Hi Sue,
Just looking at your itinerary... are you sure that's right? I see
1. Arrive from Bangkok: New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) - TERMINAL 1
Wed, Mar 08 at 10:20am
2. Tue 7 Mar 2006 NEW York(JFK)
Depart for Halifax 5:15 pm Terminal 3
Aren't you off by a day there?
- Al
Ohhhhh, maaaan... 
I just did NOT notice (although I should have known!) that we leave Bangkok on the 7th but arrive in NYC on the 8th. So I call travelocity in a panic less than 6 hours after booking the flights, and of course, there is no room for error, and cancellation insurance does NOT cover stupidity!!! Luckily there was a flight the next day that we could catch, but it was quite an expensive error! (Note to self: that's why there are people called travel agents, Susan...!).
Chapter 3: Adventures at the passport office from Hell... wading through a quagmire of bureaucracy
I had allllll the papers in order -- my expired passport that also has both boys listed in it, all three of our birth certificates, my Canadian citizenship card (I was born in England), my child custody papers that caused a huge problem the last time I tried to get a passport with the boys listed in it, and the *amendment* to the custody papers that I went back to court to get, specifically so I would NOT have the same problem the next time I tried to get passports for them. But, it would have just been tooooo easy if all had gone as I hoped! There just *had* to be problems somewhere or it would be someone else's life I'd be writing about, not mine, lol!
A note about the bureaucratic nightmare the LAST time I got a passport: When Liam was a month old, my grandmother in England became very ill and I needed to go see her. I needed to get a passport quickly... but I didn't have a birth certificate for Liam yet. The passport office sent me to the Vital Statistics Office to get him a birth certificate... but guess what happens when you try to get a birth certificate for a child who was born at home with no witnesses?! Guess how many forms have to be filled out and notarized by everyone under the sun?! There was no way it could ever be done in time. But I guess the birth certificate lady took pity on me as I stood there crying with my newborn in my arms... she went to get her supervisor who agreed to call my doctor for verification of Liam's birth. My doctor was kind enough to fax over a statement, and a few hours later I had a birth certificate for him. Back to the passport office I go... back to the quagmire of bureaucracy...
The first custody papers that were drawn up in family court when Liam was a couple of weeks old said that I had full custody of the boys and that Al had "reasonable access at reasonable times with reasonable notice". Al and I were/are not together and I wasn't even sure where he was living at the time. I presented all my papers at the passport office (thinking to myself how lucky it was that I had gone to court right away and got custody papers done up), only to find that because Al had "access", I could not get a passport for Liam without his signed consent. This was all on the same day as the birth certificate fiasco and I was honestly at the end of my rope! In tears, I told the woman that I had no idea where he was or how to get hold of him and I thad hought that since I had custody papers, I was ok. She said the only way around it was to go see a lawyer and get a notarized statement drawn up saying I had no way of getting in contact with Al and that he had never exercised his access rights, etc.
The passport office is in a huge high-rise full of offices. I check the building directory for lawyers' offices, choose one, and off I go. I find a lawyer and he agrees to draw up the papers I need. This is a realllllly cushy office, I am totally broke, and all I can think the whole time is "How am I ever going to pay for this?!?!" I was there for at least an hour, and when the lawyer handed me the final document and I asked (in trepidation!) "How much do I owe you?", he said, "Oh, don't worry about it... I won't charge you anything, and if you ever need a lawyer, you know where to find me." What a sweetheart! He was the bright star in an otherwise very bleak day!
So back to the passport office yet again... and this time, everything is in order and I'm told I can pick up my passport the next morning before my flight. Relief!
After that experience, I go back to court and ask to have Al's "access" removed from the custody and access document, explaining that he lives overseas and that it causes me big problems with things like getting passports. The judge agrees and draws up an amendment to the orginal custody agreement stating that "Al's access to the boys is terminated". He then adds, "The only access shall be with the permission of Susan, in the presence of Susan, and for one hour duration only." I have no idea why he put that, but it didn't look like it would matter because the first sentence stated very clearly that Al's access had been terminated. So this time, I head to the passport office with all my papers in order, and my revised custody papers in hand so I won't have to go through all that hassle of last time yet again.... or so I think!
To be continued...!!!
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It's been a rough couple of days frought with endless hassles wading through all this insane red tape... and I've only written about a fraction of the bureaucratic nightmare, but I have to get some sleep so I can wake up and do it all again tomorrow (yes, back to the passport office from hell... hopefully with all the paperwork they need this time!!!). Wish me luck... I definitely need it!!! 
Peace,
Indigo
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