Passport: Part 1 - Woes

This summer, I am taking a group of 15  people (10 teenagers and 5 adults) to Thailand on a mission trip. Let me hear you say, "Whoop Whoop!" It is going to be a blast. Thailand is an awesome country and it is one that I have wanted to go to for a long time. However, that is not the point of this story.

Today, I am talking passports. Besides raising the money to go, passports were the number one requirement for anybody interested. Not only were they required, but they were required by April 15th so we could book tickets and ensure a better group rate price. Everybody was informed of this in December.

At the beginning of February, I finally made my appointment to get my passport done. My old one had expired and since then I had changed my name. I filled all the forms out, included a copy of my marriage license, took my picture three times and happily mailed it all off.

About three weeks later is when I first got wind that there was a problem. A letter appeared in my mail box from the State Department informing me that they could no longer process my passport because I had included a copy of my marriage license and not my actual license. I about died. They told me to send back the real form along with their letter and they would continue to process my request.

At this point, I realized there was another potential problem. My name change. My husband and I discussed at length what my/our last name would be when we got married. I was pretty adamant about wanting to keep my maiden name and perhaps hyphenate. This did not interest my husband. Finally, on the day of our wedding, I decided that because it was something I could do to show honor for him (and after all, I was vowing to love him more than myself) I would change my name. We signed our marriage license as part of the ceremony and so I wrote my name. First, middle and new last. To actually make my name official, I had to go to the Social Security Office and  legally change it. This took place a few weeks after we tied the knot. Somehow during that time my dear husband told me that if I wanted to keep my maiden name as part of my name he really didn't have a problem with it.

Okay, here's were the story gets dicey and why it matters today. When I stepped up to the man's cubical and presented him with my marriage license he said, "Do you want to keep your maiden name at all? You could make it a second middle name." Out of nowhere. He had no idea about any of the conversations my husband and I had. So, I took it as a sign from God. I said, "Can I do that? Even though I didn't write it on my marriage license?" He affirmed that this was possible so I said great. My new name. First, middle, maiden, last. My Social Security Card proves that this is officially true.

Fast forward a year, we move to California. I had to get a new driver's license. Well, there weren't enough boxes for my new lengthy name so I omitted my maiden name while filling out that form. My driver's license officially reads. First name, middle, new last name. (No maiden name)

Let's do a quick recap.
Marriage license: first, middle, new last
Social Security Card: first, middle, maiden, new last
Driver's License: first, middle, new last

annnd Passport Application: first, middle, maiden, new last.

Do you see the problem? My official documents don't match. All of a sudden I realized that I may not get approved for a passport because my application doesn't match my marriage license and my marriage license doesn't match my social security card. Uh... Yikes!

I called the State Department in a tizzy and the nice man helping me suggested I write a note asking them to strike my maiden name from my passport application and include it with my actual marriage license I was sending back to them. He said I should put my phone number on it too, in case they had any questions.

So I sent this all in and waited...

To Be Continued