Passport to Adventure

We're planning a trip to Canada this summer and discovered that in order to return from our visit to our neighbor to the north, we have to have passports for the whole family. The USA lets you leave without paperwork, but doesn't let you back in so easily. (It's exactly the opposite of New Jersey. All the single-direction toll bridges on our state's border are "pay to leave New Jersey"--but you can get in for free.)

Only my husband already had a passport, so we began the hunt for all the documents needed to prove our identities and our intentions to travel, not to terrorize.

A nearby post office issues passports, so we figured it would be easy.

WRONG!

After we all got in there and sat for pictures, the document checks began. We were informed that our children had the "wrong" birth certificates. We had no idea that there was more than one kind! These birth certificates had gotten them admitted to school and sports activities, so clearly they were just fine. Only the 17-year-old was allowed to skate by on the "wrong" birth certificate, because he had other forms of ID and was old enough to sign his own application.

So we took the papers and photos back home for the other kids and my husband headed off to Camden to get the correct birth certificates--the long form, with parents' names on them.

Then we had to wait for a day that my husband was home from work in the middle of the afternoon, as the passport office closes at 3:30 PM. Yesterday was the day. We picked the kids up at school at dismissal time (3:00) and lined up to wait our turn. As it turned out, the kids didn't have a thing to do. They didn't have to sign anything; their pictures were already taken; it was all a formality. The postal worker helping us told me that basically they just have to see the children and "make sure they exist."

A couple of hundred dollars later, we were all set and now we wait. In six to eight weeks we should have those passports in hand.

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