The Life of Bon: The tale of a passport.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

The tale of a passport.







20 weeks.
Dress:  Chicnova
Undertee:  Downeast
Headband: Ban.do
Necklace: Mia Earrings (use code lifeofbon20 at checkout for 20% off)

I love this dress for a feminine, spring feel.  It is especially great for my pregnant belly because it allows room to grow.  The perfect dress for this time of year- light and airy!

In other news, we haven't seen Greg's passport for about a year.  We don't know when it went missing or why, we just know that one day it was gone.  I am pretty OCD about important documents- I keep our social security cards, diplomas, passports, marriage certificate, etc, etc in a special IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS binder.  My passport is still securely nestled in the binder.  Greg's is not.

I think we both kept thinking it would just kind of turn up.  You know how things do.  But month after month the passport has remained hidden.  We have both casually searched around for it, and still, no sign. When I booked our tickets to Germany a month ago, I still hoped we'd be able to find it in time.

But it just wasn't in the cards for us.  Friday night I had a massive burst of energy and therefore decided to conduct a huge search of every nook and cranny in our apartment (Which isn't really that hard... it's only a one bedroom apartment, afterall.)

After an hour and a half of looking, I resigned myself.  The passport was officially lost.

Now, I know it's really no big deal to get a new passport.  It's just a big hassle and an annoying expense.  Also, Greg's passport has all sorts of way cool stamps and visas in it from serving his mission in Russia.  He had to leave Russia every three months to get a new visa and then return back in the country, hence the passport is just littered with funky stickers, dates, places, etc. Plus it has the stamps from our study abroad together in Europe, all stamps that meant something.  And it just felt so sad to have it gone gone gone.

But gone it was.  Every few days this week I've reminded Greg- you've got to apply for your passport this week, don't forget to get a passport today, have you checked out the passport site yet?!?  I can be such a nag.

Last night was such a stressful night for Greg and I.  Greg was trying to send in an application that was due by today and we couldn't upload his transcripts.  We were both exhausted and on the verge of breakdowns.  You know when all the stress of the past few weeks culminates into this huge explosion over the simplest of things?  That's how last night was.  We've both been stressed about our work situations next year, not knowing exactly what is the right thing to do, where we should go, what work Greg should do, how we are going to provide for a take of a baby human that can do nothing but sleep and poop.  We were stressed and at each other's throats, and to compound it all... it was our anniversary night.  You can't control when the stress bomb explodes, but it sure is nice if it doesn't go off on your anniversary night.

But it did.

It was all just so frustrating and impossible.  UVU is a stupid school that will not email transcripts to you.  They will only mail or fax transcripts.  What good is a mailed transcript when applications ask you to attach your transcripts on the computer?  That's how Greg and I found ourselves at midnight trying in vain to figure out a way to get his tangible transcripts on to the computer.

Let's see... we have a scanner but haven't used it in forever so we tried to figure out if that would work.  But where was the cord?  Ah, the elusive cord!  We searched and searched for that stupid $10 cord, and alas, it had disappeared completely.  So how do we attach the transcripts without a scanner, dang it?!  I had the totally stupid idea to take a picture of the transcripts with my camera, upload the pics to my computer, transfer the pic to a pdf and then attach it.  Yes, it was a freaking hippo circus but it seemed the only thing that was going to work.

It was 12:10 am and I was out in the front room trying desperately to get a decent picture of a transcript with my DSRL that I really have no idea how to use. It was all quite hopeless.

I heard Greg start to laugh from the bedroom.  "Bonnie, you are not going to believe this!" he said.

I came in the room, hoping to goodness that he had found the stupid cord to attach to the scanner so we didn't have to attach his transcripts in the must inane way possible.

"This is seriously insane," he said.  With a huge smile on his face, Greg lifted the lid to the scanner.  There, open face down, lay Greg's passport.

It's such a weird world.  How in the world, when you are stressed to the max and doing an impossible circus show of taking pics to convert to pdf to attach transcripts to doing backflips off of freaking hippos do you find your passport that you have been looking for for months?!?  In that moment of absolute exhaustion and stress, how does the passport just decide to up and make itself known?

Had we not been trying to attach the transcripts, we never would have found the passport.  There's no way.  And yet there it was for us, in all its stamps and dates and visa glory.

Sometimes I feel God at the absolute craziest of times.  I felt him right that moment. I got chills up and down my spine and felt Him calming me down, letting me know that He's somehow got it all taken care of.  A verse a friend had shared with me earlier that day came to my mind, "Be still and know that I am God."  I don't know the answers or the way life will turn out and I look and search and put all my effort into figuring it out for myself, and then one day, bam, the answer is just right there in front of me.  Lying face down on a scanner.  (Well, not literally.  You get the point.)

I guess sometimes I'm just amazed.  Amazed at the way things work out.  Amazed at how I can be stressed out of my mind over something little and in the mean time, God's in the background, taking care of all the big things.

17 comments:

  1. I LOVE this post!! :) It really so true, how God shows his presence in the midst of craziness when you need it the most. I hope you finally figured out how to attach the transcript! haha

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the reminder, God has my back. I needed it this morning. (The tears after I read ur post in work, I didn't really need!) xx

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like an episode we've all had, they're just the pits! For next time you need to scan something there is an app called CamScanner - it has been a lifesaver. You take a regular phone picture of the document, then you can adjust the settings so it is readable, then with the press of a button it becomes a PDF - uploadable to email, dropbox, Google Drive, etc!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous7:12 AM

    What a great lesson that came out of such a stressful situation! We've all been there!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is my life! My passport is also lost and I finally have up yesterday and went to apply for a new one- I'm still hoping my passport will turn up though! It was expired so it's not a huge deal that I had to spend an extra $25 for new instead of renewed, but still!

    Also- as a teacher I really loved the "genius scan" app - it's free and it concerts pictures to PDF !

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! That is so ironic that it was on the scanner! What an amazing thing to happen! I have goosebumps just reading this!

    -Kate
    www.theflorkens.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a wonderful story and witness. You really have an amazing story-telling gift. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed this. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is so funny how life works. Heavenly Father is watching over all the little things, and if it's supposed to fall in place, it will!
    Now if only I can find Jakes social Security card :\\ eek! Thanks for sharing Bon.

    ReplyDelete
  10. So glad it all worked out! It is definitely a good story to share!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I've had the same lost passport experience, sad to let it go because I had fun stamps. Found it in my glove box after I had stopped looking for it. Awesome story. I'm glad it turned up.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love this! It will be a great story to tell the kids about down the road.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Loved this post! I always find it so amazing that in this whole great big world, God has the time to give us these little nuggets just to remind us how much He loves and cares for us.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Glad to hear that the passport was found. :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. ah, love when things like this happen. so glad you found it! that dress looks adorable on you too btw. :)

    xo. jenn @ hello, rigby!

    ReplyDelete
  16. It's always my favorite when things work out in funny ways like that!! I love this story! I know all about letting things build up until the tiniest of things make that tiny fire explode within you and you have a melt down because oh my goodness.... the world just feels over now! Glad to see that God provided you with relief and humor when you needed it most! He's so funny that way! I'm also thankful those memories are still available through that tiny little passport - as I was reading about all the stamps he had in it, my heart was so sad at the thought of losing that!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thank you for sharing an inspiring post. I love how you convey your stories :) Keep it up Bonnie :)

    ReplyDelete