The Bane of My Existence...

See these things?  I have lost sleep and my appetite over these damn things.  Passports.  They have been the bane of my existence for 7 months.

Immediately after finding out that Eric was assigned Active Duty in Germany, I started my characteristic obsessive research.  And the very first thing that I came across was that Isabelle and I would need to get a 'No-Fee Passport Book.'  Neither Eric nor I had ever heard of a No-Fee Special Issuance Government Passport Book.  The second thing I came across was: "get it NOW, do NOT wait, go NOW!"  I am not a procrastinator so I took this extremely serious and immediately got on the ball of getting one.

But I didn't account for the gazillion different hurdles we would have to go through first.

Because Eric is the service member, he did not need a No-Fee, just me and Isabelle.  We already had the typical tourist passports.  The No-Fee is not a tourist passport and would not act in place of a tourist passport.  We would not be allowed entry into Germany without the No-Fee and we would not be able to leave Germany without the tourist passport.  Our plane tickets could not and would not be booked until Isabelle and I had the No-Fee's in our hands.

But before I could get them into my hands, there were lots of different things that we had to do, and none of it was a speedy process.

This is why I have not slept or eaten, off and on, for 7 months.

It was a long and complicated process, so I'll spare y'all all of the details.  Finally though, after months of email, getting names added to paperwork, amendments added to orders, lots and lots of copies made, printing, and more emails, the No-Fee's are HERE, IN MY HANDS!  They look identical to the tourist passport.  I don't get it.  So, Isabelle and I now have 2 almost identical passports??  Whatever... I don't care... they are HERE!  And within 2 hours of receiving them, my husband went to the travel office at Fort Lee and booked our flights to Germany!!!!  

And the glass of wine that I am drinking in celebration will hopefully help me sleep tonight!