As of today I am 38 weeks along. It would thrill me if he came at any time, but it seems my body is content to keep him snug inside me for a while longer. AB was born exactly on her due date. I read babies being born on their actual due date is uncommon, but if my experience with her is any indication of what to expect this time, my body is not going to give him up for 2 more weeks. Our hospital has a policy about inducing before 39 weeks, so even if I go that route I will not see him for a while. That is not to say I am sitting around just waiting for my water to break. I have the list of things to do that can send a woman into labor, and I am doing them. However, in the interest of our bank account, I decided walking for exercise in Target and the mall was no longer an option. A penny saved is not a penny earned because even the best bargains add up...as I can unfortunately attest to. Oops.
One of the reasons I am so anxious to have him born is because after he is born we only have 6 weeks to get his passport, all of our visas, and all of our plane tickets - it stresses me out just thinking about it. We have to get back to our little city to file a document that expires on March 18th, and it took us 6 months and a lot of work to get this document. We do not want it to expire! However, since it will take a miracle to get us back by then, I am just going to rely on the Father because he knows exactly what we need and I have every reason to trust Him. He has been doing some amazing things in our lives lately concerning documents and logistics. Here is the story. It is about the US Government Passport Service, and if you have had the unfortunate experience of ever making a mistake and not following their procedures correctly, you have my sympathies.
KB and I needed more pages added to our passports. In the month after we return overseas, 3 pages will be used for visas and stamps, and that would leave us with only 2 more pages. Two weeks ago I put our passports in a FedEx envelope along with two $82.00 checks and sent them to the passport service in Philadelphia. Soon after returning home from my errand I had one of those moments where it felt like my heart was going to fall out of my chest. I realized, in my crazy pregnancy forgetfulness (a woman's brain cells literally shrink during pregnancy thus sometimes exacerbating an already existing dispostion to making mistakes), I forgot to include the necessary form to get pages added to our passports. This was huge. It was already past 5pm in Philadelphia, so I could not call anyone to figure out what to do at that point.
The next morning I called them, and after confirming who I was, I told them what I had done. I asked if I could just send in the forms for them to match them with our passports. They said no. They told me they would probably send me a letter with a case ID # telling me I needed to send in the form. Then I should send in the forms with the special letter and the problem would be solved. Here was the problem. They said they could only send it to my address on record. My address on their record is our old address in Fort Worth. I said, okay I need to change the address. They said, "oh, we cannot do that without the form." I said, "Let me get this straight. You cannot process our passport without the form, so you are going to send me a special letter with a special number on it telling me I need to send in the form, and this special letter with the special number must be sent back to you accompanying the forms. However you are going to send it to an address I have not lived at in 3.5 years because you cannot change the address without the form I forgot to send in? Do you realize I will never receive this letter?" I cannot be the first person who forgot to send in the form and has happened to move in the past 10 years (adult passports are good for 10 years). Basically her response confirmed that they could only send it to the address where I do no live because they cannot change it without the form that they will not let me send in without their super special letter with super special case #ID number. Extra big ARRGGG of fustration.
Also, she said since we did send in the checks, there is a possibility they will go ahead and add the pages to the passports and send them to our address on record. She said we would know this was the case if our checks get cashed. This is outrageous. They could be sending our passports to a crazy person who could use them for bad things. Have they ever considered that?
I asked, "can you not put a note on our passport number saying to hold for forms?" She said "No." I said, "Immigration puts notes on people's passport numbers all the time when we enter the country, but you cannot do that." She said, "No."
Who runs the passport offices? Surly they have to have some sort of contingency plans for when people make mistakes. This is crazy
I feel horrible I made such a ridiculous mistake and KB has never once given me a hard time about it. I guess he figures it will all work out. Since the US Government was content to be absolutely inflexible, we started thinking up our own contingencies. Some of my friends recommended contacting my congressman or state senator. I decided to make that plan B, because fortunately our Fort Worth home just happened to be a school owned townhouse, thus making it easier to find out who lived there. KB was friends with the head of housing, so he called him, explained the situation, and the housing guy contacted the current residents to see if they would help.
The next day we got a phone call from a young man who speaks English as a second language, and unfortunately we do not speak his first language. It took 3 phone calls and 2 emails for him grasp what our problem was, but he was absolutely willing to help. Finally a break! He had never used his mailbox before, so he went to the post office and got the key for his mailbox, and has checked it everyday for the last week for either a letter or priority mail envelope addressed to us.
Six days ago our two $82.00 checks were cashed, meaning they were adding pages to our passports. Two days ago I checked the online system to see if they happened enter our passport status, and it said our passports should arrive on Monday or thereabout. So, I emailed our foreign friend to tell him our passports were coming! We asked him to FedEx them to us, and we would reimburse him for the fee. I am not going to get excited until they are safely in our hands, but I cannot believe the series of events that might actually lead to a positive resolution. Many friends have been lifting this up for us, and I cannot attribute those passports making it to us, with the pages added, to the work of anyone but the Father.
Plan D was to report our passports as lost and apply for new ones. I thought it would very ironic considering they would be lost at the Philadelphia Passport Service Center.
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