The Passport Drama Comes to an End...

Isn't it crazy how you can talk to different people at the same office and get two completely different levels of customer service?  I've talked to three different people with the passport office and all three times I've gotten different answers.  The one supervisor I talked to was the most helpful but he was still telling me I needed to go get a court order authorizing...blah blah blah.  At least he was offering me suggestions as to how we could get Maddie's passport issued.  When I talked to the other two people they were just like "that's just the policy, there's nothing we can do" and didn't offer any additional help.  Those are the kind of people that frustrate me.  But they're probably supposed to say that to weed out the dishonest people or something.  So, anyway...the guy I talked to yesterday told me I was going to have to send a letter to the Charleston office requesting them to cancel Maddie's passport application and that I would have to reapply in person.  There was no guarantee I would have Maddie's birth certificate back in time which meant I would have to drive to Austin to get a certified copy of her birth certificate.  I was really depressed and basically was ready to give up and take a vacation somewhere else.  That's when my dear hubby took over :)  He took it up on himself to call the passport office to get the application cancelled (when I was told it had to be done in writing).  Then I got a call from a very nice man at the Charleston office telling me all Eric has to do is write a statement authorizing them to issue a passport to his minor child.  No notary involved, no getting a court order for anything, no driving to Austion to get another birth certificate, no spending an additional $157 to get the passport.  Now, if only this guy had answered the phone the first time I called we could've saved ourselves from DAYS of frustration and stress!  So this is where we are right now.  Eric's drafting the letter.  He's going to print it out, sign it, scan it and email it to me.  I'm then going to print it out and fax it to the Charleston office Attn Frank (my new angel!) and they will overnight her passport to us as soon as it's processed.  Ahhhhh.....sweet relief :)

Now I'm feeling refreshed and recharged and ready to get my house back in order for Eric to come home.  Up until today I was feeling pretty depressed about losing out on my chance to get away from the house for a while so it was making me lose motivation to do any cleaning...so now I have to play some serious catch up.  I was planning on going to the zoo today with Maddie but I cancelled that trip due to stress and anxiety and not wanting to leave the house.  I guess it's better that I cancelled that so now I can catch up on my cleaning!