Passports are en route! [FINALLY]

We applied for the kids' passports exactly 4 months ago, in preparation for what Scott refers to as "the wedding of the century" in Scotland. It is my youngest sister who is getting married, and as she lives in Denmark while her finance lives in London and grew up in Scotland (hence the venue for the wedding).

You would think that applying more than 20 weeks in advance of our departure date would give the US Passport Agency plenty of time to process our kids' passports. Heck, I accounted for a couple of weeks over the advertised "10-12" weeks and estimated that we would receive them in July. Note - if you go to the National Passport Website, it is still posted that "with routine passport service you should receive your passport within 10-12 weeks". Yeah. Right.

Originally, we hoped to receive the passports before we headed out east and into Canada. No such luck - going into Canada we were asked why we didn't have the kids' birth certificates and we had to explain about the passports, etc, etc. We could have been denied entry into Canada, but I guess they figured these two kids didn't pose too much risk and we were there to boost their economy.

I expected to arrive back home from that trip to have the passports waiting for us there. But no passports. Day after day, still no passports. And I started to get worried at the end of August. Starting to get nervous and making contingency plans. The people at the Nation Passport Information service won't even talk to you unless your departure date is within weeks. Personally, I don't like to leave anything unplanned two weeks out from a major trip, especially a little detail like a passport!

So I call the Passport Information service and all they can tell me is that the passports are "still in process" (like I can get than information off the website - thanks). They expedite the passports and let me know that "we'll do our best to get the passports to you before your trip, but there is no guarantee". Thanks again. That makes me feel confident. Especially since it's only been 16 weeks since we applied, and they can't give me any progressive details.

I finally called our US Congressman's office and they were able to track down the passports (they were in Portsmouth, NH) and they were shipped out today. Most importantly, they gave me a sense of confidence that we would be OK for the trip and I could stop stressing about it.

Now I have to get my bridesmaid dress hemmed and shoes for Erica. And think about packing. Oh, and register the kids for school. And wait for the heatwave to end so we can go outside again.

A little Simpsons humor

One of the ladies at the Scrapbooking board that I frequent posted this cool link that transforms your picture into the world of the Simpsons. Yes, a marketing ploy, but I thought it was rather amusing and helped to lighten my evening.

I uploaded my avatar image and here is my transformation:



Try it! The link is www.simpsonizeme.com