Paperwork Shuffle

Sorry about the lack of posting this week, but we've been doing a major paperwork cha-cha-cha to get Jari's Consulate Report of Birth Abroad and U.S. passport. It looks like a copy machine vomited all over the boat, but with any luck our kiddo will be a U.S. citizen in six to eight weeks. Also, I would like to say that the Consulate in Puerto Vallarta has an amazing staff, especially Kelly Trainor who was just lovely to work with.

I won't go into all the stuff you have to have to prove citizenship when born overseas. Charlotte from Rebel Heart does it superbly here. But suffice to say it's a lot of documentation, including pictures of me while pregnant, ultrasound reports and receipts from the hospital. 

Funnily enough, my mom went through the same process back in the early 70s when she had my older brother in Gibraltar, and my how things change. For one thing, they traveled for a full year without getting him a passport. That includes crossing through the Panama Canal and the South Pacific islands, and she definitely doesn't remember having to gather documentary evidence of pregnancy when they finally went to get Dave's passport in Fiji. There was no Homeland Security. No one ever questioned that he was their kid, and who would steal a baby anyhow? And then take him on a boat? Crazy talk. Times were different back then, no question.

Also, the State Department used to be way more cavalier with their passport photo requirements. I have to say that these days trying to take a regulation passport photo of a newborn is perhaps a special layer of hell for parents. That is some serious frustration. First of all, it has to be a neutral white background. The baby has to be looking right at the camera with a neutral expression (what baby has a neutral expression?!). Both ears have to be showing, and the list goes on. It's akin to taking a picture of a wet noodle that occasionally starts screaming.

You want to know what my brother's passport picture was back in the 70s? Him sitting on the boom with the mast and the sky as the background. Pretty much the greatest passport picture ever. Granted, he was older when they took the photo,  making him less noodle-like, but, wow, was the State Department way less testy back in the day. 

Anyway, enough talk. Let's check out the baby's passport photo blooper reel!