I am so happy to write here that David received his visa on April 16th…took us 243 days from when we sent the initial package off from last August.
There was a point towards the end of the processing that we were in a bit of a “black hole” where the Department of State couldn’t give us any information or estimates on when we would actually get the visa…though I knew it would probably only be a couple of more weeks (though no guarantees), the whole thing freaked me out and I did have a cry at the end. Considering how everything went, I think I was pretty good that I lasted that long, lol!
Now we are looking forwards towards David’s move here, adjusting his status so he can get a green card and become a Permanent Resident, and of course–the wedding! We are going to have the legal wedding done in July because of the legal requirements of the visa; in order to protect David’s status, we have to get legally married by a certain date or risk deportation. While the chance of that is low, I am not willing to take any risks because I worked too hard to get him here : )
Nothing much has happened in the way of wedding news…I’ve sent off the facility/insurance checks to my home parish and have made a contract with a bartender. David hasn’t sent over his saved earnings going towards the wedding yet, but we’re waiting to see how the UK elections turn out because it is fairly likely that they will have a significant impact on the pound to dollar ratio. Currently, it’s about $1.53 to 1 British pound and if the Conservative party wins a large majority, the pound will likely go up, whereas if not, it’s looking like the pound will go down. What sucks is that just about two years ago, the pound was at a ratio of $2 to 1 pound–in our situation, makes a difference of $5,000! Ah, well. Life happens.
My sister, Melanie (maid of honor), will be living in D.C. this summer because she has an internship with Patty Murray (Washington state senator in Congress)! She beat out quite a few applicants, including law students! I am so proud of her and glad that I will have an opportunity to spend some time with her as our lives are going in opposite directions as a result of the whole growing up business. I’m getting married, she’ll be graduating from college and possibly going into the Peace Corps next year, so this is a golden opportunity for us. David isn’t 100% thrilled about sharing me with my sister for the first couple of months of his new life with me, but he definitely understands the importance and supports me fully; it’s not as though she’s going to be living with us after all. I also think it will be a great occasion for the both of them to get to know each other, since they’ve met only once in person and that was three years ago. At the very least, Mel will have some good comedic material for her toast at the reception!
Hope you all are well–does anyone read this? Would love to hear from you, although not the Russian spammers. I’m afraid I must delete you every time you make a comment. I admire your persistence, however!
-Justine