Five years

We finally received O's new passport today. Her old one doesn't officially expire until July but because you are no longer able to apply for your passport at the British Embassy in Brussels (it has to be sent to the embassy in Paris just for them to send it to the UK - oh, and you have to pay for this extra delightful service and you're not even allowed to enquire about progress etc etc), we thought we'd better get it sorted before our summer holidays.

I actually feel quite sad about the whole passport thing because she was six days old when her first passport photo was taken and now she's nearly five years old. It's hard to believe that in this short time she's lived in two completely different countries and adapted amazingly well to new situations.

My main worry now is her old passport as we haven't received it back from the embassy in Paris. I will be gutted if something has happened to it as it has her Oman residency visa as well as numerous other stamps from different countries.

I sometimes have pangs of guilt (that only a Mother seems to have) that she has no definite 'roots', as although she has a British passport, she has never lived in the UK. I hope to be able to explain to her one day (with the help of her first passport!) how fortunate we all are to have experienced so many wonderful cultures.
I hope that old passport hurries up!