One area that makes me feel overwhelmed by having 5 kids...and something I really appreciate about my husband
It's funny, I normally never think about how "crazy" it is having a larger family. Whenever people make the comment to us about how "crazy" it must be (which is basically any day I leave the house with all 5 kids), I usually just brush it off because having 5 kids (now that they are older) rarely feels overwhelming to me and I love it! But this past week I recognized one area that can be SO overwhelming to me about having 5 kids...keeping our paperwork organized. (And here is where I must brag about how wonderful my husband is and how thankful I am to have such an awesome, organized life partner!).
We had to renew the kids passports this past week. Everyone who knows me knows that administrative things are NOT my strength. Thankfully, my husband knows this about me and just got the ball rolling without asking me to do anything except get the kids passport pictures taken. Phew, that is a task that I can totally do. Well, the night before our 5 appointments, my husband asked my assistance in getting all of the paperwork together and I just kind of froze looking at the pile of papers. Thankfully, my wonderfully organized husband has a system for doing all this stuff, so I just stacked the papers for him in 5 different piles while he printed 5 copies of everything, but just staring at the paperwork involved to get 5 passports for 5 different kids was straight up, overwhelming! It's in these type of moments that I think, "Wow, this is a lot..." and then my mind just kind of blanks out. Thankfully my husband kept us on task and got us all organized and ready to face the next day.
Well, the next morning we woke up bright and early for our 5 appointments at 8:45 AM, 9:00 AM, 9:15 AM, 9:30 AM, and 9:45 AM. We followed the website's directions to their office on the far side of the city. We walked 30 minutes to the subway, took one subway, changed to a different subway, and then took a taxi to the office. Thankfully the taxi driver was kind and let our whole family squeeze in. Did I ever mention how my husband and I BOTH hate being late to things? So, we usually end up being a minimum of 10-15 minutes early to everything...it's just a random thing about us. We were all out the door at 6:05 AM because we have never been to this office, plus I had to feed the kids breakfast on the go. We were there an hour early.
Well, thanks to my gifted, efficient husband, when we arrived at the passport office yesterday with our organized piles, it went SO SMOOTHLY.
Child one application...✔️Child two...✔️Child three...✔️Child four...✔️Child five...✔️Phew.
Not one photo copy was missing, every picture that was needed was there, and before our FIRST appointment time of 8:45 AM, we were done! I literally just had tons of warm and fuzzy feelings towards my husband. It was definitely one of those days where I just had to praise God for giving me someone who is so opposite of me! Well, coming home, the taxi driver that initially stopped for us was not as nice as our earlier taxi driver and as soon as he counted how many of us there are, he sped off. Instead of trying to get a different taxi, we started walking. We found a cafe and got coffee for the adults and ice cream for the kids (yes, I fed my kids ice cream at 9 am...we are just that awesome). We decided to walk to the ferry station and take a ferry instead. In hindsight, I have to thank that taxi driver because we ended up taking one of the most beautiful ferry rides ever back home. God bless this beautiful city.❤️