Passport photo stories

We just renewed our American passports and while digging through our files to see if I had any recent passport photos lying around, I found a bunch of others! They all tell a little story. From top left:

2010. Taken in Ithaca, New York to renew the passport I got in 2000 so we could spend the summer in Egypt.

2010. Taken in Cairo, Egypt to renew our residence visa. We had to go to the Mujamma to do it and it was so, so hot. They made me button up my shirt more (I had a nice undershirt on but in the Middle East that can count as underwear so they didn’t want it to show). I was practically living off of Indomie-chan brand ramen at the time, which is at least the very best brand of ramen there is, and I feel like it shows in this photo. Hot/sweaty/ramen-fed…yup.

2013. Taken in Sharjah, UAE to renew our residence visa. I was extremely pregnant and wearing a lot of lipstick, I guess?

2015. Taken in Sharjah, UAE to apply for a work visa in Finland. We had to fill out so much paperwork (in five-plicate) during this time period and I distinctly remember being so very tired and stressed when I had this photo taken. I also remember that the girls had their photos taken and they somehow ended up looking almost identical to each other (even though in real life they’re easy to tell apart). Every official we dealt with in coming to Finland was like “which…are these the same…who is who???” One time the Emiratis actually put Magdalena’s visa picture in Miriam’s passport so what can I say? SISTERS.

2016. Taken in Turku, Finland to renew our residence visa. The theme of this photo was basically “please, PLEASE give us a four-year residence visa instead of a one-year residence visa” and they did!

2019. Taken in Turku, Finland to renew our passport, as stated at the beginning of this post.

Nearly ten years of passport photos! What a journey it’s been. I think of the future I imagined ahead of me in that first photo and my reality in the last photo and it’s funny to think how we make plans even though life will have its way in the end!