MAILBOX REVISED

I have some good news! Wednesday, later afternoon, before we left for Iowa for Thanksgiving we made a stop to the Post Office to check our mail. In our mailbox was a large white document sized envelope from Lancaster County, Lincoln, NE. Upon opening the envelope we found our official documents. The sad part though is that we weren't able to send them overnight in Mitchell as we were passing through because of how late it was.
It was Friday morning that I sent those documents overnight to the Passport Agency in Minneapolis. I had to wake up early and drive to Fort Dodge, IA. While the cost was $20 I have hopes that our passports will be in our hands sometime December 5th or December 6th. Which means our goal is to depart December 7th for Minneapolis and leave early Sunday morning, December 8th, for the Philippines.
We have yet to purchase the tickets as we don't have them in our hands and that is currently our debate. While we know things can happen, as they have so far, we aren't convinced we should buy those international tickets just yet. The bad thing on the waiting though, is that ticket prices go up the longer we wait.
Friends, we pray for speedy action on behalf of the Passport Agency and the Postal Services as we anxiously await our passports and look forward to purchasing tickets and getting on our way! Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers.
We plan to keep you updated while we're in the Philippines and ask that you check the blog at least once a day as I hope to share pictures of my folks and the family members with us. Thanks again for your support.

In closing, thank you all for your support and prayers. We have been able to send over $1,000 to help family members with clothing, food, and shelter. You can still help by clicking on the picture of the passports. It will take you to a PayPal page.
*There is no need to create an account. Towards the middle of the page, there is a blue link called "continue".
If you would like to send a check, make it out to Jeff Lathrop and in the memo write: Lathrop Family Relief Fund. Send it to PO Box 6, Plankinton, SD 57368