Pilgrim Soldier

Today we finally managed to get Abigail’s birth registered here in Latvia. When we registered Sian 3½ years ago the process was incredibly easy and cost us nothing, but this time the Latvian authorities seem to have brought in more red tape. Suddenly out of nowhere we were required to have an Apostille attached to our marriage certificate even though the Immigration authorities have registered us on 4 separate occasions now! This meant that we had to send the document to England as the only place that can do this is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (our Foreign Ministry).

The certificate arrived back yesterday and I discovered that I was now going to have to part with over Ls 100 (approximately £100/$200) to get official copies made of this and our passports. Thankfully we have some wonderful staff here in the office who persuaded them to accept the same things as they did when we got Sian’s certificate. Between Zoe, myself and the staff member a huge amount of prayer went into this and God has answered it!

All of this meant that this morning, in the middle of a thunderstorm, I made my way across to the office who register births and managed to get her Latvian birth certificate, and become rather wet and bedraggled in the process.

Now the next part of the saga starts as we spend a lot of money to get her registered as a British Citizen so that we can also get her passport before we leave Latvia in just under 12 weeks. That’s if I can get a decent photo of her looking at the camera!!

I love living in Latvia and am going to miss it dreadfully, but one thing I won’t miss is the red tape that being a Brit living overseas means.