What happened to your Passport ?

Regular readers of this blog will know that a few months ago my wife (with a little help from me) won a Caribbean Cruise from a local radio station.  As a result of this victory it became necessary for both of us to update our passports: hers was expired, mine was damaged and unreadable.

Not MY passport, but this is
almost exactly what mine looks like.

After a long ordeal with birth certificates and correctly filled out forms and new passport-sized photos, etc. we finally got our papers all mailed off.  Karen's passport came in the mail just a little over a week ago (it took less than a month total).  About a week prior to that, I received a letter explaining that more information was needed before my passport could be processed.

The need?  A signed letter from me "explaining the reason behind the damage to my existing passport."

So here's the letter that I printed and signed and mailed back.

To whom it may concern:

In regards to the damaged condition of my not yet expired passport, here is an explanation of what occurred that led to its unusable state.

After receiving the original passport, my wife and I stored both of our individual passports in a drawer in our kitchen near the refrigerator.  During the course of normal kitchen use, some sort of drink (most likely kool-aid or apple juice) spilled on the counter and dripped into the drawer where the passports were being stored.  While we cleaned up the mess on the countertop and front of the drawer, we did not think to check the inside of the drawer until such time as we were moving out of that house.  At that time the liquid had all dried up, but the damage was already done.  My wife placed the passports in separate Ziploc bags until we recently submitted our application for a replacement, pursuant to our plans to go on a cruise through the Caribbean sometime in the next several months.

If it helps, we have learned two valuable lessons:
#1. We will keep our passports no where near the kitchen or other liquids that could spill on them.
#2. We will keep our passports in a sealed Ziploc bag to keep them even more safe.

Thank you,

I hope they find this amusing and not inappropriate ... otherwise Karen might be going on the cruise with someone else that didn't tick off the wonderful workers in the United States passport offices.  :)
 
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