Received!

Alas, the NVC has given me some good news. Our packet of forms was finally received! Supposedly reviewing the forms could take as long as 8 weeks, but I have faith that it will be shorter than that...and I know my mom does because she is really wanting a June 6 wedding! :)

On another note, it's Friday! I like my job, but I don't want to be here right now. I want to go get frozen yogurt and shop at Dillard's with my little brother...

Real life...

I'm surprised by how quickly I re-entered real life. It felt completely normal to numbly travel home alone and come back into the life I have here, like I had gone to run errands. I'm not sure what I think about that. I never imagined I would live two lives in two very different places that were so opposite yet equally wonderful, exciting, joyful and sad. I hate that normal right now is a life with George 6,000 miles away. Things will change soon.

I'm pretty sure I called the National Visa Center automated response system 7 times yesterday and at least 20 times this week. They still haven't changed my status to indicate that they have received the paperwork or that they are doing anything with it.

On another note, I have been e-mailing my new friend from JFK...we'll call him D. He said he was going to make some connections for us to see if our process could be sped up and told me to keep in touch because "...someone made our paths cross..." I couldn't agree more!

I'm back.

I'm searching for the right words to say and what exactly to post. My mind is jumbled and there is a lot to share. First, I have malaria, as in the mother of all malaria! One of the side effects is having a cloudy mind, so excuse any bad grammar and any other weirdness this post may contain. I'm getting better though.

My trip was so great. I just love George so much and any time with him is wonderful, sick or well, crammed in a tro-tro or walking on a gorgeous beach...it's all good. :)

We finished George's application and were able to get the other needed items for his paperwork-yay! I also struck up a conversation with a man in JFK who works for the United States Joint Office Command and he gave me his card and offered to help in any way possible. So today, after some rest I prepared and mailed our last packet of paperwork to the NVC and e-mailed my new friend asking for some help with the speed of our application. Hopefully he can do something, but I'm still trusting in God.

I haven't spent much time in Cape Coast, so it was a different experience this time- I prefer the Volta Region. I'm tired, so I'll leave it at this and add some pictures...

Accra

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it or not, but I pretty much hate Accra. Let’s play a game to get a better feel of the place. Imagine a large city, such as Houston; now narrow all the streets, squish in the entire city, multiply the number of cars by four, multiply the number of pedestrians by ten, add thousands of hawkers, spread a few tons of trash throughout the place, sprinkle in some goats, chickens and dogs, make sure that the traffic is always rush hour/parking lot and for some reason everyone is racing, traffic signs don’t really matter and every single driver is playing chicken with the next. The trucks like the one below with guys sleeping on coconuts drive as crazy as the small taxis and motos....just fyi. ;) I really love Ghana, but Accra, not so much.

Back to the real reason of this post, and I‘ll make it short. George and I had to go to Accra to get a police report/certificate (everyone keeps telling us it’s a different term) for his visa processing. We got to our tro-tro early, but we had to wait for it to get full and then we were off to Accra, about a 2 hour ride. As usual, George knows someone who could help us. His roommate’s brother is a policeman and works at the Accra headquarters! This was such a blessing for us. We ended up not having everything that we needed for this police report, but our new friend helped us out tremendously. After finding a place for me to park it (can’t let the people who decide the price see my skin color), he walked G through everything and found a way to move forward even without our missing item and will collect the report and hold it for us until we are back in Accra. The fee still ended up being 4 times more than it was supposed to be, but we should get this paperwork on time because of it (can you imagine what it would be had I been standing there?).

After this complicated victory, we decided that we should celebrate with hamburgers! The air conditioned restaurant was a nice break.

After walking around just a little, we headed back to the tro-tro station and back to Cape Coast. Let me tell you, back in the day, tro-tros were these old, hardly held together vans that typically broke down at least once during a trip, probably had a door closed by a rope and were almost always a mish mash of different vans and different parts to make one very interesting tro-tro. There was no A/C, most likely no music and you just prayed that the windows opened. Now, and I don’t know how this happened, Ghana is full of very nice, new tro-tros. Either an interesting Toyota mini-bus or George’s favorite, the Ford. There are lots of 15-passenger Ford vans, just like my family had when we were kids. These are quite the improvement, they have A/C. they don’t break down and nothing is held together with rope or tape. However, because the fear that their vehicle will fall apart has been taken away from the drivers, they drive like maniacs! Side note: there are about 57 rumble strips between Accra and Cape Coast, the drivers do not slow down. By the time we arrived back in Cape Coast, my back was sore! I also apparently got food poisoning from my meal…..but that’s all part of the adventure, part of our story.

I have my computer, but not the wireless connection that I’m supposed to. Oh well, I will write anyway and even if I have to post these when I return to Texas, I will post.

Ghana is amazing. I wish I could bring my family here right now. I love being here and being with George, it feels so normal. I’m getting used to having my heart in two continents. Even when George is with me in the States, we will still have friends and family here; this will still be the place we met and fell in love and the calm, slower pace of life will still beckon to us. I used to think that was a bad thing, to love and long for a place where you can’t be. But it’s more than that. It’s just a different life, a different people. I think missing Ghana will help George and I be better Christians, family members and neighbors. The things we will miss are mostly intangibles that we can bring back with us. The communal way of living, the ability to enjoy small and simple things like just being with friends and family and not having to be constantly occupied by things.

