Bumps in the Road

So...today has been an interesting day. This journey can't be without major bumps in the road, can it? That would just be too easy.

Over the weekend, both Devin and I felt separate impressions that we needed to look into Flor's passport and see if things were fine with it. Flor has an Ecuadorian passport (she is a dual citizen) and our agency assured us months ago that it would be fine for travel to/from Ecuador. So we hadn't thought a thing more about it until this weekend. Well, both of us felt that maybe it wouldn't work to have an Ecuadorian passport, so we looked into it online and consulted with some of our friends who have adopted twice from Ecuador, and sure enough, our suspicions were confirmed that she does indeed need a US passport. The Ecuadorian one will work great to get her into Ecuador but will NOT work to get her back to the US. UGH...Swear words...

Anyway, why we felt the need to look into this one WEEK before we leave is a mystery (most likely because we missed/ignored other promptings to look into it months ago), so now we are stuck with needing a passport a week out.

We found out that it is possible to get the passport issued quickly, but you have to appear in person at a National Passport Center...the closest ones to use are in LA, SF, San Diego, Tucson, and Denver. And guess what!? Tomorrow's a holiday, so that's awesome. We looked into the earliest appointments at each place (yay for automated systems online) and found out that Denver and Tucson had appointments on Tuesday and the rest were at the end of the week. We thought Tucson would be a better idea as it had the earliest appointment Tuesday morning. Well flights there and back at times that will work were a mere $1600, so we scratched that idea. Flights to Denver were only slightly cheaper, so we opted to have Devin drive there with Flor to accomplish the task. They will leave tomorrow afternoon and stay in a hotel then go to the appointment at 12:30 Tuesday then drive back that evening. The place closes at 3, so we are hoping and praying that is enough time to get it issued same day. I know I beg for prayers often, but this one is a bit dire...please, oh please, if you would like to say a little prayer that it all goes well and is accomplished that day, that'd be simply amazing.

We have spent the day gathering the needed documents for the new passport. Unluckily for us, we have to have a copy of Flor's birth certificate and adoption decree, both translated into English. Neither were done in English. So, I did a little translating this afternoon and evening (with the assistance of good ol' Google Translate) and then had to find a notary via facebook yardsale sites to notarize those two documents' translations as well as a form saying I am okay with Flor getting the passport since I can't appear in person with her and Devin. Oh, what fun. Oh the joy. Oh please, no more major hurdles that make me want to cry and pull my hair out at the same time. Good thing Devin is a calming influence. He takes all things in stride and always reminds me that things could be worse. How much worse-- we don't want to find out!!!

And, that's that. We hope for good passport news on Tuesday.