THE VISAS!?!?!?!?

David was accepted to medschool at the end of June and his school started August 17. we were planning on leaving Charleston July 10 so we have been in limbo for about a month and it has been the hardest thing to get the visas. We didn't get the proper documentation to apply for a visa until 2 weeks before we had purchased our plane tickets for. We checked and all of us would have to have visas. We knew that it would take nearly 2 weeks to get the visas back unless we went through a travel agent. We found a travel agent that would do all of ours expedited for $260. That was just to process them. The visas cost $225 each. So we consulted with our travel agent in LA about the proper paper work. We had to have a finger scan for the UK. That was set up by appointment only and it was only available in certain cities in each state. We had to schedule into all of our travels where we were going to be to try to set up an appointment so we got an appointment in Yakima washington. One of the days with the grandparents, we left the kids and drove 2 hours to get our fingers scanned. It took about 3 minutes to do it, which was a relief, but still it was really inconvenient. We got all of our paperwork together, birth certificates, wedding licenses, passport, letter of acceptance, transcripts, letter of loan, letter of current bank statement and a money order and over nighted it to her. At this point we 2 weeks before we left. We thought we were doing ok. It should only take 3 days when we send it if the travel agent gets it in.
When we came back from Washington we got a call from the agent and said that our bank statement could not be printed out but had to be official from the bank and signed by the manager. Idaho did not have our bank, since we banked out East, the closest bank was in Las vegas so that was out of the question. I called our bank and their is a whole department that does official bank statements. I asked them to sent it to our agent and of course it cost $25. She got it 3 days later so our clock is ticking. It is 8 days away from departure and we don't have our visas.
At this point we are Lava hot springs and we get another call. The proof of loan was not good enough and the letter of acceptance had to be on letterhead. None of these documents we ever received that were original. All of these came via email so we were at a loss. also the statement that the bank sent was only in my name and it had to be in David's. The consulate would not accept it. This was Thursday. I had reached my breaking point and I was in tears. I had to contact my bank again and David had to call his advisor and loan officer to see what documents were needed. I found a little fax machine in po-dunk Lava hot springs and sent the fax to the bank requesting the statement again in Davids and asked it to be overnighted. I didn't know if that was going to cost another $25 or not. David had all of his people overnight the documents to the agent. By Saturday we were trying to do the math if we were going to be able to go on the next Friday or not. It would be tight.
The travel agent received our stuff and took it to the consulate on Tuesday and we should have received it back by Wednesday. We were cutting it close but it should work. we were planning to leave Thursday night and stay in Boise and fly out of Boise so we had to have them no later than Thursday.
Wednesday morning the agent called up and said that David and I had our visas but the children did not. She had not checked to see if we had sent it all to the LA consulate. With our permanent address being in Charleston, somehow, computer glitch, the kids application went to NY consulate so the LA consulate wouldn't even look at it.
WHAT!!!!!! At this point I was beyond emotion and just was trying to fix the problem. We needed our visas within 24 at this point. We started to call Delta to change flights and such and it would cost over $300 each ticket to change it so we are looking at $1000 to change flights. We started to fill out the LA consulate application and repay for their visas, another $500. We called our travel agent and asked about the timing, if she put the application in on Thursday how could we get it.... to her the soonest was she could pick it up on Friday and we would receive it Saturday.
About 5:00 Wednesday I kind of accepted the fact that it would cost $1000 to cancel and change our flights, but I was still trying to think. I thought what if David went to LA tomorrow and came back that night to Boise, Visa in hand. This could work. Flights for the next day round trip was only $500, but it meant that we could leave on time and it wouldn't cost us over $1000. This sounded feasible so we started to book the flights. I contacted the agent and told her David was coming tomorrow to pick it up personally. She gave me the biggest load of crap and made ever excuse in the book why he couldn't, wasn't allowed, she would charge us more, ect. ect.... but I gave her a piece of mind, several times. She realized I was serious so about 9:00pm Wednesday night she started to work with us and set up a rendezvous point.
David was in LA by 7:00 am and hung out with his sister all day. I was home frantically trying to get everything packed, in less than 50 lbs each suitcase.. By 5:00 pm David had all of our visas and legal documentation in his hands 14 hours before we were to leave for England.
It truly was a nightmare and I am glad it is over.