Some days as an expat are easier than others. Today I am just ready to go to bed, for today to be over and to start fresh tomorrow. We used to lovingly refer to these days as "bad china days" and we all had them. In China it was usually related to pollution, traffic or your electricity randomly shutting off in the middle of a dinner party with friends, because you forgot to put money on the card (at the bank) which you then insert in the machine (in your basement) that keeps your lights on.

In Spain I have many of these days as well and today they escalated and I want to throw in the towel. To give in to the ridiculousness and go back to where I can speak the language, drive legally and not have to deal with residency permits. I got an email from our Spanish lawyer tonight, who is currently "helping" us with the process to bring Priscilla into Spain legally. Last week the news was: we aren't able to obtain a tourist visa for her to enter Spain (she will be traveling on a Chinese passport when we leave China, therefore needs a visa for Spain). They said we must fly from China to the US and obtain her US passport and then we can come to Spain. Well today they added a few extra steps for us, just for icing on the cake. They now want us to not only obtain her passport (in Chicago or other passport office because we need to set up an interview to have it expedited), but her US issued birth certificate (which we need to travel to Iowa and appear before a judge to get. I had hoped to put this off until summer 2016, but apparently that isn't in my cards). Once we have both we need to have them Hague Apostille'd and then translated into Spanish. With these our lawyer can then apply for her residence permit in Spain. OK I thought, I can handle that, but it gets better. In order to apply for this, we must be out of the country while they are considering it and it will take a minimum of 45 days! Not sure how we are going to pull that one off...we already need to be gone from the kiddos and Mitchell's job for 3 weeks when we pick her up!

In the end I will not throw in the towel...I will make a cup of tea, read bedtime stories to Truman and Adeline (Henry is currently on a 3 day field trip for school and Mitchell is in Boston) and pray. The only one who can bring me through a time like this is Jesus and thankfully He is with me through it all.