I feel like you’ve done everything you can, it’s in the hands of the Mail Gods now.
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Guess what was in the mail today? A returned card addressed to @Immaculata ! It says it was refused and not deliverable. I assume that must have happened for some reason on a country/post-office-level. I am going to put it in a completely plain envelop and send it again. I’m worried the second one I sent will just return as well, given the already long timeframe. I cannot figure out why it was refused, or undeliverable. I checked the address. Everything is clear. There was enough postage. It made it most of the way there?! I will not be deterred though. It will go out with the post on Monday. 
I’m actually relieved to have it returned, even if it’s aggravating! At least now I know. I’m really sorry for this issue and that it has taken MONTHS!
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That’s so extremely strange! The address in the Q must have been correct, as everyone else’s cards arrived with the right address on them. On last year’s envelope, your handwriting was super neat and easy to read so I don’t think that’s the issue either. And even if you did misspell the address, that’s pretty common, and all that mail with misspelled street name still arrives. My street is named after a 19th century artist with a very difficult long name, it’s difficult for Dutch people too. Plus postal code + house number is unique, mail should be delivered even without a street name.
Usually when mail is undeliverable by the Dutch mail, there’s a sticker on it that gives the reason (like this: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQVVsd1uw4zt2wDbXYoIpqlXsM7Nuc2jzXXiQ&s ) If that sticker isn’t on it, I’m assuming the envelope didn’t make it to the sorting center here and was returned to sender somewhere before it passed the border. If that sticker is on it, then I really don’t know why they didn’t just deliver it.
Most surprising to me is that the card actually made it’s way back! It wasn’t eaten by the mail. It just travelled around for three months before deciding to go home.
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Ahh, okay, so my best guess now, with that information, is it likely didn’t even make it out of the USA for some reason. I’m going to try and investigate more. I have it repackaged, addressed, and stamped, and my fingers are crossed it will arrive this time!
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I have a hypothesis:
I wrote close to the edge of the envelope, which isn’t a problem in and of itself, but I underlined the name of the country, which may have looked like/read like a strikethrough on the sorting barcode. If that is the case, lesson learned! It has never happened before and I send a ton of mail, but perhaps it was just perfect placement. 
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Who knows, that might have been it. But underlining the country isn’t that what you’re supposed to do, at least that’s how I was taught in school? You know you’re old, by the way, if you learned to write formal letters and envelopes in school.
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ha ha You know you are old when your address was just a rural route just like all of your neighbors. The postman knew everyone and delivered by name.
My address at one time was RR#5, Harrodsburg, KY. Not even a zip code!
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Haha, you win! We’ve had zip codes since the 1970s or so, so definitely before my time. I know in my grandparents’ days, they would just address the envelope to so-and-so farm, and then the name of the village and that would be enough. The first letter my grandpa wrote my grandma was addressed to Miss Lastname, Near the Railway, Village name, and if that letter hadn’t been delivered I might not have existed!
But mail people still have set routes here, and recognize names. One of our Christmas cards arrived without a house number, and it still found its way to our mailbox. And it happens regularly that I walk by the parcel delivery van on a different street, and the guy calls me and gives me our parcels.
20-ish years ago I had a summer job delivering mail and back then we still did sorting by hand! The mail would be sorted automatically up to street level, but we’d have to manually sort it per house before we left (on bike - all flat mail is delivered on bike here). I’m pretty sure that part is automated now as well.
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A friend of my mom lives in a place where the lampposts are numbered. When I was a kid you could send mail with just the zip code and the lamp number. I don’t know if it still works but it never failed back then.
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How romantic it must be to have a lamppost address!
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We had a rural route growing up. And you could put outgoing mail in the box with e dime and they would put the stamp on it for you.
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