A glitch within a glitch…

…is that possible? we have felt like our roller coaster emotions had seen its highest and lowest these past few days but Thursday and Friday proved to take us on an even crazier ride. We got a phone call on Thursday from the US Department of State. I had spoken with them briefly on Wednesday. This agency will issue passports within a 24-48 hour turnaround, if you have proof of travel within the next 14 days. I had high hopes, but found out their first available appointment was March 4th, and I didn’t think we wanted to wait that long.

But mid morning on Thursday – someone called me back from the agency to inform me that if we could be at their office (downtown Chicago) at 9 AM on Friday morning, they would have all 5 passports reissued by 11 AM. We scheduled the appointment and started preparing for another trip to Chicago.

As soon as I got off the phone with them, I called the South African Consulate (in Chicago) to let her know we would hopefully have the passports by noon on Friday. The offices were within 2 blocks of each other. I talked to the girl that I had been corresponding with this past week and explained that within 24 hours we would have everything back in her hands to start processing our visas. We had a glimmer of hope that our March 9th departure date was still a possibility. She said she would wait at the office for us, (no matter what time) and if it happens to be after office hours so would wait there for us anyway.

Here comes the glitch….I had just finished packing our bags and my phone rang. It was the South African Consulate, so I assumed she was going to remind me of all of the paperwork. But, I knew something was wrong when she said,

“Jeanie – I have BAD, BAD news. It has taken 10 minutes to talk myself into calling you but we just got a federal notice from the South African government that effective tomorrow the Chicago office is NO LONGER able to accept volunteer visas. I am really sorry, contact our Los Angles office, and see what they have to say.”

I felt like the pit in my stomach just exploded and I was speechless. I thought in my mind, “What did you say?” but clearly didn’t get a chance to even ask it before the conversation was over. Rob walked into the room and my eyes must have given him some indication that something had just changed. I explained….and as we discussed our options, we decided getting our passports reissued was what we needed to concentrate on right now.

24 hours later, and another night in Chicago, we had all 5 passports and were at least back to where we started on January 30th. We have a call into the LA office, and by the time most of you are reading this, we should have a few more answers. Again, I had reached my threshold of up’s and down’s but we are whole heartedly trusting that God will give us the next step.

Friday evening I was able to hangout with some friends, and took part in some much-needed laughter.
Saturday we went roller skating and enjoyed a banquet for Heritage Christian School.
Sunday Rob baptized Austin, which is such a highlight for all parents. God has put baptism on Austin’s heart for a while, and although he was very nervous, he was excited to proclaim his faith in Jesus.
We even ended the night having cow tongue for dinner, and much to our surprise it was great!! This has been a long-standing joke since our November trip to South Africa. Most of us stepped out of our nice little comfort zones and were pleasantly surprised. Don’t ever say you won’t try something, it was way better than the boiled mice we were offered in Malawi.