We’re about a week out from the start of our trip to Costa Rica and there’s still so much left to do. Recently we discovered that the girl’s passports were set to expire five days after our return to the states at the end of July. This discovery happened purely by divine intervention. My wife just happened to wonder one day, when do the girls passports expire? You know, as one does on a Tuesday. Fun fact, for kids under 16, you have to basically go through the entire process again, there’s no such thing as a renewal. This is how we found ourselves racing against the clock yesterday from getting updated passport photos to sitting in a government office (only to learn that we were in the wrong type of passport agency). Did we accomplish what we wanted by the end of the day? Of course not. But, I was reminded that when you’re open to where life takes you, you find what you need.

It turns out that we’ll be just fine with the almost expired passports (as long as we leave Costa Rica on time). We did some research and discovered that different countries have their own rules for entry and exit requirements for passports. Some EU countries like France for example require your passport to be good for at least 3 months after your visit. Others like our North American counterparts only require a valid passport upon entry. Costa Rica only requires passports to be valid for the length of stay. Just what we needed. I wish I could say just like I planned, but that’s rarely the case.

I had another just what we needed moment with the girls yesterday evening. We had planned a bike ride down in Serenbe. When the time approached, I was concerned about the weather and our temperaments holding up after the long day. As it turned out, the rural tree cover provided perfect shade while the sunset created a gorgeous backdrop. We were supposed to meet up with another dad and his daughters. While that didn’t work out, I’m glad the girls and I got our bike riding time together. Literally as we were pulling back into our driveway around 9pm, the skies finally opened up and started to downpour. It’s as if the universe was waiting for us to come home. Gotta love when life works out this way.

SDW3