A minor glitch….
First, I am sorry I haven’t posted in a while. We have been busy finishing up the dental office remodel, visiting faith families to share about our heart for Africa, and continuing with our day-to-days lives. I really don’t know where the time has gone. We wake up each day with our feet on the ground running to get everything accomplished before we leave, and collapse at night, anxious for some much-needed rest.
As you know from my last post, I sent our passports in priority mail (2-3 day service) on January 30th. 26 days later – and many phone calls to numerous post offices between here and Chicago, the package was found. Our package went to Elk Grove Village, Des Moines, Forest Park, Des Moines, Forest Park, Des Moines, Forest Park, Des Moines, Chicago, Elk Grove Village, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids…….finally we picked it up.
Rob opened the package at the post office in Cedar Rapids, as it seemed a lot lighter than it should to have paperwork and 6 passports in it.
5 of our 6 passports were missing.
The package had at least a whole roll of packing tape, and even still one end was opened and only 1 passport was in there.
Tanner was the lucky one!! His came back, but for the rest of us…we have to start all over. We went to the passport office in IC to see if we could expedite the process and get our new passports in 24-48 hours. After that is completed, we still have to hand deliver them back to the South African consulate in Chicago for visas.
It seemed like we kind of had everything working against us. The past 5 days we have been consumed with phone call after phone call to different post offices searching for our package. We are still talking to the post office to see if they are willing to help with some of the costs of having to re-do 5 passports. My printer stopped working, snow was coming down fast and the roads were getting slippery. We decided to take a break from all of this craziness and rest.
We still don’t know what our next step will be. There is a good chance that we will have to delay our departure date a few weeks. I made one last phone call tonight. I called Delta to see what our options were with our flights. They made documentation to our tickets and said there would be ‘no charge’ to reschedule our tickets due to an unforeseen issue with our passports/visas. That was the best news I had heard all day!
We have had many people praying and keeping up with our day-to-day details….we feel blessed to have such a great group of support from our family and friends. A friend texted me tonight and said, “trust that through this He is teaching you something you must learn before His next assignment…”
We will continue to trust God on this, and know His plan is greater than our own!!
heavenishomeforus.com 
A minor glitch? I am reminded of the following verse the Lord has shown me. May it be an encouragement for you. God’s timing is perfect and His ways are higher. We will be praying for peace in the midst and rest.
Habakkuk 2:3 Living Bible
If it seems slow, do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!
Glenda & Tom