A practical passport post.

Anyone out there trying to get passports/document authentications done, listen up. If you have started the process early enough, you don't have to pay courier fees or wait three weeks for a post office passport appointment. 

Pro tips that worked for us:

Passports: 

Check with your local clerk of court office to see if they accept passport applications. If they do, most of the time they have a walk-in service to drop off and process your application. It took us ten minutes from walking in the door of the office to walking out with the application done.  Passports were received in the mail in three weeks! 

Passport pictures: take them yourself with a free phone app. Just stand against a white surface (like an interior door) with lots of light. Prop a baby or toddler up on an adult's shoulder to grab a good picture of them. The app will save your picture in the correct format.  Use a drugstore or Walmart app to order the pics online for less than a dollar for a six-picture sheet. 

Documents: 

We chose to use ProEx for my documents, because we were in a time crunch, but sent my husband's and daughter's through the mail. It was easy and so much cheaper. If you do it this way, allow at least 30 days. Take your documents to be notarized at your county clerk of court (if necessary).  Our marriage license and birth certificate were already notarized when issued. Send with payment and self-addressed stamped manila envelope to the state dept of state. Florida took about a week to get us our documents back. Repeat that process to the US Department of State. This took about two weeks to come back. Finally, resend to the UAE Embassy. About a week and a half later, you are good to go!  $310 and about 14 days vs. $130 (including insured postage) and about 30 days. Save money by planning in advance!! 

Hope this helps someone. Good luck!