I am not quite sure where to begin with this story. I feel like I got a good jump on sharing the hurdles we've had to overcome (see what I did there) from the beginning in a post last month titled: Espana...eventually...maybe
So I should probably pick up where that one left off. But after MONTHS of waiting, our residency was approved on July 13th. This was a bit of a tricky week. We had decided to sell our Ford Explorer to family friend, Tony, back at Christmas time. He was flying to Illinois on the 15th. Mitch and I had a big decision to make. Do we move forward with the sale, or do we buy Tony a one-way ticket home? Our relocation coordinator in Spain assured us we would have a Visa appointment by the end of the week. We were feeling confident, we were happy to be making progress so we went ahead and delivered my beloved SUV to Tony on July 16th. That same day, our coordinator said she didn't know what was going on. She had been emailing the Spanish Embassy and they weren't responding. We had been told that emailing to set up an appointment was the only option. But after Mitch did some investigating he discovered that was no longer the case. There on their website, was a link to an online appointment booking. Furthermore, they were booking appointments a month out, and there was NOTHING available for the next 30 days.
This set us into panic mode!!! How could it possibly be at least another month before we even had a visa appointment. Our movers were scheduled for Monday, July 19th. We quickly got them moved to Aug. 2nd.
It was a LONG weekend, trying to figure out what we were going to do. On Sunday, July 18th. I called my cousin Sue, she's a federal judge and told her about our situation, and asked what she could do. The next morning I had a state senators aide calling my cell phone. Finally we had some hope. Of course, we understood that the Spanish Embassy and Visa's were out of their jurisdiction, but there is always someone who knows someone. I was crossing my fingers and saying so many prayers.
Meanwhile, Mitch has a co-worker in Spain, who was reaching out on their end. Everyone was desperate to get the ball rolling at this point. It wouldn't have been that much of an issue, except I kept thinking "I don't have a car, I don't have a job, we have to go!" And I really, really wanted the girls to be there before school started on September 6th. It's hard enough to move, but moving to a different country, with a different language is a whole different level. So long story short, things started to come together. Someone was working on our visas, all we had to do was mail our passports to Washington DC, include an envelope for them to send them back to us, and we'd be good to go. On Wednesday, July 21st, against my advice, Mitch put our passports in the hands of the USPS. We really wanted to drive them to DC, but it was the weekend of Justin and Megan's wedding and so the USPS was the quicker option...until it wasn't. Tracking showed that our package would be delivered, priority express, on Friday July 23rd. Friday came and went...Saturday came and went...and on Monday as we were heading home the package still hadn't moved. We were panicking.
Mitch called USPS on the drive home. They really had no idea what was wrong. The package made it to Springfield and left Springfield and then just disappeared. UGH!!! THE constant sick-to-your-stomach feeling lasted for days...for both of us. On Thursday the 29th, I sent an email to our congressional aide with an update, and she called immediately. Did you know that they have congressional postal reps?!?! I don't know how it happened but the next day, tracking alert from USPS showed our package was in Memphis. It was like a choir of angels every time we got that tracking alert notification on the phone. Package went out for delivery on Saturday, July 31st. But the Embassy was closed, so they actually called us to let us know they would attempt delivery on Monday. A phone call...seriously. We were impressed. And our movers were coming on Monday, August 9th. Smooth sailing from here on out, right? Wrong.
Monday morning I went out to our mailbox to put a few bills that needed to post. I opened the mailbox and there was a priority express envelope. I pulled it out, saw the first line of the address and about collapsed in the driveway. Somehow the return envelope, that was with our passports on the way to DC, had made it back to our house before the passport package had even been delivered. I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut. Devastation washed over me. I made my way back to the house and set the envelope on the desk in front of Mitch were he was working. He was on a phone conference, but when the realization set in, I watched the color drain from his face and he put his head in his hands. It was then that we knew the package had been damaged. About an hour later we got confirmation that the original package was delivered to the Embassy.
Mitch tried calling, but no one answered. We tried to hold on to hope that all the passports had somehow still arrived, and we were still on track. Then Tuesday morning we got the call. The envelope was wet, torn open, contents were missing, and it was wrapped in cellophane with an apology from USPS attached to the front. Remember that phone call we got on Saturday? The one we were so impressed with?!?! Don't you think they could have mentioned that the envelope was destroyed?!?! Hindsight says I'm glad we didn't know. It would have meant worrying for 3 days instead of one.
