I’ve been nervously thinking about our upcoming trip to Costa Rica for months, and the first step is getting the passports. Not only do the kids need passports for the first time, but Arp and I both have to have ours renewed. Maybe this stuff seems routine for some people, but after my last passport application process, I was really freaked out about it.When Arp and I got married, I applied for my first passport. We were planning to honeymoon in Spain. It was the first time I had traveled internationally, except for a few passport-free trips to Canada. I kind of left the passport application process for the last minute, which probably wasn’t the best idea. So I ended up actually having the take a trip to a passport office to make the application in person. I had all the right papers filled out and all the right kinds of identification (or so I thought). But for some reason, when I stepped up to the application window, the person taking my papers refused to believe I was who I said I was. She told me that she just wasn’t convinced by my identifying documents. Not that they were forgeries – she just needed more proof.  I was shocked and confused. Did I look like an unsavory character or something?  I think the woman was just giving me a hard time just for fun, frankly. Or maybe she was evil. But I had visions of canceling my honeymoon. It was terrible. I threw open my wallet and showed her any number of credit cards, grocery cards, AAA card, etc. She still wasn’t convinced. As a last resort, I pulled out a paper card showing that I was a member of the United Federation of Teachers. A New York City schoolteacher. And that is what convinced her. A flimsy paper card that said I was a teacher convinced her to give me a passport. Weird.

So heading out to get passports for our whole family a few weeks ago was really nerve wracking for me.  I mean, we already bought the plane tickets.  If they don’t give us the passports, we will be out a lot of money.  Gosh, the money it cost for the passports alone is enough to cause me to faint.  But anyway, everything  seems to be going fine.  This time we were all able to go to the post office to submit the applications, so I didn’t have to confront a scary lady behind a window.  Just my friendly neighborhood postal workers.  The visit actually went rather smoothly.  But so far we’ve only received M’s passport.  So I’m still nervous.  Will the other ones show up in time for our trip?  They better.