[This is a follow-up to Passport Photos Part I]
Getting a good passport photo is a lot harder than you think.

You may not know this, but the U.S. government (and quite a few other governments around the world) don’t consider Taiwan a real country.  The U.S. doesn’t have a real embassy here.  Instead, we have a fake embassy that we call the American Institute in Taiwan.  As a result, diplomats (or I should say “fake diplomats”) don’t have diplomatic passports.  We have regular blue passports with special visas.  However, the U.S. government considers Jordan a real country, so before we go there we need to get real diplomatic passports.  So Jason has been working on that at the fake embassy.

It has been almost three years since our kids had their last passport photos taken, so we decided they needed new ones.  Passport photos, like driver’s license photos, usually aren’t that great.  Here is how our kids’ pictures turned out:

Kid #4:

{Not the greatest.  She’s actually a lot cuter than that, but it will do.}

Kid #3:

{Again, not the greatest, but whatever.  We’ll take it.}

Kid #2:

{What the …?  Seriously!}

Kid #1:

{That’s it!  I give up!}

 

 

I know I like to brag a lot about how safe Taiwan is.  But this week, in broad daylight, a crazy man stabbed a parent as she was walking her children in front of the Taipei Japanese School.  The Japanese school happens to be directly across the street from the American school my kids attend.  The mother was a random target.  I’m pleased to report that her wound was not life-threatening, but she’ll carry the physical and emotional scars of her attack for the rest of her life.  Her children that witnessed the attack will undoubtedly carry emotional scars as well.  Thankfully her attacker was immediately apprehended and is now in custody.

I share this on my blog, because I know that there are evil people everywhere.  Unfortunately, no society is free of them.  But as horrific as this incident was, I can’t imagine what would have resulted if that evil man had had access to the same legally-purchased gun that was used in the Connecticut massacre.  The outcome would have been much different.

So on this day, I want to thank the Taiwanese legislators who enacted tough gun control laws.  You very well may have saved the lives of an untold number of innocent victims, including my own children.  Thank you.