Nightmare

Passport trouble. We left on a Friday. Starting Monday Renato called the Brazilian consulate for the boys' passports. I was getting so close. Turns out they had been done for a while they just didn't match my last name with theirs on the return envelope. So luckily I got to pick them up on Wednesday. Sweet I thought. Back when we were filling out the applications I wondered if we needed to send Renato's passport, I couldn't remember if I sent it or not. When I got home I saw one of his and thought oh we're fine. Well Wednesday night Renato looked and we realized it was his expired passport. I had sent his current one and the consulate didn't return it. Holy crap. Thursday morning we started making phone calls. The consulate wouldn't answer. So we called everyone, thought of every option. By 1:00pm I was at work and really starting to freak. I didn't want to go without Renato, but nothing was working. Expired one wouldn't work, we could try to move the date but that's expensive, or Renato could leave later. I was so scared that the worst would happen, getting trapped somewhere. The mind will wander. So by 3pm I lost it. I had a major meltdown at work. I felt so bad but my boss told me to go home. I went to the locker room and fell into Brittany's arm and balled. In the middle of all this Renato called...the vice consulate called. They found his passport, apologized, and sent it Fed Ex guaranteed by 10am. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. I cried some more! From there it was time to pack. Three suitcases, three carryons, one car seat, and one stroller. I can't believe I got all the stuff in there. Its hard to pack for this kind of trip. The morning of the flight we were tracking Fed Ex like crazy. I was about to ask for the driver's cell phone number. By the grace of God the passport arrived 45 minutes before we left for the airport. Whoa! That hurdle down, now onto 15 hours of flying over 6,000 miles to the other side of the equator.