Today we went to the Israeli consulate in DC to get passports for all of us.  It’s challenging to find time when we’re all available to go, since the consulate is only open until 1 pm, there’s only one day my husband can possibly go, and I had/have appointments for various kids booked literally almost every single day of the last few weeks.  I had planned for us to go before Pesach, but my dh ran short on time that day and the next possible time we could go was this Friday.

Well, we drove to Washington, DC and piled out of the van on Friday only to learn that the embassy was closed –  the Israeli consulate is only open from 9:30 – 10:30 on Fridays!  So we piled back in and I suggested we take the kids to the National Zoo in DC, since it had been a long trip for the kid and then it wouldn’t feel like a wasted trip.  The zoo was just a few minutes away, but when we got there, it was jam packed.  The parking lots were all full, there were loads and loads of school buses full of kids, and since there was nowhere to park, we decided to change plans and go home.

Then I remembered a park I had once taken the kids to that we had a great time at, and had all agreed that we should return to.  I told the kids that we’d go there instead, and everyone was enthusiastic about it.  When we got there 30 minutes later, we found the park and parking lot almost entirely empty.  We were just about to cheer in delight when we realized why – there’s no park there anymore!  They’re totally rebuilding the park, and though it looks like it will be incredible when it’s done, that didn’t help us that minute.

We saw one area set apart from everything else that had a kiddie area – two baby swings, and a little slide.  So we took the little kids there, and after a short while of the older kids pushing swings and admiring their siblings when prompted to ‘watch me!”, they wandered off to look around.   When we got there, it was overcast and chilly, but the sun came out and it was turning into a very relaxing interlude in our day.  It was really nice that there were so few other people, because it made keeping an eye on all the kids really easy, and I could let ds5 go further in his explorations than I usually would unless I were right next to him (dh and I could watch him while we were relaxing on the grass).  Ds23 months found a chewed up baseball, and ds12 and ds17 had a catch – ds12 improvised by using his baseball cap as a glove.  Then they got the other kids involved, and we all ended up having a great time!

Today is the last day ds17 will be here until he returns for summer break, and even though dd16 had an appointment and I really wanted to be there with her, dh arranged for someone else to take her so I could go back to the consulate with the rest of the family for attempt #3.  (If you’re wondering why dd16 didn’t need to go with us, it’s because she got her Israeli passport in the summer.)

In order to get Israeli passports, the first thing we needed to do at the embassy was to register the births of our five children born in the US.  Then we would be able to get identification numbers for each of them, then have Israeli birth certificates issued, and then we could apply for the passports.

When we got to the embassy, we learned that since we didn’t have the US birth certificates for the kids, we wouldn’t be able to register their births.  The reason we didn’t have birth certificates is that we sent them in when we applied for US passports and they hadn’t yet been returned, so we thought that we could use the US passports (which arrived before the birth certificates were returned) as proof of their birth.  We were wrong. 🙁  But the woman at the intake area was so nice – she said we could just mail in the missing paperwork, since she had seen all of us she could verify our identities and we wouldn’t need to come back.

We also needed to defer ds17’s mandatory army service, but we were missing paperwork for that, too (school records and a letter from my husband’s place of employment stating that he worked there – who would have thought we’d need that?).  Anyway, I have the school letter on the computer at home so that won’t be a big deal, and dh got another letter from ds’s current school so ds’s school record until the current date would be complete.  We needed the work letter for a different part of the older kids’ applications with the Jewish Agency, so getting it now wasn’t any extra work.  The main thing is that ds17 was able to be interviewed and affirm in person whatever he needed to, and again, the fabulously nice and helpful woman working there said we could mail in what was missing and that would be it.

Fortunately, the kids who were born in Israel had expired passports that were able to be used to apply for new passports, so dh and I and 3 of the older kids were able to get our passports taken care of today. Hashem is being very kind in spacing the expenses of our passports out – so far it’s cost close to $2000 for the US and Israeli passports.

The woman was so efficient that we were able to take care of everything in about an hour, leaving us with some extra time before dh had to be at work.  (After this experience, three of my kids separately asked me, “Is everyone in Israel so nice and good at getting things done?”)  So we went to the National Zoo, and this time it was perfect!  The weather was gorgeous, there weren’t many people there, and it was very enjoyable.  I have so many balls that I’m juggling right now and it’s really taking a conscious and ongoing effort to stay balanced.  I especially appreciate opportunities like this for us to have fun together as a family, and I was sent two opportunities, via what could have been frustrations with getting our passports!

Avivah