Yesterday we had quite the adventure while crossing back over the border. As we approached the US boarder crossing it was my job to gather all the passports. Easy task…I had put all of them in the glove compartment when we crossed into Canada a few days before. I reached in, grabbed the passports, counted them, and FROZE! My passport was MISSING! I checked the compartment again. Nothing! I checked in the bottom compartment. Nothing! I looked under my seat. Nothing! So, Chris pulled over for a more thorough search.

Needless to say, panic mode set in. Where in the world did it go? Did the Canadian birder agent accidentally keep it? Did one of the kids grab it to look at the picture?

Then, my questions changed… What if they don’t let me back across the border? How long will I be stuck here? Am I going to be interrogated? Thank goodness my parents in love are here to help Chris with the kiddos. I’ll call my parents and have them bring me my birth certificate. But, where will I stay until they get here?

All of a sudden, we see two Canadian agents begin walking towards us. Uh-oh! Then, we hear sirens and a border patrol jeep pulls up beside us. We also see an American agent peak around to stand guard…double UH-OH! We were about to be hauled into the interrogation room and possibly thrown into jail. (Yes, I realize I was being unreasonable, but I had never had the calvary of ANY country called in on me. 🙂 ) I was officially freaking out!

Thankfully, my calm, cool, and collected hubby was not freaking out. The agents came and asked us what was going on and did we know we were putting others at risk. (Let me say they were quite nice about this whole “lecture,” and I was thankful for that.) I admitted I couldn’t find my passport, so they told us to just proceed and to figure it out with the American border agent. She was a younger gal and was, under the circumstances, also kind. She gave us another small lecture and then simply asked for my driver’s license. After looking up my passport number, she let us back in the Great United States of America!! I’ve never been so glad to be HOME!!

Immediately, I BURST into tears. I cried for probably 20 minutes…partly out of relief, partly out of extreme exhaustion (Aaron hadn’t slept well the night before), and partly out of frustration. How did I lose my passport when I never took it out of the car?! After 20 minutes of crying and silence, Chris pulled over for us to have a potty break. And, then the lightbulb went “off.” At the Canadian border I had dropped something between the seat and the middle console. Could it have been my passport? I got out, pulled back the seat, and sitting there without s care in the world was my beloved MUCH needed passport!!

As KK would say: HALLELUJAH!! What once was lost has now been found! At that point I bursted into tears AGAIN…only this time is was tears of relief and joy! (By the way, tears of sadness men seem to understand, but tears of joy are still a mystery to them 🙂 )

I was reminded that if we choose to continue the “nomadic” lifestyle, mishaps will happen. I am a person who likes and thrives off of order. There has been NOTHING orderly about this trip. Because we’ve been blessed to do a lot of traveling and day trips, our kiddos sleeping, eating, educational, and all other habits are a bit off schedule. But, God knows I need this. Just like He used our New York City detour to remind me about the importance of spontaneity, He used the passport debacle to remind me of faith/trusting Him.

I trust way too much in my routine and schedule. I trust way too much in my concept of orderliness. And, yesterday was anything but orderly. I wouldn’t say that I handled the aftermath all that well (the 30 plus minutes of uncontrollable crying and unreasonable questions can attest to that). But, I want to be better at it. When we get back home, I want to allow more time for spontaneous adventures and trusting that those adventures, for the moment, will be better than a scheduled 7:30 bedtime. There is a place for order, and this mama will probably always strive for a little of it. However, I also want my children to experience the freedom that this “nomadic” lifestyle has allowed. We’ve all grown because of it!