Waiting on Immigration

Shortly after my nephew was born in January 2012, we candidated at a church in NY state, far away from both of our families. In February, they inforrmed Mitch that he got the job, but we knew it would be a long wait because they had a lot of paperwork to do in order to hire him. See, because Mitch is Canadian, and the church was in the states, acquiring a visa took about 6 months. Immigration is a lot of work. So we began another long wait...

Since we knew we would be moving to New York State, I immediately started looking to see what sorts of adoption agencies were close by and what the adoption process was like in NY, since it varies depending on the state. I was ready to start the adoption process as soon as possible. The particular visa I was on in Canada didn't allow me to work, so I had a lot of time to myself during those 6 months.

We stayed with my in-laws since we didn't know how long the process would be. We hated to get tied into a lease on an apartment and not be there very long. My in-laws were very generous and offered for us to stay there until we moved to New York. Mitch got a job working at a local grocery store that was only like 2 miles away.

Spending most of my time by myself wasn't all that bad, though. Even though I was often left alone with my thoughts, it gave me a lot of time to pray and study. I spent the majority of my day reading my Bible and studying theology. I think I learned more about God in those 6 months than I learned during my whole 4 1/2 years in Bible College. I started learning more about what I believed about God based on Scripture, not just what I had been told about God by pastors or professors. I was tasting and seeing for myself. This drove me to pray harder for my loved ones who didn't know the Lord.

A couple favorite photos of my uncle.  His laugh was contagious.

During that 6 months I lost an uncle and a great Aunt who I was very close to. It was a shock to find out my uncle passed away that March. I knew he had been in poor health for years, but I had never expected him to pass. I was more afraid of losing my grandfather. I became apprehensive every new semester of college. I was so afraid that I would never see my grandfather again... I never expected my uncle to go first. It was difficult to process, especially being so far away from family. I spent a lot of time of the phone that week reminiscing about my uncle. When my father left, my uncle and grandfather stepped in an were like substitute dads to me until my mom remarried.

I felt like I had been dealing with death for so long. Not that I had lost anyone before that, but I felt like my dreams of being a mom were dying all the time. I felt like I had lost someone I never had, so many times, which made the loss of my uncle even more difficult.