Small complications in Warsaw
Newsflash...nothing's ever easy in Poland! I feel like I'm a character in my own version of the movie "The Never-Ending Story". I stand amazed at two things most often: (1) the power of God and (2) the difficulty involved in getting anything done in this country.
To bring you up to speed, we've gotten a ton done in the past couple of days. The movers have about got all of our stuff packed up and ready to be transported to Warsaw for storage, we have brand spankin' new birth certificates for all of our kids (what an amazing thing to see their real names in official print...my name listed as dad and Vicki's as mom!!)...and I've even gotten the majority of my family out of Poznan already! Not a bad few days of work!!
Vicki is in Warsaw right now with the kids. They left this morning at 6am so they could turn in our passport applications (for the kids). She drove the 4.5 hours to the capital, picked up our friends, the Whites, at the train station, and then began looking for the ministry office to which we'd be sent by the American Embassy.
To begin, they had big problems trying to find the place. Wrong turns, backtracking, etc. My poor wife, having already endured the stress of the long trip, began feeling sick although she had the task of taking care of our kids' passport applications as well as translating for the Whites. And then the complications began mounting.
In the end, Vicki worked with the lady at the ministry office for 1.5 hours, trying to do whatever she could to diffuse a potentially negative resolution. She was told that they never should have gone there...that the paperwork we had was all wrong...that the fee we paid was too little...on and on and on. But my wonderful wife, the peacemaker that she is, ended up making a friend with this woman. And after all was said and done we were told that we would have the passports by Friday, at the earliest, or Monday at the latest. Yeah...that's MY wife!
All that said, we continue to need your prayers. The U.S. Embassy generally wants people to have all of their documents, passports included, in hand in order to make the appointment for travel visas (for the kids) 3 DAYS IN ADVANCE. That means that if we were to get them Friday, we would need to make our interview for Tuesday or Wednesday. The bottom line is that we have got to have these interviews done and visas in hand on Tuesday. It's got to happen.
Vicki's calling the Embassy tomorrow to work this out. So, I'm asking for you to join us in praying that (1) the passports will come in on time and (2) we'll get our visa interviews on Monday or Tuesday. Please pray with us for those two things.
If you're wondering what's happening with the husband and father of the brave hearts in Warsaw, I've stayed behind to wrap things up here in Poznan. I'm picking up final document translations, closing out bills with our landlord, and overseeing our stuff being packed and hauled out of here. I'm hoping to catch a train tomorrow afternoon to regroup with the rest of the crew. Thanks to the hospitality of some good friends I've got a great place to sleep tonight that is not among a house full of boxes...don't know how comfortable a packed up bed would be!!
As always, thanks for continuing to pray with us. All of this excitement will make our "homecoming" all the more sweet!
To bring you up to speed, we've gotten a ton done in the past couple of days. The movers have about got all of our stuff packed up and ready to be transported to Warsaw for storage, we have brand spankin' new birth certificates for all of our kids (what an amazing thing to see their real names in official print...my name listed as dad and Vicki's as mom!!)...and I've even gotten the majority of my family out of Poznan already! Not a bad few days of work!!
Vicki is in Warsaw right now with the kids. They left this morning at 6am so they could turn in our passport applications (for the kids). She drove the 4.5 hours to the capital, picked up our friends, the Whites, at the train station, and then began looking for the ministry office to which we'd be sent by the American Embassy.
To begin, they had big problems trying to find the place. Wrong turns, backtracking, etc. My poor wife, having already endured the stress of the long trip, began feeling sick although she had the task of taking care of our kids' passport applications as well as translating for the Whites. And then the complications began mounting.
In the end, Vicki worked with the lady at the ministry office for 1.5 hours, trying to do whatever she could to diffuse a potentially negative resolution. She was told that they never should have gone there...that the paperwork we had was all wrong...that the fee we paid was too little...on and on and on. But my wonderful wife, the peacemaker that she is, ended up making a friend with this woman. And after all was said and done we were told that we would have the passports by Friday, at the earliest, or Monday at the latest. Yeah...that's MY wife!
All that said, we continue to need your prayers. The U.S. Embassy generally wants people to have all of their documents, passports included, in hand in order to make the appointment for travel visas (for the kids) 3 DAYS IN ADVANCE. That means that if we were to get them Friday, we would need to make our interview for Tuesday or Wednesday. The bottom line is that we have got to have these interviews done and visas in hand on Tuesday. It's got to happen.
Vicki's calling the Embassy tomorrow to work this out. So, I'm asking for you to join us in praying that (1) the passports will come in on time and (2) we'll get our visa interviews on Monday or Tuesday. Please pray with us for those two things.
If you're wondering what's happening with the husband and father of the brave hearts in Warsaw, I've stayed behind to wrap things up here in Poznan. I'm picking up final document translations, closing out bills with our landlord, and overseeing our stuff being packed and hauled out of here. I'm hoping to catch a train tomorrow afternoon to regroup with the rest of the crew. Thanks to the hospitality of some good friends I've got a great place to sleep tonight that is not among a house full of boxes...don't know how comfortable a packed up bed would be!!
As always, thanks for continuing to pray with us. All of this excitement will make our "homecoming" all the more sweet!
posted by Michael Shattuck at
12:08 PM
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