Immigration Situation

Pray for Sarah on Friday! We received word on Wednesday night that she had been invited for a visa interview in Montreal this Friday. She was planning on going back to Canada next week, so it's not a huge deal that this letter came this week, in fact it's pretty good timing. Except they only gave us 2 days notice!!! Can you believe it? We have had an unbelievable adventure with the immigration process over the last 18 months (regardless of the outcome on Friday, the adventure is far from over), but this is the most unbelievable thing so far. The letter was actually dated and mailed on Friday the 12th, arriving in Gatineau on Tue the 16th. We got word of the appointment around 6pm, went to a previously scheduled dinner at a friend's house in which I studied with a couple friends for Wednesday morning's exam.

By 8pm we had switched Sarah's flight information so she would be leaving the next day and cancelled our hotel reservation in Wilmington for Thu night (we were going to spend Friday at the beach). A friend came over around 9:45 and we gave Sarah a blessing that her body and mind would be at ease and that she'd make it through this stressful experience well, having learned a lot and ending up grateful for it.

I started going through all our application information, going through the pre-interview instructions, scanning dozens of pages of stuff into my computer for our records, double checking everything. Of course I found a couple mistakes, and had to update a couple forms. I needed to start from scratch on another form relating to my financial situation, and since I wasn't going to be there in person I had to have it notarized. Since Sarah was leaving before any notary opened, and it was too late to get to one, I would have to UPS it to her Wednesday morning to arrive on Thursday for her interview on Friday. In other words, if the mail had been one day slower, we wouldn't have been able to get this document done correctly!

Sarah did a couple loads of laundry, I ran out to the bank (the interview fee is $100 in US cash) and drove around to make sure I could find the UPS store and the notary in the morning, as well as filling up the car with gas. By the time we finished all that and went to bed it was 3:30am. Sarah woke up around 6:15, I woke up at 6:45. We left for the airport at 7:25, and I said my goodbye as she went through security around 8am. It's hard to explain why I felt so emotional, I feel confident everything will go well, but I cried while driving back to Chapel Hill.

I drove straight to the UPS store where they notarized the document and sent it on its way. I got home, changed shirts (no time for a shower), barely caught the bus and made it to school on time for my exam. It went ok, though I'm glad it's only worth 10% of that grade and that I'm generally doing well in that class. I had two other classes that day which were very relaxed because it's the start of my 4 day weekend fall break.

Sarah had a pretty insane day of flying. Most flights would have cost almost $700, though she found a way to go for $350 by making two stops. It meant that she would fly south to Orlando, Florida, then up to Newark, NJ before arriving in Montreal at 6:37pm. Well, our motto is that if something can happen, it will, so of course there was a lot of fog in Newark and they closed the airport for a bit. She was able to find a way through Cleveland, which worked out fine, except she didn't end up landing until 9:15pm, 13 hours after I had said goodbye to her. Have I mentioned that she's pregnant and has been throwing up at least once a day? Thankfully, she didn't throw up once all day! Unfortunatley however, she has already thrown up today's (thursday's) breakfast. Hopefully she'll feel well during the actual interview tomorrow. The other good news is that the UPS I sent her arrived this morning despite mechanical problems with the plane in Kentucky, and that the parcel Yohann sent (the original interview appointment letter) arrived in Montreal safely as well.

As far as we can tell we've done everything we are supposed to do and she should be approved to receive this visa. Of course, this is just a K3 visa, meaning she can work or study yet, but she can live in the States legally while she wait for her greencard application to be approved. She's nervous but will surely do well. Like I said, please pray for her.

France - Euro 2008

France-Lituanie 2-0 Qualif Euro 2008
Uploaded by foot0406

Now that baseball season is over (why are they still playing now that the Yanks are out?) I've shifted my attention over to European soccer and am really enjoying the qualifying rounds of the Euro 2008 tournment which will be played in Austria/Switzerland next summer. All the countries of europe are broken into groups of 6 or 8 teams in which each country plays all the other countries in their group twice, once at home and once away. You get three points for a win, one for a tie, none for a loss. The best two teams in the group advance to the actual tournment. Yesterday's game against Lithuania was huge for France. If they lost, they would go into their last game desperate for the right circumstances. If they win, then they control their destiny in which a victory in their final game next month puts them ahead of Italy and Scotland, the other two teams still in contention from their group. The score was still 0-0 going into the last 15 minutes of play. How did it end up? Watch the video!

Pregnancy so far

How have the 10 weeks of pregnancy been so far? Well, since the beginning of the pregnancy is defined as the first day of her last period, the first week and a half was real easy (conception hadn't happened yet), the next week was a lot of fun (conception), the next two weeks were a mixture of anticipation and downplaying anticipation (didn't know yet). When I found out on Saturday evening Sept 1st, I was extremely excited, but I felt a physical reaction as I considered how my life had just changed. Weeks 5-9 have been a great adventure summarized perfectly by the above picture. Sarah's body is going through a lot and she's constantly tired and sleeping a lot. She's also had some uniquely specific cravings, such as for sushi (don't worry, she didn't eat any raw fish), certain kinds of bread, and ramen. She has been throwing up a bit, but is feeling better now.

Hogan

A couple weekends ago Sarah and I house sat for one of my professors as he and his wife went out of town. We were there from Thu to Sun and had a blast. Our main responsibility was to take care of their dog Hogan and keep the place standing. I love dogs and really miss mine, so it was a lot of fun. As you can tell from this photo, it was in an extremely beautiful and isolated setting, making it the perfect getaway (even though it's only 15 minutes from our apt). They have a patio room that's fully enclosed by screens, making it the perfect place to study. What a great weekend.

I'm going to be a dad!

Here's the proof, I am going to be a father! I can't even begin to put in to words the feelings of love and concern I already have for my child. It's a pretty overwhelming thing to think that throughout this person's life, they will look to me as their father. I deeply pray I'm up to the task and feel particularly grateful for the parents and grandparents I have who are such great examples for me. I am especially grateful for my beautiful wife and look forward to watching her develop as the mother of my children. You can read the full story of our finding out at www.sacutojones.blogspot.com.