Summer Trip: Uncertain Beginning

Sometime in April we knew that Tim was scheduled to attend a conference in Ireland during the first week of July.  Since it coincided with summer break for the kids, we planned to tag-along and have a family vacation around it.  It was not till the early parts of May that I found out that my passport had two weeks before it expires.  We thought it wasn't so bad since I can always go to San Francisco and have it renewed on the same day.  So when I finally had the time to go to the Philippine Embassy, I found out that the process has changed.  All passport applications and renewals are all processed in the Philippines and that it would take eight weeks.  Now that took all my hopes away.  My passport was scheduled to arrive on the 28th of June - one week before we would have to leave for Ireland.  That would leave me no time for me to get my visa - a problem that I have to deal with being a non-US citizen.  So after filing my application I prayed that God would show me a miracle in this.  Even then I was not serious about making the plans.  Instead I kept myself busy working, keeping my garden organized (a little bit), and canning plums and grapes from our garden.  But Tim continued with the planning process, made accommodation and even airline tickets.  Then one day, I got a package in the mail!  I got my passport a week earlier than expected!  My visa application went in the mail and it was processed in two days - miraculously!