One of my favorite Ghanaian proverbs is, “The bed does not look for trouble.” . People teach their children that from a very young age and it simply means that if you don’t have a task to do, go lay on your bed, it will keep you out of trouble. Cute, huh? Just simple. That, and sometimes it’s too hot to want to do anything but lay still!

Ghana time!

I have arrived safe and sound (luggage as well) and could not be happier. Things weren’t exactly smooth getting over, but I am here and so thankful! Long story short, I almost missed my trans-Atlantic flight and forgot a VERY important document that is supposed to be seen when I enter the country. I was close to a heart attack twice there and prayed my butt off…and here I am, no worse for the wear! I’ve really missed Ghana, the weather here is fabulous! Balmy and sunny, perfect sundress weather! George and I have been enjoying just being together, as well as working on paperwork and school projects. Unfortunately, we have to trek to Accra on Thursday to get that police report. There are police headquarters here, but they only do police reports in Accra...of course. We are hoping that there is a place nearby that I can duck in so the price isn’t too jacked up! The Internet is not what we thought it would be, but hopefully we can Skype soon.

I'm leavin' on a jet-plane!

I do know when I'm coming back though.

6 hours and counting people! I have completed the paperwork, done most of my packing, printed more needed items, gotten cash to exchange, applied my glow (thank you Bath and Body Works for your amazing self-tanner!) and am almost finished with my to-do list. I have a few more things to put in bags, another coat of nail polish to apply, some wild hair to tame (long trip hair is such a pain to style, it pretty much looks blah by the time you get there...no matter what), a few electronics to charge and hopefully I'll get a little bit of sleep. My mom (bless her soul) will take me to the airport at 4:15 in the morning. As much as I am beyond excited to be going to see my man, I still have a thing about waking up way before the sun- I don't like it! My phone is loaded with all the best tunes and sermons I've been wanting to listen to and I have my trusty Snuggie to keep me warm...this is gonna be great!

I hear I'll have Internet in Cape Coast, so maybe I'll update. :) I'm so excited to see George and I'm so excited to see what wonderful things will happen while I am there. God always seems to move in big ways while I'm in Ghana with him. I'm so happy!!

A little update. After reading and re-reading the instructions, I do believe I finally have a clue about what's next. The timing could not be more perfect as we need things from each continent and it is best for me to mail everything from the States. Our little tiny bump in the road is George needing a police certificate (it's like a background check) so he has to go to the main police headquarters in the capital city to get fingerprints done in order to get said certificate. Well, tomorrow is a holiday and then it's the weekend, which means it can't be done 'til I am there. That means we have to trek several hours to Accra and the price will be beyond jacked up because of me. Bummer. Other than that, I think we've got this. Please pray that the police will be timely in giving us this certificate and that they won't make the price too high. At this point, that's the only thing that will hold up this last application.

Whoa!

That 2-3 days to process my payment and wait for further instructions was a lie (surprise!). I checked the status just now and the payment has cleared! I have started reading the instructions for the next step, it's pretty involved and, you guessed it....confusing! This timing is great in one sense because I can work on it here without relying on a sketchy Internet connection or worrying about my pre-paid Internet time ticking away. Also, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, this is it, just a little bit further! On the other hand, I have a lot to do in the next less-than-48-hours in order to be able to leave.

Please pray for wisdom and time management for me as I prepare. Pray that I can quickly and clearly figure out what exactly I need to do with immigration to take with me and that I will know these next steps so that I can clearly tell George and prepare him for what's coming. Please pray for favor for this processing and peace for George and I as we enter this final stretch...we really are almost finished!

Yay!

We have some good news!!

George received the Immigrant Visa Fee Bill Letter (could they choose a longer name please?). Yay! I have paid the fee and now we just wait 2-3 days for the payment to clear and receive further instructions. One step closer!

The other letter George received was one detailing the missing documents. Remember about a month ago I wrote about sending in paperwork and having something missing or incomplete? Well let me tell you, the NVC totally freaked me out that I had done something all wrong and messed up this whole process. I was so worried, all I tried to do was NOT be worried and it was constantly on my mind. I have been waiting and waiting for this fabled letter that will tell me what is missing and what to do; basically the details of how horribly I have messed things up. Well, George got it. And here's the thing, there was nothing wrong or missing with what I sent in (unless of course, they want to tell me that later)! They need another form for the next step, a form that has nothing to do with my affidavit of support. It's time for the actual Immigrant Visa application. Up until now I have just been petitioning my brains out for George, we have finally hit the place where he can "apply" for a Visa. Which means we pay, he does some paperwork, he has several Dr. visits and then the interview! Please pray the payment processing goes through before I leave so that I can start the next step from here.

So it's that simple, and that complicated! I'm so glad I didn't botch things and that we are really just moving to the next step. Let me tell you, the National Visa Center could really use some lessons in communication- they're pretty bad at it.

I tried to link to a song I'm singing today, but I guess I'm not a nerd enough to do so.....go here if you want to know and I like the Doxology.