Traveling to Travel

Yesterday was a memorable one. It was filled with sadness, joy, anticipation, suspense and a great deal of fatigue. Do I have your interest yet? Oh yes, and a celebratory (is that even a word) conclusion. Now on to the details.

On Sunday we worshipped together in Windsor Locks and then ate lunch at home. I took Barb to work in the afternoon and she said goodbye to our recent house guest and unofficially adopted daughter Anne Shilpa Reddy Katangur. Anne is from India and has been staying with us the past week while looking for work. Since she hasn't found a job, she is off to the UK to visit family and continue her job search. We have known Anne for over a year now and have come to love her in the Lord. While Anne was with us, Barb gave her some Canadian/American cooking lessons, (in the picture below Barb is teaching her how to make pumpkin pie, one of Anne's favorites). Anne left from Hartford for London on Monday while we were on our adventure.

At 11:45 pm I picked up Barb at the hospital when she got off work and we were off to Montreal, Canada to renew Barb's passport. The passport was not yet expired but we found out China will not issue a visa on a passport with less than 6 months of validity left. Barb's expires in June. When we called, we learned that a mailed renewal takes 4 weeks and we have our tickets to fly to China on April 8th. So it was necessary for us to go in person to a passport office in Canada and the closest one was in Montreal.

I stopped a couple of times for short naps in upstate New York and we arrived at the passport office we had selected in Point Claire at 8:00 am. This office was located in the Fairview Mall just off the trans-Canada highway.

We were pleased that there were only a few people ahead of us and we were anxious to find out how quickly our request could be taken care of and we could be on our way home again. When we were called up Barb explained why we had come and how all of our documents were in order. She had her current passport, the renewal application and the 2 passport pictures. The woman behind the counter explained that this office did not do same day renewals and that Barb's passport photos were unacceptable (she was smiling and her teethe were showing and the photos were not stamped and dated by the photographer). If we wanted to try and get a same day renewal we could go to a busier office nearer central Montreal but we would definitely need proper passport photos which could be taken at a shop in the mall when they opened at 10:00 am. So, it was hurry up and wait for this shop to open at 10:00. Here's Barb sitting in the mall outside the photo shop.

Since Quebec is a french speaking province we were fascinated by all the signs that were in french, including the photo shop where Barb would get her replacement passport photos.
When the shop opened at 10:00 Barb was the first one to get her passport photos taken, others were also waiting, and in 10 minutes they were ready and we were off to the next passport office in Saint Laurent. [For all you ladies, you can imagine what Barb thought about having her picture taken after traveling all night and not getting to put on any make-up since we thought we already had the pictures she would need.] When we arrived there at about 10:30 am, we entered to find a much bigger and MUCH busier office that was full of people waiting to be served. We waited in line for about 15 minutes and were given a number that would determine when we were served. Assignments were given by letter (A-E) and number. Barb was D-848. They were currently serving D-830. We joined the crowd and waited about 45 minutes to be called to a window (for trivia buffs, window 8) and we met our passport officer at 11:30am. She examined Barb's material which was all in order, although Barb apologized profusely for the poor picture quality of her passport photos, and she told us the passport would be ready April 6th. Barb requested the expedited service (an additional $70 fee is added to the $87 passport renewal fee). She also told Barb an affidavit would need to be completed explaining why we needed the expedited service. That was done and our agent requested cell phone numbers for Barb's references since these people would need to be contacted before the passport could be issued. The calls were made and she said all was in order. She said we could come back at 2:00 pm and the passport would be ready. We had lunch at a nearby McDonald's and then napped in the car until 1:45 pm when we returned to the passport office and picked up Barb's new passport.
We left at 2:15 pm, thankful to God for His wonderful provision, and drove the 350 plus miles home, arriving back in Windsor Locks at 8:00 pm. On our way home we called Anne who was at the airport waiting to board her plane for Philadelphia and then London, and said goodbye to our dear friend from India. We were exhausted but oh so thankful to be closer to being able to travel to China to see our son, daughter-in-law and new granddaughter on April 8th. The Lord willing, I will be heading to NYC on Wednesday to get our visas for the trip to China, so don't stop praying yet! I can't wait to tell you about that adventure, I wonder what that will be like.