus on her prayer and not let Joseph and Ethan's laughing at her cuteness distract her.

We arrived in time at the ID place - it closed at 2 and we were in line at 1:45 so they let us in. Lots of waiting again and telling the kids to please sit and be quiet, watch where you're going, keep your feet in when people are walking by, don't be so noisy, etc.


Abi's mad at Wesley for something in that picture above - doesn't she look so threatening?

The big kids were great help with Lily. Around 2:30 it was our turn, and after talking to the guy for 2 minutes, he told Corey he needed a paper which he didn't have, so we left and would have to come back the next day (Friday) so we could register for school on Monday.

We took the metro home instead of a cab - the kids loved that part

Seven kids waiting for the subway.

Lily was mad the next day when we were back in line again -


This time we waited for an hour and a half, but I did remember to bring treats. Good! But the treats didn't really help the kids with the wait, it seemed to just cause them to pester me more. Bad. Come on Tiff, what did you expect?

I took the kids outside for a while while Corey waited and filled out paper work. The kids fed the pigeons.

After taking everyone's pictures we thought we were done and went to play on the playground. Corey called us back in - we weren't done - gotta finger print everyone. These guys are serious. both hands, all 10 fingers. Don't you go breaking the law, Mel, or they'll find ya!

Abi had a new bandage wrapped on her from the night before which we had to take off for her thumbprint. She was not happy about it and thus is scowling very angrily in her ID card. I did get to see her thumb though. That nail really is glued on.

And that reminds me, as soon as I get the photo off of Corey's iphone, I'll post about that check up - pretty funny cause it made Hyrum pass out. :)