I was in the process of preparing for my Bermuda trip on Thursday when I suddenly remembered that I would need my passport to make the trip. I looked in my drawers by my desk where I always keep it. Second drawer from the top actually, and found that it wasn't there. So, I determined that the next day I'd check the second place it always is, in my computer backpack in the front pocket for when I travel. So, I arrived at work on Friday and opened my pocket on my backpack, and it's not there. At this point, I'm somewhat concerned, but thought that I just must have missed it in the drawer. So, upon returning home on Friday, I began my search. I looked in the draws again, twice, after Heather looked through them twice. I turned the house upside down looking for this thing. I cleaned the basement and went through every single box down there, even the empty ones. I went through most things three times, but everything at least once. I called dad and had him check the pickup that I'd used to move my items from one house to the other. I looked at work again going through my office top to bottom. I looked in my car in case it'd fallen out of a box when I moved. The entire time we're looking, Heather and I are praying this thing turned up, sometimes out loud, but mostly silently. So, I had to call my supervisor and trip leader and determine what would happen if I couldn't find it. They both encouraged me to keep looking, but didn't know what we'd do. On the way home from my office, I told Heather that I believed God could make this thing appear, and she said she did too.
In case your wondering, passports can be expedited through the approval process, and since mine had been active to this point, I'd like to think it'd come through fast. I could report it missing and start the process, however it could take up to 2 or 3 weeks to do this, plus, if you report a passport as missing, you cannot use it, even if you'd find it. So, I decided just in case, I wouldn't do that. I spent 3 hours looking, and finally sat down in the couch in frustration. We'd been through everything: files from the file cabinet, in my luggage, in my shorts pockets, in between the DVDs, Heather had looked between all the books in the bookcase, I'd cleaned every feasible inch it could be, and I was at a complete loss. Hope was fading and Heather could tell that it'd been a frustrating 3 hours for me. She prayed again out loud that we'd find it, and I sat there thinking. I'd had it to get back in the country from Romania, but that's where all other recollections stopped, and I had nothing. Where else could it possibly be? I sat on the couch about 10 minutes, and all of the sudden, I looked over at Heather and said, "My passport is in a book in the office." Heather had looked between all the books in the bookcase, but hadn't taken any off the shelf and checked the inside, but I knew it was there. I walked into the office, and looked at all the books on my shelf. Which one was it. I picked one off the shelf and opened it. Inside, I found the copies of all the information from my Romania trip including photos of my passport, but no passport. Then, I turned to the back cover, and there it was stuck to the back cover of the book with the security stickers still on the outside from the Romania trip. Now thinking back on this, there are two possible solutions:
1. My book had been in the same pocket as my passport in Romania and the book had slid over the passport and held it, or
2. God placed the passport in the back cover of the book so I could not possibly find it on my own, then just to show how kind and gracious He is and answer our prayers (and those from the others that were praying), He then told me where it was.
Answer #1 obviously seems like the more feasible answer and contains all the explanation necessary, however, after experiencing all this, if you picked answer #1 as what really happened, I believe you picked the wrong answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment