Step #1 done, Step #2 done, Step #3 in process

Yep, you heard it here first. The blue dog jumped over the red moon. Errrr, I mean, the passport is in process. Getting a passport her feels like some kind of James Bond 007 mission - which is why I accidentally (hee hee) started talking about this in code.

Seriously, DO NOT ever complain about the way passports are done in the U.S.!

We went to the passport office. In this little waiting room area, there were about 200 people jammed in there like sardines. All staring at us like something that just walked in from off of the moon. Anyway - we walked through the crowd, to this door in the back of the room - and walked right in...which got some interesting looks from the crowd. We waited about 2 minutes before the woman at the back desk motioned for us to come over and sit down. She took a STACK of documents from Andrew, and inspected each one very carefully. She was asking questions - I got nervous. She then wanted to see our passports, but never even glanced at mine. She inspected Marty's as if it wasn't real. She looked at his immigration paperwork, Visa, and his registration card. There was something about the registration she didn't like. She took it out of his passport and left the room.

(insert sound of freaking out here)

This is when I started to pray. Just about went to my knees!

Marty asked Andrew what the deal was, and she wanted to make sure it was authentic (huh? it has the oh coveted stamp on it!). She returned to the room, apparently with the power-that-be's approval. She then wanted to see the original adoption decree and original birth certificate (although she had perfectly good copies in her stand of papers).

All of this is very typical of getting anything done here - so really, nothing was out of the ordinary.

We asked about obtainng a regular passport rather than a biometric one. In order to do that, we would need to approach the chief of that passport office. The chief only works on Friday and Tuesday (from something like 11 - 3). There was no guarantee he would grant our request, and if he did grant it, we would have to resubmit all of the documents and still wait the 2 weeks to get the passport issued.

In other words, things are NOT like they are at home. At home, if you have an emergency, you can pay to have your passport expidited. Not here. I wonder what happens when someone has to leave the country for an emergency...they probably die waiting for thier passport to be delivered from the official government courier.

We were told that we can start checking to see if the passport came in on the 22nd. That is in a week and 1/2. There is no phone number to call (like the USCIS!), you have to show up...and when you show up, you wait to see if the box of passports was delivered that day. That is what all those people were doing out in the lobby area. Waiting on the mail to arrive (basically).

So we wait, and pray.

Ya know that book "Eat, Sleep and Pray"? I should write a book called "Pray, wait and Pray"