We spent ALL.DAY.LONG on the phone. I talked to people in Springfield, I talked to people in Memphis, I talked to people in DC. I talked to my congressional aide. I talked to Congressional postal reps in Illinois and Tennessee. It felt like I never stopped talking that day. At 4:30 when I knew everyone was closing up shop for the day, I counted over 50 calls in my phone call log. But I knew, the passports were gone. We weren't going to find them. Next up, getting an expedited passport appointment. Back to the congressional aide.
I will say, everyone was responsive. But no one seemed to get anything done. And here is what I want my girls to remember. At the end of the day, Mitch and I are the ones that got it done!!!
Senators office said they were emailed the State Dept for expedited passports but weren't getting a response and couldn't get through on the phone. Mitch and I must have called the 1-800 passport number 100 times. We'd go through all the prompts and get a busy signal. On Friday night, while we were watching the summer Olympics, Mitch went to get Chinese Food for dinner. While driving North he called the passport number and finally got through! At first he panicked because he wasn't at home with all our information. But they said the wait time was an hour and thirty minutes so he knew he was good. He got home, we ate dinner and then we called and got on hold with Leah's phone too...you know, just in case.
After at least two and a half hours Mitch was on the phone with an actual person. He was able to get us expedited passport appointments in Chicago, on Monday, Aug 16th. We just needed to book our airline tickets within 72 hours and show proof of travel at the State Dept. First order of business...reschedule the movers again!
I will say, from there things finally started to go our way. We had a lovely tour of Chicago and were thrilled to leave with our passports the same day. The people at the State Dept in Chicago, were kind and understanding. We got home and met with the movers the next day. And did I mention that was also the first days of school in Mt. Zion. I agonized over this decision. The girls were so excited about school. Kiersten had Mrs. Short and Hattie had Mr. Gherardini. Leah was looking forward to Geometry with her friends, and I was worried that with everything we had went through, if we ended up not going, they would be so far behind by the time they actually would go to school. BUT we didn't want to take a chance of them getting exposed/quarantined with Delta variant Covid-19 overtaking our area. But it just wasn't a risk we were willing to take.
It was hard for the girls to be home with the movers. They didn't like watching everything being packed and then carried out of the house and loaded up into a moving van. Fortunately for them (And me) Malinda, our Children's minster took them on Thursday to get them out of the house. They had a great time, going to the park, eating at Solsa and getting Krave for dessert. The movers did good work and had it all taken care of pretty quickly. That just left the Visas. We rebooked our flights for Friday August 27th. We figured that gave us just enough time to get to DC, have the visa appointment on the 25th, and then get home and get organized before heading out.
Washington was fantastic. It was only 25 hours but we packed it all in...and we left with visas. So it was everything we needed it to be. The drive home was long. And Thursday was a circus. Trying to get the house cleaned and ready for the "housesitter" Gage, trying to make sure we fit everything we needed into 5 suitcases and a few carry-ons. Ellen and Gigi came to help us out. Ellen picked up dinner for us at Donnie's and then Gigi and Ellen played Euchre with the girls while Mitch and I finished up.
Friday morning we hopped in our Ford Escape, and the rental Ford Escape and headed to O'Hare. We made good time. We got to ticketing with ALL the luggage, the passports and visas. Mitch had researched plenty before we went. Our relocation team, and the Spanish Embassy had all told us that we didn't need a Covid test to fly. But KLM/Delta thought otherwise. They asked for proof of vaccine for Mitch and I...and Hattie and Kiersten are under 12 so they were fine. But not Leah! Kicked in the gut again. Mitch tried to show them on the Spanish Consulate website that they aren't requiring negative test or vaccine for American's to enter Spain. But they didn't care. You could get a test at O'Hare, but it was in Terminal 2. Mitch and Leah jumped on the shuttle and ran through Terminal 2 to get her antigen test started. Meanwhile, I was back in Terminal 5 with Kiersten and Hattie trying not to throw up. As soon as they were down swabbing her, they told them to go back to Terminal 5 and they would get an email with results. Mitch and Leah made it back to us and it wasn't even 5 minutes later, we got the email with the negative result. HALLELUJAH!
After arriving at the airport at 1pm, we were finally headed to our gate at 3:40 for our 4:15 flight. Looks like we made it! We are sitting in Amsterdam Airport as I type. None of us slept on the flight from O'Hare. It's nearing 5AM our time, but almost Noon in Europe. We're exhausted, but we're here...kind of. One more flight into Valencia, where we will be shuttled to our AirBnB. Our sweet pups will be flying on Sunday night, arriving in Spain on Monday, and then on Tuesday we'll move into our Temporary Housing. What a long strange trip it's been.
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