Weddingbee Blog

Remember my freak-out with Mr. Bunting’s passport? Well guess what came in the mail!

It took months of ups and downs (mainly downs) and searching and phone calls and emails and more phone calls and waiting and even more phone calls and finally…we have it. We had contacted everyone we possibly could that was involved with his adoption and called the passport agency on a daily basis for help, all to no avail.

So how did we finally get it? Well that’s the real kicker.

The passport agency had the missing document the entire time. I didn’t know whether I wanted to hug someone or punch someone. The letter we had received in the mail was a generic letter for those who hadn’t submitted an alien registration card and/or a final adoption decree. The alien registration card we had, but didn’t want to submit without the final adoption decree, which we didn’t think we had. The tricky thing about a final adoption decree is that it does not say “final adoption decree” ANYWHERE on it, so what you think may suffice may not (turns out it actually did) hence the wild goose chase for the mysterious, unlabeled document.

So yes, because we hadn’t submitted his alien card, we received the generic letter, which led us to believe that we were also missing the ambiguous adoption decree. The miscommunication does not stop here folks, oh no. All of this drama would have been avoidable, or at least short-lived, if we had established contact with Mr. Bunting’s assigned caseworker. But we didn’t. His caseworker had called and left a voicemail message at one point with a callback number that always went straight to some general voicemail. Mr. Bunting left numerous messages for this voicemail. He called the general passport hotline daily and left messages for his caseworker there, too. Each time he was told they would put a note in his file since they couldn’t access his caseworker’s contact information (seriously?). So we waited and called, waited and called, and began to wonder if this caseworker even existed.

Until one day, when FINALLY his caseworker called. Turns out to be a super friendly and helpful guy who never got any of our messages. This infuriates me. Someone dropped the ball over there. Multiple times. For weeks.

He apologized profusely, promised he’d personally speak to the head of the call center to see why they failed to forward any message, and then proceeded to explain to Mr. Bunting that he had the adoption decree already and if we would kindly send in his alien registration card he could be approved for a U.S. passport.

I still feel like hugging and punching at the same time. Where’s a mosh pit when you need one?

All in all, though, we were so relieved to have heard such great news and promptly put his alien card in the mail. Several days later, we were told that his passport was approved and printed. Add several more days, and there it was in the mail box. Which means we’re going on our international honeymoon, whoo-hoooooo!

Did you encounter any unexpected obstacles in your planning? Did it all work out in the end? Does anyone have a fireproof safe I can borrow to store this damned thing in?