We never thought we would still be in the states a month after we completed training; and yet tomorrow will find us 4 weeks from completing our training. We have yet to determine a timeline of when we will be able to leave the country and begin our journey.
Plan A was for business visas, but we decided to hold off on this until we could make a more informed business decision.
Plan B for our visas fell through at the end of training because our school did not have the proper credentials to offer educational visas.
We are currently on Plan C: getting education visas through a new school... but our passport handling company has taken over a week to recognize that they have even received our applications. No one is in a hurry to process our information and all we can do is wait.
And so, we find ourselves in one of the strange holding patterns of life...
This is not a new experience for us - and I'm sure many of you are experienced in it as well. It is during these times there is so much temptation to become distracted, depressed, and debilitated by the simultaneous passing and pausing of time.
This is what we are fighting against through the power and grace of God. We desire to be on the field getting oriented to our new culture and getting introduced in-person to our colleagues. But we are doing our best to make the most of this additional stateside time. (We had only expected to have 10 days).
- We have been visiting and speaking every chance we get (both updating our supporters and casting vision to new groups!)
- We are spending some wonderful and meaningful extra time with friends and family.
- We were blessed to have one last week at Megan's childhood beach before leaving the country.
- We have been blessed to have additional time to handle various banking/medical/ordering issues.
- Lorelei decided to get her ears pierced: she's very proud and doing a great job with them!
Even with all these activities, we have not been perfect in our handling of this prolonged time of transition. We ask your prayers for us as we seek to redeem this time - and use it effectively for the Glory of God. Pray for our visas to be processed in God's timing. Whether this delay was in God's perfect timing or not, the fact we have often heard is, "God is in the delays!" Our prayer is that we are able to redeem this time for His Glory.Blessings ~ T