Isa is an American citizen born abroad*, so her Korean birth certificate isn’t likely to be recognized in the U.S. She, like any other American citizen in her situation, had to visit the embassy for a Consular Certificate of Birth Abroad, which will function as her U.S. birth certificate when she’s back in the states. While doing the paperwork on this, she also applied for her passport (in which I listed her occupation as “baby”) and her Social Security card, which will take up to six months to arrive. The passport is expected to take four weeks.

The trip to the embassy was fairly uneventful. Like other U.S. embassies I’ve visited, we weren’t allowed to take cameras or phones inside. So there aren’t any photos of our embassy interview, in which Isa’s only job was to show her sleeping face. She never woke up during the hour and a half we waited around.

*Just like Ted Cruz. Or John McCain.