Got it done and going home

Thursday was a stressful day. After phone calls and a visit to the passport office, we still did not have Katie's passport. Apparently some document got misplaced. We were told to be back at the passport office at 11:10 am on Friday. We spent most of our day stressing about the passport, even though the matter at this point is out of our control. We got some more souvenirs and paid for our apartment. Katie had a great Thursday! She loved bath time and played a lot. She also was very patient sitting in the stroller as we dealt with the errands we had to run today. She is really such a smart girl. She knows how to turn the faucet in the bath tub on and off. She knows how to put the nesting cups together. She can take my flip flops on and off and has quite the laugh over it too. She likes to get horsey rides from Babcia and really enjoyed helping us pack our belongings on Thursday (I mean, unpacking!).

Friday was the big D day. Would Katie and I make it on the plane Saturday or not? It was up to the passport office. My mom was up at 5:30 am pacing. My stomach was in knots all morning. At least Katie had a good night of sleep and slept through the night! We finished packing. We got diapers at the store and walked around. Finally, it was time to go to the passport office. I don't remember being so nervous in a long time. But - we got her passport! I was so thrilled I almost cried! We were in there for 5 minutes and done. We immediately booked it to the US Embassy. We submitted Katie's passport and were told to wait. An hour later I inquired as to our status and was told to come back at 3 pm and the visa should be ready. It would have been nice to know that sooner because Katie was cranky tired, but oh well. We booked it back to our apartment at 12:30 pm, I put Katie down for a nap, and we had to finish packing. While Katie napped the cleaning lady (Maria) came over to prep the apartment for the next residents. They were coming in at 2 pm. Maria was kind enough to let us stay in the apartment while she cleaned and Katie got a her mini nap in. She also helped call us a cab. We got our bags and left. We took the elevator to the ground level and exited before realizing that we had an extra piece of luggage. It was Maria's bag! She showed up as we realized our mistake and we had quite the laugh over almost stealing her luggage. We then took the taxi to the US Embassy. Maria helped us with our bags and even loaded them in the taxi wit us - the taxi driver did not help. On the way to the Embassy, the driver got a call on his PA from his supervisor, telling him off for not helping us with our bags. We realize that Maria had called the taxi company to complain! Later my mom called the apartment company to thank them for being so flexible with us and do helpful. If you ever stay in Warsaw, I highly recommend City Apartments. They are so great to work with and the apartment was clean and very nice ad spacious.

We got to the Embassy at 2:15 pm and the visa wasn't ready yet. I begged and explained I had my mom in a taxi with 4 bags waiting. They worked with me and got the visa ready in 15 minutes. Thank you American Embassy! I hopped back in the taxi and we rode to the hotel by the airport, getting there around 3. Thanks to Mike for setting up the hotel! I am grateful for my wonderful husband and can't wait to see him, as well as our kids at home. I hooked in to wireless and my mom started calling everyone to let them know we made it to the hotel and indeed would fly out!

The came the next drama. Please disregard my previous flame on Delta. They are not the issue, the issue is KLM. We went to the airport to print boarding passes and Katie is flying on an infant in arms ticket. They did to Katie what they had done to my mom and they reserved her ticket but didn't bill Mike's credit card. Of course this took 2 hours at the airport to figure out. As I worked the counter at KLM and texted Mike, my mom kept Katie occupied while she pushed and walked the stroller in circles and crawled all over the airport. Katie rolled with the insanity of our day so well. We finally left the airport at 7 pm, still without boarding passes, but resolving to return at 4 am Saturday. We now have a record locator that ties in Katie to my ticket number, so we should be good to check in tomorrow and fly home. Side note: I love my husband, but my
mom and I informed him that he is not allowed to book airline tickets for any of us anymore. Ha ha.

I think my mom and I are brain fried! We keep forgetting where we put stuff, one time we stood in an elevator for 2 full minutes before realizing we didn't press a button to move to the ground level, then I went down the wrong hallway to some other room in the hotel with my mom following before I realized that I was on the wrong side of the floor - and then the funniest duh moment of our day - standing in the elevator at the hotel, we could not figure out why the elevator wouldn't work. We were sure it was broken. A nice gentlemen kindly demonstrated that we had to insert our room key and then press the button for our floor...ah, yes.

Pictures are - my favorite candy here (Krowki, pronounced crew-f-key), Katie hanging on the bed after a diaper change, Katie enjoying our packed up bags, my mom looking stressed before going to the passport office since we weren't sure we were getting it, stroller pushing in the airport, and hanging in the hotel.