more paperwork!?!

It's amazing that after two years, there can still be more paperwork to do. We applied for a US passport for Jacob. Just in case John wins a trip to Costa Rica he's competing for at work. It all started by mailing all sorts of irreplaceable documents to some eastcoast state. Then yesterday I get a phone call during our school time. I didn't answer because I am trying to be more disciplined about making sure nothing interferes with our sit down time at the table.
So right before lunch I checked the messages. I heard, "this is Mark" loud talking from children, "Jacob's passport", more noise, "we need more.." chatter from Jacob. I reached to turn the volume up and in my overstimulated, hungry daze I accidentally pushed delete.

I gasped. Finally all the kids were silent, staring at me.

So this morning I spent two hours, (during the time I am trying desperately to preserve for school) trying to reach to Mark in passports, then I made an infopass appointment at our local immigration office, talked to Tim at immigration, Jim our social worker, and then Larry the lawyer.

It all ended with Larry telling me that it will take two months to get the documentation we need in order for Jacob to get his passport. The trip in is two and a half weeks. Nice.

What I did learned today...
*we need to re-adopt Jacob in OR anyway so he can have a US issued birth certificate
*I have matured quite a bit over the years, because I never yelled, cried or freaked out throughout the whole morning even though my entire plan for the school day was obliterated
*I learned a lot about calling government offices and dealing with red tape when I was doing all of Jacob's original adoption paperwork. This type of activity used to really stress me out!
*sometimes it's fun to make up school as you go along. We had a spelling bee today, and Grace and Noah loved it! I know that wouldn't have happened if I my day had gone as planned
*we should be able to travel to Costa Rica afterall with Jacob's Haitian passport and his Permanent Resident card!

Now, I just have to cancel that Infopass appointment for tomorrow at the Immigration office, get Jacob's original documents back from Mark, collect all the documentation we need to re-adopt him and take it to Larry the lawyer. Oh, and figure out what we're doing for school tomorrow.