I taught English to adults for many years. One of my fun things to use were the comic strips from Family Circus. Remember the ones where the son would meander all over the place before he got to his destination? To go to school he would chase a dog, play in the park, up the slide down the slide, around the swings and on the merry go round. Over he'd go to the ice cream truck and on and on...
That's what the last 48 hours has been for me. Saturday night at the airport, my second passport turned up missing. This is the one that has the residency visa in it...the one needed to leave the country and reenter the country. Yep. Not there. So I raced home to frantically search the apt. Nothing. I raced back to the airport to make sure it hadn't turned up in lost and found. Mike, Sallie and Robert went thru security and flew to Lebanon ahead of me. Russell and Ryan had flown out on a morning flight.
Naturally, that night I searched and searched. I slept a bit, but mostly prayed and racked my brains. First thing Sunday morning I drove to Mike's office to ask what I needed to do. As all expats are sponsored by their employers, this is the place to start. And so began my "adventure"(see previous post) into immigration, lost passports, and residency visas. From 9am until 4pm I traveled up and down stairs, in and out of offices, in and out of buildings, and even to the other side of town several other offices in two other buildings. I got stamps and signatures and bad directions from just about wherever I went. Finally, at the end of the Sunday I could see the end in sight. So up again this morning to finish up. Once again...up and down, in and out, go here, no go there, no that is not right. At 1 pm when the lady said "We can't do without photo," I thought I would scream. Not one person had mentioned photo up until that point. It turns out I didn't need one. And so it goes.
Finally, at 4 pm today I got my passport and my new residency visa right there in it. I will hopefully be on my way to the airport, to join my family and friends who are having lots of fun, in less than an hour.
By the way, all of our visas expire in November. Ha ha ha ha ha...Then it happens all over again. I'm thinking the guy at Mike's office might do it this time. I'm done.
On a side note, it sure is nice to have friends who are around when things get rough. Pattie peeled me off the ceiling a few times. And my friend, Wael, talked me thru several steps and made phone calls to help me. So thankful for great friends!!!
