The Problem with Lying

My husband and I eloped in college. We were madly in love, planning a wedding for September, but decided to elope in January.

We didn't tell anyone. We continued to live in separate dorms.

After our wedding, for years and years, we still didn't tell anyone and celebrated the September date as our wedding anniversary. About five years into our marriage, we decided to have a child. We were living in Dundee, Scotland, serving as missionaries.

Now you need to know that the subject of your wedding date rarely, if ever, comes up in regular conversations. And generally, since we celebrated the September date, it is all we ever talked about. WE saw it as our wedding date.

But, officially, on the marriage license and in the eyes of the State of Oklahoma, our anniversary is January 25th, NOT September 1st.

After our daughter was born in the local hospital there in Scotland, it came time for us to come home. We had to get a birth certificate for her and a Consular Report of Birth Abroad.

Somewhere along the way, someone asked us if we were married and the date of our marriage. And somehow - perhaps it was a case of sleep-deprived brains or just out of sheer habit, we put down on some form that our marriage was in September. We DID have a wedding then, but there are no official documents for that date. The marriage license says January.

Did you know that when you apply for a passport for a person born outside the United States you have to submit the parent's marriage license along with the child's Consular Report and Birth Certificate? Yes. It is true!

And ours don't match up. Now, this has not been a problem thus far. The documents are for different things, so it has gone unnoticed, but still, it could someday be a problem. Every time she sends it all in, I'm sure some bureaucrat is going to notice and reject it.

How will we handle that? I'm just imagining the conversation we will have with the records office over in Dundee.

Me: We gave the wrong date on our chid's information. We were actually married in January, not September.

UK Government Employee: You forgot your anniversary when filling out an official government form? No, that doesn't sound suspicious at all.

Me: (laughing) Yeah, I mean, ha ha, guys forget their anniversary all the time, right?

UKGE: (not laughing) ...

And that is the problem with lying. Either you do it so poorly that people find out or you do it so well that you believe it yourself.