Paper-war We're in the paper-war again these days, like we say in Germany when we have to deal with lots of paper work. First, it was our taxes. Then we filled out HEAPS of papers for the renewal of our 2-year visas. Then we found out, or rather, remembered from last time, that the visas are very costly when you have them stamped into a German passport. If you use an American passport, they are free - go figure... Since 2 of our children's american passports have expired and the 2 other ones will not be valid until the end of the 2-year period (which they need to be), we need to get new passports for them. So, after having New Zealand passport photos taken for their visas, we had to go back and have new photos taken for their american passports (oh yes, they are different!) Now I better get filling out those papers before evening church service so that we're ready to leave tomorrow morning early to Auckland. The whole family HAS TO show up!!! Quite a hassle, having to take the kids out of school and using Rich's day off - plus it costs tons of money. But we've got to do it. It's better paying the $$ for getting the passports than for the visas, since we need the passports anyways, sooner or later.