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The short answer to this question is Alabama. The long answer is in this
post.
Where did we think we’d be by now? India.
Some things don’t work out the way you expect. Thankfully what doesn’t change is that
a loving and powerful Father anchors our lives.
Last March we accepted the invitation to move India. We left the Philippines in July. We
enjoyed five months off in the US during the summer and fall. After four months on the road
touring the US and Canada we ended up at my parents’ house in Alabama for
Thanksgiving. Plan was, we’d apply
for Andrey’s employment visa and once that came through, we’d apply for Ella’s
and my visa and then we’d be on our way.
By early December, all the requirements for Andrey’s application were
submitted and we were gearing up to move to India. We took a trip to the Florida Keys just to break up the
time. Andrey’s visa came but not
until early January. What a
relief, we thought! Our visas are
a given, right? Give it a few
weeks and we should be ready to start booking travel. We spent a week in the DC area so Andrey could spend some
time in the headquarters office and we could get in some social time. And then the rest of January went by
and most of February and no word on visas. Andrey called the visa-processing agency every Friday for an
update and the answer was always the same. No visas. No
explanation. Meanwhile, Andrey has been
working from my parents’ house in an upstairs office doing his best to lead the team in Chennai from
afar. I started homeschooling Ella, and we starting making a few friends. We've been living day-to-day expecting that any moment we’d get the news we’d been waiting for.
A week ago Friday we decided to show up in person at the
office in Atlanta instead of making the usual call. We thought at the worst we’d get more of the same. Sorry, no visas yet. Just keep waiting. But what we got was our passports. No visas. No explanation, but with a new stamp in our passports that
read, “Visa Applied For.” We heard
later that this is better than an official denial, although I didn’t know that
at the time. I felt the blood
drain from my head when the officer gave us the unexpected news. How can this be? Andrey has a work visa but his wife and
child can’t join him? What are we
going to do??
I felt discouraged and dejected. Disappointed.
Crushed. Thinking this
plan, which I have grown attached to, is in jeopardy.
I mean, didn’t God ask us to go? Hasn’t he already been preparing things for us there? Andrey has exciting and meaningful
work, Ella has a great school, we’ve already connected with some people living
there, I have contacts for pursuing my midwifery dream… I mean, really there are some really
great things waiting for us and I already feel like a part of my heart is
in India.
Later that day I felt God gently let me know that this was
no surprise to him and he’s not worried.
He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what is going to happen and I can rest in
that. And then my husband, Mr.
Optimistic, tells me he’s not giving up and that he is hopeful we’ll find a
way. I remembered how just a few
days before I felt God remind me to really be alert in prayer and be pressing in
for this because it may not come easy.
Okay, so for some reason, this may not come till we fight for it in
prayer. That’s not unlike how
things work for the amazing people who work with my husband and do inspiring
work in India and all around the world advocating for people in seemingly
hopeless cases but with prayer and a lot of hard work, wonderful things
happen. Why would this be
different? God asked us to go, we
will believe he will make a way.
We will live by faith and not by sight. We’ll give up on it when he tells us to. Actually, since we got our passports back we learned that the last director and his family also got a "visa applied for" stamp in their passports and they did eventually make it to India. We can keep trying for these visas like they did.
With this delay, there have been many blessings. We’ve had time to get Ella some speech
therapy she’s needed (just a little trouble with the ‘s’ sound). With grandparents around we’ve been
having regular date nights. We
have been healthy and well and have been exercising lots. Now that Andrey is back to work pretty close to full-time, my mom has been a big help for me with Ella and that has freed me up to work on some continuing education for my midwifery certification. I'm trying to re-certify after being on inactive status. We have enjoyed many meals with my parents and Ella has gotten much closer to them than she's had opportunity to before.
What’s next?
Andrey goes to Chennai tomorrow for three weeks. Ella and I have decided to take a trip
to Seattle for two weeks while he’s away just for fun. Nice part of home school is that it
travels with us. Once we are back
we’ll pack up our suitcases and move our temporary base to the Washington D. C.
metro area until we get our visas.
So this is where we find ourselves. We have many wonderful people around
the world praying for us and we are so grateful. In the big picture this is no hardship. Waiting can be hard but we know God has much good for us in the midst of uncertainty.
