Last year a friend in the ward brought up the idea of a biking trip somewhere in Europe. He used to be a Scout leader and he had done similar things with the Scouts in the past. But this would not be an official church activity--just a group of friends going together. I talked to my dad about going with Seth and he was all in.
It took a little while for details to be solidified. It wasn't until the beginning of February that we had a game plan.
My mom sent this authentic Norwegian sweater for Seth to wear.
He was so thrilled.
First step? Acquire a passport. This was extra fun since Seth was under 16, so Jon and I both had to go to the appointment with him. We went to the library to get it all taken care of, got the photo, paid the money, and sent it all off. Didn't pay to expedite since we were still within the range of when they said it would be back, even at the latest. And that was our fatal error. We had no idea that there was a huge demand for passports and that the US Passport office was completely swamped. We started panicking when we were less than two weeks away from his departure and his passport was still processing.
I don't even know how many hours Jon and I spent on hold with the passport office. We called hundreds of times. Most times it would disconnect or tell us to call back later when call volume was lower (spoiler: it was never lower). But occasionally we'd get to talk to a human. They told us to pay to expedite it, which we did (although it never showed up on his record and didn't seem to have any effect). Other than that, we got no help from them. There were no appointments anywhere in the United States. Ever.
When we were less than ten days out I went into full panic mode. From discussions on reddit I learned that sometimes contacting your congressperson helped speed things up. So I contacted ALL of them. I got a lot of sympathy and a lot of promises to reach out, but it was still a long shot. We started mentally preparing for the possibility that Seth would not be able to go.
I am not the kind of person who likes to ask for help, and I especially don't like asking in a public setting. But Jon & I went to the temple one day and I felt really strongly that I needed to depend on the faith and prayers of my friends (my family was already on prayer duty). And so I asked all my co-op friends. And all my church friends. And finally I just asked on Facebook. It was a very vulnerable experience for me, but I was touched by the responses and all the prayers.
And then, just ONE DAY before Seth was scheduled to fly to Norway, we got our miracle!!! An appointment in DC at the passport office!!! Senator Ben Cardin is my new favorite person and I will be voting for him as long as he's running. It did break my heart to see the people waiting outside the office hoping to be able to get an appointment, only to be turned away. The place was PACKED. And so many families there with small children, just waiting. I was very grateful it was just me and Seth!
Despite our appointment being in the morning, we were there all day. We were finally seen around noon, at which point we were told to return around 2 to pick up his passport. We headed out for lunch and took a quick walking tour past the White House:
And then, WE GOT THE PASSPORT!!!!!!!!
It didn't feel real until we had it in our hands.
So much stress, so much relief.
Seth was going to Norway after all!!!!
And so, the next morning Jon drove him (along with a couple other kids from the ward) to Newark Airport, where he met up with Grandpa Russell.
Off he goes!
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