Passports - First Attempt

I will be more comfortable taking the kids out of the country if they have passports than if I take them just with their birth certificates.  So I've gotten their pictures made, I've filed out the forms and gathered up all the extras.  I left work at 2:30 in order to pick them up from school and get all the way back to the Post Office here in McKinney (where I work) to file the forms.  I've done my reading and I'm prepared.  The US government prefers that both parents be present but with a notarized letter of acknowledgment I can get around that.  I have my notarized letter from Sid and I'm ready to go.  At the last minute I swing by the house and grab my passport and Sid's just in case.  The kids and  I wait in line and got to the counter with about 10 minutes to spare.  So far so good.  Unfortunately, I only have one notarized letter from Sid with both kids names on it.  I need to have one letter to put with each application.  We are rejected. 

Bringing the IDs was a good idea though, I need to have copies of both of our ID to send along with the applications too.  They don't tell you that on the website, but the clerk explained that sometimes, but not always,  the paperwork gets rejected if its not there.  Better safe than sorry.

If that wasn't enough fun, I found out from a friend that she has tried to travel with just the passport for her daughter and they wouldn't let her on the plane.  They had to go back home and get the birth certificate too.  She was born overseas and its something of a hassle for her to get additional birth certificates if this one gets lost, that was the whole reason she got the passport in the first place.  She wants the passport to stay safely at home.  Now she travels with both.