Yesterday we went to the Consulate. I know what you’re thinking….here we go again. And you’d be partially correct.

We headed down to the Consulate about 10:15 a.m. However, we forgot to get out money ahead of time so we had to stop by the ATM. Then we headed to the metro. We waited for about 20 minutes or so for the metro in order to go ONE stop. That’s right, one stop. It finally arrvies and we have about 15 minutes to get to our appointment on time.

As we travel up the escalator from the metro I say, “I know what we forgot…an envelope (for the Consulate to mail our documents back to us).” Paul’s reaction, “Uhhhhh.” But no worries, there is a post office right by the metro stop. So I bop in to get an envelope and apparently my Italian has gotten so bad over the last month from a lack of seeing lots of Italians that I have a hard time just getting an envelope.

But I exit the post office with an envelope and after walking swiftly we arrived at the Consulate more or less on time. A very nice man, who spoke perfect English, helped us and everything was going smoothly until he saw Lily’s passport photos. He said, “This probably won’t work,” and my heart sank because I knew what was coming. But he was nice enough to try it anyway. The results were not good. He directed us to a photo shop that would take the picture. So, we turned in all the paperwork and headed down to the photo place.

Now Paul had tried for about two weeks to get this picture. The photo man did it in about 30 seconds. That says nothing about Paul’s ability to take the picture but everything about us not having the sense to take her to a photo shop in the first place.

We then head back to the Consulate, turn in the photos, pay, and then wait for the head honcho to come and approve the documents and make us swear that they were filled out correctly. We waited for around 45 minutes. However it was entertaining because there were two sisters there, who are Italian and American citizens, trying to get some paperwork filed. But that is a different story for a different day. After what seemed like forever the vice head honcho did all the swearing in and whatnot because the main head honcho never showed and we were free to go.

We will go back in about 10 days to pick up the documents. Oh, that’s right I forgot to tell you. After all the junk with the envelope we ended up not needing it because we can go pick it up. After we have the birth certificate and passport we can get the social security card.

Did I mention this whole time Paul’s parents were sitting outside in the wind and cold because security would not let them come inside and sit? Fun times.