Passport: Part 2 - Jokes

So...Monday. I had a pretty bad start to my day. I was feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with trying to keep everything straight with the mission trip. I came home from work in the afternoon and began to spend time in prayer. The last thing I prayed about was my passport. It had been a couple of weeks since I sent all my information in and I received no phone call and received no news one way or the other. At the end of my prayer I felt like I should just step out in faith and go check the mailbox and believe that God was going to send me my passport that afternoon. I should say, I never check the mail (my hubs does it every night) and I don't even know what time our mail comes.

But, out the mailbox I went, thinking about how awesome it would be if my passport came. Trot, trot, trot, scrunch, scrunch scrunch (that is the gravel under my feet as I traveled across my driveway).
Popped open the mailbox and it was loaded with mail. I shuffled through it quickly and lo and behold... a large letter from the State Department! I was SOOO excited! I could feel the passport inside and the whole way back to the house I kept thinking about how cool God is. He knew my need even before I prayed, he prompted me to go and look in the box. I was dreaming about how I would blog about this moment and then...

I ripped open the letter, dumped out the contents, snatched up the passport and gasped when I realized it was just my old one sent back to me. I quickly scoured the date on it and sure enough, this was not what I needed. I grabbed the envelope and looked inside again, hoping and praying that somehow I had missed the new one. Nada. My heart began to sink and that's when I saw the slip of paper sitting on the counter that fell out of my State Department envelope. I picked it up, about to cry knowing that this letter was going to confirm my worst fear: I was denied.

It read:

"Your passport application has been

... APPROVED!" 

WHOOP WHOOP! Praise God! The rest of the letter informed me that it would be shipped separately. Talk about making your heart stop! Holla! I tore through the rest of the mail and praise God! it was there! I could only imagine God watching me and just laughing at the roller coaster of emotions I had experienced in a matter of minutes. God's got jokes, that's what's up.

I can now officially say that I am going on the trip and have a legal passport! Please, join me in my happy dance!