Driver's Licenses, Part III

Ok.  So remember way back in December when we went to get our driver's licenses?  Yeah, and then remember what happend?  And then remember that we had to take another trip to Panama?

Well.  Yesterday we tried to get our licenses again.  We knew we were cutting it close (our tourist visas ran out yesterday and while we have our residency, we thought this would be an issue in transferring our US licenses to here.  Note the key word, thought.)

We loaded the kids up, got all the paperwork we needed (and by got it, I mean we drove out of the driveway, realized we didn't have it, turned around, got it, locked the house up again, and then contiued on our way).  We had our "medical exams" from when we came in December, and we were praying that they would accept them.  We also thought we would be proactive and stop at the bank first to pay. 

Yeah, well, that was silly. Noah went in and they told him he couldn't pay until he had a ticket telling him to pay from the Consevi.  Ok.  No problem, we're all about the adventure of it.  Onward to the Consevi!

When we got there, after driving by the parking lot of dead cars and motorcycles, we were amazed at the fact there was no line!  Glory be!  This might just be a piece of cake!

Right.  We talked with the first guy and after showing him our cedulas, he asked how long we've been in the country.  3 months.  To the day.  He just sorta looked at us.  Uttohhh...He begins to tell us that we need to be out of the country for 3 month AND 1 day.  Wait, what?!  But our tourist visas (which is how we've been able to drive mind you) expire today.  If we wait one more day, then we can't drive.  This doesn't make sense.  Eventually we asked to talk to someone else. He told us the same thing.  Apparently, because we had only been in the country for 90 days, we weren't in the system and he couldn't even put us in the system.  And we had to be in the system to pay the $8 USD for our licenses.  Are you kidding me?  This can't be happening...oh but it was.  They were kind, but told us we had to come back the next day (being today). 

There was nothing to do but turn around and go home.  Sigh.  So today, we went back for a third time to the Consevi, praying that God would work this all out, because at this point, it's getting pretty ridiculous!

We got there, and the two guys from yesterday greeted us with a warm "Amigos!!"  Ha!  We were all laughing about this at this point.  Again there was no line and while we had to go make some copies (we are going to just make about 10 copies of everything from now on!), really the process went smoothly (they even accepted our medical exams from December!), resulting in these!!! 

¡Gracias a Dios! We can now drive with our Tico licenese, we have our cedulas and don't have to leave the country every 90 days!  The only thing left (we think!) is to get letters for each of the boys that says they can leave the country with one parent, you know in case there is an emergency of some sort.  We are going to save that fun for another day!