We are in full on preparation mode for Zach’s mission. It’s a bit daunting when you see the list… between what you need to buy and what you need to do. You aren’t exactly sure what he won’t have access to for two years, so it’s a bit of a guessing game, but I’m so appreciative of all the people willing to share their past experiences. So helpful.

This past week though we came across a challenge that felt insurmountable.

While working on Zach’s paperwork, we realized that the instructions we were given for his French Visa conflicted with the ability to get him to the US for his training.

Basically, long story short, he has to get a French visa in a very specific time frame. To get one, the consulate requires a ton of paperwork and an interview and they need to keep his passport for 30 working days.

We realized that the interview time where everything is submitted will mean his passport and visa will arrive back to us sometime in September. Only problem being, he is flying to the US to start his 9 week training on August 20th.

You see the complication? How can my son get to the US when the French consulate is holding his passport?

Well it certainly was a challenge.

Rob and I were making phone calls, sending emails, racking our brains for solutions and coming up with dead ends.

I was able to contact other missionaries (or their superhero moms) who required their French visas – and most had similar nightmare stories (apparently it’s a big problem for Canadian missionaries to get visas because of the need to go to the US in between home and their new home. You’d think someone would have figured out the solutions though and shared them?!) However, each solution was different and each time we tried one that had previously worked for others, we were told it was “no longer an option”.

Dead end.

I said to Rob, I may be a very directive busy bee in our family, but when it comes to super-stressful situations, he takes the lead and becomes the rock. I’m so grateful that he’s the kind of guy who is always calm, rationale and logical.

(Although I do have to say that while I felt discouraged, I kept it together. Not even a tear (which is rare for me. I’m a complete firehouse in life in general!))

With every “no” and “impossible” I started to think of alternate back up plans; he’ll just have to show up part way through training and miss some (not a great option considering it is training for two languages). He’ll have to be temporarily reassigned to Canada to wait for his visa after his training etc. Not the end of the world – disappointing for sure, but doable. It’s annoying, but it will all work out.

What did strike me as we were pondering options and encountering more closed doors, was how all it would take is one person who would extend an exception, think outside of the box, or share with me a way I didn’t know about but they did because of their insider info or experience.

When you believe in God, people often wonder how you could. If you believe in Him, how come He doesn’t step in and take care of all things? Of course this is a much bigger discussion (which I’m not going to get into) , but I thought to myself that prayers are really answered through other people. When you pray for something – somewhere, someone is getting a gentle nudge to do, act, say something – and that is your answer. Problem is that that someone might not be open to the nudge or feel it or act on it.

So in my frustration, I said a simple prayer. I prayed that whoever is feeling the nudge that will solve our problem will act on it.

I also prayed that I may be open to the nudges not only for my problem now, but always. That I may respond to the nudges that I get that are the answers to someone else’s prayers. It struck me hard how important it is to recognize how we all affect each other and how we are the solution to someone’s problem. Not just to a friend, but to complete strangers. We never know who we are “working for.”

Hours later, after exploring a promising avenue that worked for a friend of Gabe’s last year we hit another road block. No longer a viable solution. Argh!!!!

A few minutes later, an idea re–popped into my mind about something I had skimmed over in one of my gajillion random travel emails I had received over the last year: duplicate passports.

I shared my idea with Rob and he quickly googled it. He ended up finding a blog that someone had written talking about rare cases where you can apply for this in Canada.

Rob called Passport Canada. Got a lovely women who patiently listened to the complicated story. She seemingly understood and said she would try to help us. She put us on hold and got some more info. She came back on the line and said, “grab a pen because it’s not easy, there’s a lot of steps, but I think it’s doable”. She walked us through a couple of scenarios, and gave us some tips to follow and “absolute must do’s”. While it is not 100% (and there are a few unknowns) it sounds very viable and is our only option at this stage!

We breathed a sigh of relief that there is a likely option (with a lot of work and cost but what can ya do?!). I thought about my thoughts earlier about the nudges.

You see, the day before, I had had the nudge to look up duplicate passports. However, no where on the official passport Canada site was anything written about it. I could find info about it happening in the US, but not Canada. I didn’t bother to mention it to Rob at the time, because my search did not hit any Canadian options. I’m grateful that nudge returned and I shared it with Rob and let him search too and not rely on my “but I looked already”.

I thought about the person who wrote the blog that Rob found which led us to believe it was an option. Did they know that their blog would be an answer for us?

I thought about the women at passport Canada who patiently listened and then decided she would help. Did she get a nudge to not just cut us off and say “impossible” but to dig a little deeper and push past the “easy territory?”

So many nudges we all feel throughout our days are likely ignored, shoved down, rationalized away or completely missed. But those nudges could be the answer to someone in a time of need.

I made a little resolve to try to be aware of the nudges I feel and act on them even if they seem silly or inconvenient. I want to be part of the circle of humanity that serves each other and is the answer to someone’s prayer.

Fingers crossed and ongoing prayers that all will work out as it is supposed to (maybe I just needed this lesson now!)

Follow your nudges.