eeek!

SO sometime after 10:00 last night we were going to scan our passports into the United app to check in for our flight today, and we realized that kid #1's US passport had expired. Oh <insert several expletives here>...

After some desperate web searching and a Facebook group advice request, we decided that we'd go to the airport first thing in the morning, ask if they'd let her fly without a valid passport (fat chance), see if they'd let us rebook the flight for tomorrow, and then head to the US embassy in Bern to plead for an emergency passport (only issued in cases of life or death, according to their website, but also apparently to several Facebook group moms who had found themselves in the same situation and just happened to be online at 11 pm on a Monday night, so maybe not ONLY in cases of life or death?).

<insert panicky sleep and herding the kids out the door very early in the morning here>

Long story short, so far so good. We rebooked the flight at significant but not bank-breaking cost, took the train to Bern, got told several times that it wasn't possible to get an emergency passport, got an emergency passport, took the train back home, and we're flying tomorrow.

Our heroine of the day was the wonderful agent at the Swiss ticketing desk at the airport who carefully rebooked our outgoing flights by hand to keep the rebooking charges as low as possible (not that they were in any sense low, but we paid $600 less than her colleague at the next desk over, from whom she charmingly rescued our case, had quoted us) AND left open the possibility of voiding the whole mess if we didn't get the passport today. AND made sure we knew to leave all our luggage in a locker at the Bern train station because you can't take bags into the embassy. Because she's married to an American and has three sons and has had to go through similar messes. Thank you, Swiss ticketing woman: in a country where customer service ranges from indifferent to spiteful you are a shining light.

Now for one more night's sleep in our own beds. This feels like such a gift!

And if our luck holds (please say a prayer for us) we'll be off tomorrow for a week and a day. I'm not sure if I'll manage to post while we're gone but one way or another you'll see pictures of the Blochulays taking Our Nation's Capital...soonish.

In the meantime, here's a proud-mama photo of kid #2's art. I love this one.

Cats!

post-trip addendum: it's worth noting that the inside of the American embassy in Bern is a little slice of America, from the frighteningly-armed security guards to the continuously-playing video of highlights from all 50 states (and some territories!) to the American-style water fountain (wait...did they specially import this??) to the printers with notices to the effect that A4 paper will not be tolerated. Ha.