It's amazing how much can change in a week! Last Friday we learned through the expedite company that we had been working with in DC that our application for duplicate passports had been denied by the National Passport Agency in DC. We weren't given much of an explanation, just that they didn't see that our itinerary and plans required duplicate passports. Without duplicate passports or visas we were beginning to think this whole idea wasn't going to work. The expedite company told us our only hope was to go to the Philadephia Passport Agency in person and plead our case. They sent all of our documents back to us which arrived on Monday, and we went to Philadelphia on Tuesday to see what we could find out. Much to our surprise we came home that day with duplicate passports in hand! So on Wednesday I got the Apostille certificates for the kids' birth certificates in Harrisburg, and then on Thursday my sister Nellie & I headed to NY with the kids by train!
We left on the 5:30am train out of Lancaster and arrived at the Spanish Consulate around 9:30am. It's still difficult to understand what happened after that, but through a series of small miracles they accepted our visa application as a research visa and we came away almost 2 hours later with the promise of visas to arrive in 5-8 weeks! Miracle #1: when we arrived they did not make me take a number to wait in line, they told me to go to window #5 right away (I have no idea why). Otherwise we would have been there for hours. Miracle #2: I did not speak with the same woman as last time who was telling me that I needed a complicated working visa instead of a research visa. Miracle #3: I showed the guy who was helping me the documentation from the University of Barcelona and requested a research visa, and the type of visa was never questioned! Miracle #4: With all of the incredible amount of paperwork that was required to process 4 visas (since they require each child to have one as well), they let us slide on one particular thing which saved us from having to make yet another trip to NY. Miracle #5: We made it home safely despite missing our train by 2 minutes. :) I'm not sure that Nellie will ever agree to take a train trip to NY again with three small kids, but we definitely had a memorable time and we couldn't have done it without her help! When we arrived back at the Lancaster train station Luke asked Nellie how many days we had been on the train. It was that kind of day! But we are so thankful things are coming together, and excited about this adventure.
Our current plan is to travel to Spain on October 1st with the duplicate passports, and then return sometime over the holidays to pick up the visas. Then we will be legal! When we first get to Spain we'll stay in a hotel for a week while we look at the houses that are available to rent. Once we decide on a house then we'll have Tarheel shipped over to be with us.
Verse for today: "A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones." Proverbs 15:30
