The endless paperwork

It feels like we have been doing paperwork for months, and we can now finally relax!!  When Hayden's mission call to Spain came, on February 22nd, he was instructed to begin the process of getting his passport.  He was told to get it expedited, and that further instruction would come soon from the travel department.  A week later he got the documents, which seemed a little overwhelming at the time.  Among other things, he needed to get a statewide criminal background check.  The next paragraph said, "They do not do criminal background checks in Arizona.  If you live in Arizona, you need to apply for an FBI clearance."  And then we were told to have all necessary documents back to Salt Lake within 20 days of the receipt of that later.

An FBI clearance takes 6-8 weeks.

AAAAaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

So, we were lucky enough to call a neighbor, who is a police officer, who offered to bring home the fingerprinting card from work and do the fingerprints after church the next day.  On Monday morning we overnighted the application, fingerprints and money to the FBI, with a letter begging them to hurry.

We got it back yesterday, four weeks to the day after we sent it off.

Hayden hurried home from school, took the FBI clearance letter and an affidavit, and went to his Sunday School teacher's house to get it notarized.  Then he had to get two more passport pictures taken (which I had been nagging him to do for weeks, but he had procrastinated).  As soon as my daycare baby got picked up, I loaded up Hayden, Regan and all their violin gear, and of course all of our paperwork to go the Secretary of State to get the Apostille. (We didn't perform for the Secretary of State, we went straight to orchestra afterwards.)

They closed at 5.  We got there at 4:57 (after getting a little lost and calling them for help!).  They locked the doors right after us.  We wrote our $3 check and got it done!!  (The only cheap thing in this whole process!)

I took it to the post office this morning and got it overnighted to Salt Lake with all of the other things that needed to be included.  You just never know if that one day will make the difference in getting it done in time.  Hayden's mission will start at the MTC in Madrid, so he has to have his Visa before he leaves Phoenix on July 24th!

Approximate cost of his travel documents:

Passport with expedite: $135
Extra postage fee:  $20 (I think?)
Passport photos:  $15
Fingerprinting:  FREE!!!  Thanks to our awesome neighbor!
FBI Fee:  $18
Postage to and from FBI:  $75 (Should've gone to post office instead of UPS store)
Apostille:  $3
Postage to Salt Lake:  $20
Gas for my car to drive all over the place:  Lots

So start saving your money for your mission now!!  The costs don't start when you make your first payment. The travel documents, luggage and clothing will set you back!!!  Thanks to our family and friends for helping us out getting all of this done.  We couldn't have done it without you.  Grandma and Grandpa Abersold, Brother Miller, Brother Manning.  You are all lifesavers!!!  Now we can sit back and relax for a few minutes.