Our Journey to England - Part One: The Passport Debacle

The girls and I will be spending Christmas in England this year.  We're so thrilled to be going and are counting down the days!

The first step toward our journey was getting the passports. I've had mine since 2010 but the girls have never needed one until now.  I thought it would be fairly simple but it turned into over a week of what I now refer to as The Comedy of Errors.


Wednesday, October 30th - 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

We needed to get the kids' pictures taken for the passports so I picked them up at their dad's house at 8:00 and headed to CVS.  The girl at the photo counter didn't seem to know what she was doing and it took us at least an hour to do what should have taken ten minutes.


Monday, November 4th - 9:30 am - 10:30 am

The kids went into school late this day so we could get to the Whitney Point post office first thing in the morning to turn in the applications.  I get the applications from the clerk at the desk and proceed to complete them.  Social security numbers?  Ugh!  I don't know what their numbers are!

We drive home (luckily we're only 2 miles from the post office) and I dig the social security cards out of my safe.  I complete the forms and go back to the post office, girls in tow.

I hand over the applications and all the documentation to the clerk who takes one look at Sydney's passport picture and declares it too blurry.  She said they will reject the application if the photo is blurry which will slow down the process.  

Not wanting to slow down the process further, I told her to proceed with Melanie's application.

"Where's their dad?" she asks me.

"I am custodial parent," I reply.

"Do you have a signed and notarized affidavit from him?"

Of course I didn't so we decided to come back the following Saturday when I knew their dad would be able to meet us at the post office.


Thursday, November 7th - 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

I drive home to get Sydney to bring her to CVS to get her picture retaken.  The closest one is 20 miles away from Whitney Point so by the time I get there, I've been in the car for 50 minutes.

The man at the photo counter is happy to retake Syd's picture at no charge.  The first one he takes is blurry and I insist on him taking it again.  The second one is not great but better and we settle on that.  

Saturday, November 9th - 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Syd gets dropped off at the Whitney Point post office by her friend's dad and the girls' dad meets us there.  As soon as I walk in, I notice the sign on the counter:

No passport processing today.

Are you kidding me?!  At this point I'm ready to cry.  The clerk senses my impending meltdown and calls the Binghamton post office to see if they are busy.  She confirms they are not busy so all four of us make the 25 mile drive into downtown Binghamton.

We waited in line for an hour before being waited on by the most patient civil service worker I have ever encountered.  She assured me the passports would arrive in time for our trip which avoided my having to pay an additional $60/person for an expedited processing.

Part One of our journey is now complete and all I need to do now is not fixate on if we'll get them in time.  And hope everything else goes smoother than this experience.