Blessed with Big Ears!

I never thought I would be happy to have big ears. It turns out that there is at least one situation in which having big ears is a good thing. We took all four little ones to try to get their passports this morning. It turned out to be quite an adventure.

I called the passport office to make sure they could take the kids' pictures there so we could just make one stop. The lady told me it would not be a problem. Once we got there and got all the kids into the little office, it turns out they just ran out of film. I am not sure why it is but apparently you can't have any backup film on hand either. Probably some type of shortage related to swine flu or bio terrorism or something. But at any rate we had to load the kids back up and head out for somewhere to have pictures made.

Joy had done a mother's best by getting the kids all dressed up and looking good. They all matched and had their hair all fixed. So the pouring rain did not help much. The place we were told to go to get it made said "it would be awhile I got something else on the computer." So we went to CVS. It turns out it is the only CVS in the region that does NOT do passport photos. Finally we ended up at Walgreen's ready to get some good looking photos. Kids have to keep them five years so there is no way we could settle with a bad looking picture. So the lady in the photo lab asks the little girl at the register, "do you want to try again at doing the passport photos?" Not a good sign!

The technician took them one by one and got them to let her take their photos. Not too bad overall...the first time around. Joy just had to make her go back and get Josie's one more time because she would not smile the first time. Then the technician, who looked like she should be in eighth grade, went away and started putting everything into a computer and doing really complicated technical stuff. About 45 minutes later, she thinks she is done. Then the manager comes by to proof everything and says that she would have to redo Judah's because his face was not straight. He said, "He has to be looking straight ahead, see how you can't see his left ear..."

Those were the words that started it all. For the next 20 minutes and 50 pictures she stood in front of our ADHD 4 year old taking a picture then saying "oh no I can't see the left ear in that one...not good I can't see the right ear now...oops his hair was in front of his ear..." Poor Judah. He was trying SO hard. He would smile...then ask..."could you see 'em?" The poor kid has little bitty ears that are flat on his head. The girl missed the point that the important thing was for him to be looking straight. She was determined to get a full frontal, double ear photo no matter what!

That's why I am glad I have big ears. When they took my passport photo, not a problem! Two big 'ol radar like ears in perfect focus for the passport agent to approve. So the moral of the story is that ...well...it's...I guess there really is no moral to the story but I had to go to work and we still do not have passports. If we could have gotten it done today, the passports would be due back no later than June 16th...one week before we leave. We had to leave before they even got the pictures printed. So we will try to get the pictures tonight and the passports applied for tomorrow. We have been waiting for the boy's birth certificates with their new names, but they have not come in so we are going to try to get the passport with their adoption decrees. That may be an adventure all in itself tomorrow. We were told it would work...but we were also told the camera had film!