Still waiting....

Nothing new, phone still works.

Say what?!

George "got" his letter today and can pick it up next Tuesday. One would think this means he didn't actually get his letter today, and there in lies the problem, the thinking part.

I've often wanted to throw my phone while trying to navigate the bureaucracy of each of our countries and have refrained. Self control is overrated....I threw it, it felt good, my phone survived.

Yay!

So George woke me up at 6:00 this morning with wonderful news! I he went back to the registrar (again!) and was told to come back TOMORROW for the letter! I am so happy!

P.S. Happy Birthday lil' bro!

Some hope?

I got some good encouragement from church folks today and talked to George (which is always wonderful!). He's going to go back to the registrar tomorrow and appeal. If that doesn't work, well, I don't know.

And it continues.....

The registrar said maybe in two weeks he'll give George the letter, maybe in March. We're both frustrated, trying to figure out what to do next.

Patience, right?

My patience is wearing very, very thin. I thought I did well with the whole Ghana-time thing, I was totally chill about this, I knew things would move soon enough, and I prided myself on that.....I was wrong.

We have one thing holding up the visa process and it's about to eat my lunch- a letter from the University of Cape Coast. We need this letter to confirm that George does actually go there and will actually return to Ghana (that is a very important thing to prove to the United States!). However, the registrar is on a power trip and won't give George the letter, he keeps putting it off for some reason. George has done all he can do and we still have nothing. I'm starting to think we should play this game their way and resort to bribery, but how wrong would that be? I did track down the man's e-mail address though and I'll see if George is okay with my dad or me sending him a note. Why we think our western influence will do anything, I don't know, but I guess it's worth a try. KEEP ON PRAYING!!

He's baaaack....

George is back from the field and it's so wonderful to know that I can talk to him whenever I want (though I can't afford it, it's nice to know). I've done a ton of research about getting a visa and we've learned a bit from the last attempt. We have almost everything together to get started because the earlier the better! One thing we still need is a letter from George's school, they wouldn't give him one before his trip because classes hadn't officially started (him being on a school research trip didn't count....I'm rolling my eyes). So hopefully we will get that fairly quickly, Ghana time quickly that is, I don't mean tomorrow. :)

The waiting game.

George is "in the field" now doing research and won't return to Cape Coast to really get the ball rolling on the visa for two weeks. So at the moment, it's just a waiting game. I feel very anxious right now and must remind myself of my earlier optimism and faith. Those things are still true and I know that they are, but waiting like this is hard to do. So for now, we keep praying and dreaming of what we hope is to come.

One thing that has been such a blessing recently is a class at church based on the book When Sinners Say "I Do". George is taking it with me, only long distance. It's very thought provoking and we feel so blessed and encouraged to be able to learn so much even before we are married. Another big blessing and encouragement is my friend Meredith who has been praying with us all along and sharing meaningful scripture, I am so thankful for her.

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

Psalm 40:5

THE dress!

What an interesting weekend this was! God showed up for us in our everyday life yet again.

As you can imagine, getting married fully a year before originally planned added to another wedding (or two) happening with my brother(s) this summer can be a bit of a financial stretch. So my mom and I sat down and did a budget, balancing the reality of how expensive weddings are but cutting down on how extravagant they have become. So even as inexpensively as we figured we could pull off this beautiful event, it's not cheap and many, many times more than what my parents spent on theirs! So I started praying, not that money would fall from the sky or anything like that, but that the Lord would provide amazing resources to have this celebration in an affordable and non debt inducing manner! Immediately I started to see the Lord move and I think the dress is only the beginning!

So earlier this week my mom had mentioned going wedding dress shopping and even though I am a huge fan of shopping and love all things fashion, I didn't exactly want to because we still don't have a visa. I feel torn sometimes between being so happy and excited that George and I are getting married that I could wet myself to trying not to be excited because we still don't have a visa! It's usually the first though. :) Anyway, I decided that I did really want to go dress shopping, but just to look. When we got to the dress shop we made sure our consultant knew about the situation so she didn't get her hopes up for a sale and she said it was no problem at all. So I tried on about a million and a half dresses and had a blast with my mom. But there was this one dress that I loved, I tried it on first and last. It was the only one they had and I felt marvelous and comfortable in it and it fit like a dream! We had the consultant check the price and it was on sale for WAY less than our budget. At about that moment my dad called to see what we were up to and he was shocked when my mom told him the news "It's a fingerprint of God." he said, "Buy it!". So we did, and I am very excited!! I can't wait to see what God has next for us.

We still need a visa, so obviously that is on the top of my prayer list, but right now, I have a LOT of faith and I am just so excited about our future.

How big is our God?

Seeing as a lot of people are going to ask about the things leading up to our engagement, once it is announced, I decided to keep an online journal of sorts. One, because it's cute and I won't have to tell the story nine million times and two, as a testament of how big and how real our God is. My friend Angela recently made a comment that 'God is so nice' and I really loved it, because it is so true. He didn't just save us and leave us to fend for oursleves, He is here, intimately involved in our lives...and it's wonderful!

George and I have decided to get married sooner rather than later. When we had previously discussed marriage we both felt like the more logical and wise thing to do would be to get married after George finished school and was accepted to a Masters program here in the States and ideally, we would both have lucrative jobs. It seemed logical and very mature. Well, aside from going absolutely crazy being apart, through much prayer recently about a visa for George to come to this States (he still has not met my family) and some guidance from very close friends and family, we have decided to get married in 2008! So as a sort of fleece before God, we are trying for a fiancee visa, if it goes through......WE'RE GETTING MARRIED! If it doesn't, then I guess we back up and regroup.

So we're left with, how big is our God? Thinking about the visa interview is enough to make me sick, and I'm not even the one who gets interviewed! So I am constantly having to remind myself of a few things- If our God was big enough to orchestrate things so that I ended up volunteering in Ghana with Cross-Cultural Solutions (a lot of things happened to lead up to that and many, many people thought it was a stupid idea). And if our God also orchestrated it that George would NOT be in London at that time, but instead working for Cross-Cultural Solutions in one of three towns where I could have been placed; and allowed us to meet, and to know each other and continue a relationship; then it would seem that a simple visa would be no problem. I know it's not, I know God is certainly bigger than the US government (Funny thought isn't it? We should probably let them in on the secret.) but there is still part of me that wants to make sure that every single detail on that application is perfectly in place and that there is absolutely no reason for a denial. The truth is though, there doesn't have to be a reason for denial, the interviewer could just not feel like granting a visa that day, and then, there's nothing we can do about it. So at this point, praying is all I can do, pray and remember how big (and nice) God is!

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:4-7