Look what arrived!!!

{Our Passports}

Hooray...

 (Our passport photos are quite horrible...Cohen has the best one hands down!)

One very stressful day about a month ago, we went to the passport office at the Provo Post Office.  The entire (very small and very cramped) hallway was full of a long line, already looping back on itself! UGH.  

But we had no choice but to get in line and WAIT.  I started filling out all the forms...which takes some serious time when you are talking SIX passports...and that's when I realized I had not grabbed the kids' social security cards.  When I called the office earlier that week, the man had only mentioned birth certificates, which I DID have.  So, THANK GOODNESS FOR CELL PHONES, A GOOD NEIGHBOR, AND A GARAGE CODE! After directing my neighbor into my house, up my stairs, into a closet where my file box resides...thankfully, they were all where I thought they were and she read them to me while I sat on the floor with my clip board in my lap.

Both Lon and I also had to call our parents (mine are in Brazil!) to find out where they were born.  Oh the details the government asks...

The man in the office was incredibly grumpy and sighed a huge sigh when I told him we had 6 passport applications.  He then said, "Don't tell me I have to take all of your pictures."  To which I replied, "OK, I won't tell you..."  : )

We actually ran into someone we know in the passport line.  A friend of our oldest daughter was there getting his passport for his Church Mission. So Lon snapped a photo to send it to her.

Fast forward 3 weeks:
The cutest thing was Cohen checking the mail for a solid week, waiting for the passports to arrive.  One day, he even packed the mail key in his backpack so he could just check the box on the way home. So adorable!


Once we had our passports, it was time to start on the Visa Applications...which make the passports look like a PIECE OF CAKE! Seriously, I am going to get an ulcer before these things are done.  SO many steps to take, so many copies to make...I have literally been praying every day that I will be blessed to remember all the details and particular requirements.  Brooklyn's has already been sent off (she will be flying over there about 3 weeks ahead of us) and now I have everyone else's all ready to go.

I probably will not sleep well until these things are back and all approved!

What an adventure...but it will all be worth it in the end!