Sep23 Written by:Kayle
9/23/2009 9:12 PM
Mat and I had a church conference to attend in Harare two weeks ago so we thought we'd also get other business done that we needed to do in Harare, particularly to fill out paperwork for Molly's passport and birth certificate. Molly and parents have to be present at the US Embassy in order to do this, so we knew we had to all go to the Embassy.
It was a HECTIC morning as we left early to make the 5 hour drive up to Harare. We arrived around 11am and went straight to the US Embassy as we only had a limited timeframe in which they were open and they would not be open to US citizens on Friday. Mat went to another building in town to get Molly's Zimbabwean birth certificate so that we could turn it in for her US birth certificate. Meanwhile, I stayed at the embassy with the children. I filled out paper work while trying to nurse Molly and feed Calvin his lunch all at the same time. Because Calvin had a disposable diaper on (unlike his cloth diapers at home), his shorts were too big and kept falling off with every few steps he would take so I finally took his shorts off. Calvin had diarrhea that day and, of course, his pooh leaked out of his diaper onto me. I didn't have an extra diaper in my purse to change him so he just had to sit in his pooh, which of course led to a bad diaper rash that was hurting his bum. All in all, it was CRAZY! In the midst of the craziness, a kind man named Hector was answering my questions and collecting our paperwork. We discovered the pictures we had of Molly were the wrong size so Mat had to run her to get new pictures. Then when asking about getting more pages in Mat's passport, Hector said that because Mat's passport was so worn (due to the fact that I put it through the washing machine), Mat would have to get another passport entirely. So Mat went back to the photo shop to get his picture taken for his passport. Then we also realized we needed to buy a DHL envelope so that when Molly's passport arrived, the Embassy could mail it to us in Bulawayo. So we all took off to the DHL to buy an envelope. Finally we got everything we needed, turned it all in and felt a sense of accomplishment!
Well, today, Mat and Molly's passports arrived along with her birth certificate in the DHL envelope! I was SO thrilled that it came and when I opened up the envelope, I discovered, to my horror, that my little Molly Theresa Pelletier was officially Theresa Molly Pelletier on her birth certificate and passport!!!! WHAT? You've GOT to be kidding me! Did I fill out the paperwork wrong in the midst of the chaos? I called Hector to tell him about it and he realized that he had made the mistake. Now we have to get the birth certificate and passport back to the Embassy in Harare so that they can cancel them and issue new ones. Then they'll have to be sent back again. Oh boy! Here we go again!
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