Ok, so many of you already know that back in October we "lost" our passports. We were in the process of applying for our Religious visas here in Costa Rica and through the several trips to the American Embassy and Immigration we "thought" we left our passports on the desk at Immigration. After that, we had to miss 1/2 day of school, head to the police station to make the reports that our passports were stolen. Then because I already had tickets bought to Indiana for a short trip home, I had to go to the American Embassy and apply for an emergency passport. The emergency passport cost the same as a regular passport, and I got it the same day. It is only good for 3 months and it is guaranteed to get you out of the country you are in....however, they can not guarantee that Costa Rica would let me back in on an emergency passport--even though IT IS a valid passport. But honestly, it looks fake.
However, after my trip home, I made it out of Costa Rica and back into Costa Rica without a problem! Actually the only people that questioned my passport were both State side--Immigration in Atlanta and the lady at the airport leaving Fort Wayne. Oh and funny story about the Fort Wayne airport....when I was going through security, the TSA agent looked at my passport, then had to ask his supervisor about my passport, because he had never seen an emergency passport before--that is because most people do not LEAVE the US with an emergency passport!! UGH!
About 2 weeks after I had been home, Bruce was getting ready for school, and he came out of the bedroom and said, "You are never going to guess what I just found." Of course, I said, "What?" And he proceeded to show me the 4 passports!! He had hid them so well, that he forgot where he put them. (They were in a place I can't mention because they are still hidden there). The funny part is that he took out everything in the closet except where the passports were! He felt really bad! But no big deal! He cancelled the police reports, the kids and his passport are still good, and I will be heading to the American Embassy to get my new one!
All in all, it was a very stressful time, but lessons were learned--and above all, we now know the process IF passports are stolen...actually not too difficult of a process!
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| Here is a picture of all of our passports and paperwork for our Religious Visas. |
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| One of our MANY trips to Immigration.... |
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