Finally!!!

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of our arrival to Ecuador. Without a dought it has been the fastest year of our life. Since getting here, we have had to engage in many a logistical process. One that has given us the most trouble and taken the longest was obtaining a driver's license. I am pleased to say that finally today Rebecca and I walked out of the police HQ with official licenses. We had pre-prepared all of our documentation in advance of going to the HQ today. This pre-preparation in and of itself took a long time. We needed documents from the Secretary of State in Colorado, various documents and tests done within Ecuador, and then we needed all the right people to be in their offices at the same time. This morning we left the house at 8 to try and get an early start on presenting our papers. They were accepted (this was the third try) and we were finally in the process.

There are many interesting cultural things to be noticed while getting a driver's license in any country of the world. We were not disappointed today. Promptly at 12 pm everybody closed up shop and told us to come back at 3pm. Our paperwork was about halfway done at this point, and there wasn't any complaining or excuses that we could have done to keep on with the process. So, we came home and had a bite to eat, and rested a bit before going back to hopefully finish the process.

To make a long story short, we arrived in the afternoon and patiently waited as we jumped through the various hoops. Around 4 this afternoon we walked out of the police HQ with newly minted licenses in hand. It was awesome! It has been a huge stress driving this past year without a license.

In Ecuador they always have spontaneous police checkpoints. The usually ask for two things, a driver's license and vehicle registration. We have always had the later, but the official Ecuadorian driver's license had always eluded us. I had used my Colorado driver's license many times. At most checkpoints we were simply waved through, but there were a few times where the police officer wanted to give me a hard time because of my lack of an official license, and that can sure make your heart pound. Now, I can just show him my real documentation and have no worries. I'm actually looking forward to driving around the next corner and seeing a police checkpoint.

Thanks to all of you that helped in getting us paperwork from the States, and those of you who also prayed for this process. It was definitely obvious how we could have been shooed out of the door today just like on all our previous attempts, but somehow grace prevailed, and now we are legal driver's here in Ecuador.

--(on a side note, I don't want to ever hear how bad the various DMV's are in the States. I have heard some bad stories, but never anybody that worked for a year to get a license.)