Pride

Tonight has been a big night. I'm president of the Tulsa chapter of the Accounting and Financial Women's Alliance and we raised almost $3,000 for scholarships for women studying accounting or finance at local universities. (We just are starting our scholarship program and this money is a great way to kick it off!) I'm so proud to be part of this group and making a difference. I can't wait to begin awarding scholarships with the money we've raised!! We just reactivated the Tulsa chapter last year and I feel like we've come so far already. We've had great sponsors and great speakers and I'm looking forward to seeing what else we can do. (Although I will say it's also been a lot of work and I'm ready to pass off the leadership reigns soon!)

The other big news of the night was Davie telling me Eduardo has started reading on his own!!!! I'm so proud of him and I wish I could be there and have him read to me! I hate that I'm missing this milestone. It's funny because I know I missed the first 5 and a half years of his life, but now that I've met him I don't want to miss anymore time! I did find out today though that I'll be able to stay in Nicaragua through New Years, so at least I'll have two weeks with Eduardo then. I'm sure I'll make him read to me a ton while I'm there. :) And now that he's reading, he definitely needs more books! I'm thinking a suitcase full would be a start.... :)

Whiplash

As if this whole thing hasn't been hard enough to follow, now we've got a new development to confuse thing even further. However, this development potentially could be a very good one. But we're trying not to get our hopes up. After everything we've already been through, I hate the idea of getting too excited and having something fall through. Again. :P

The lawyer is going to apply for an exemption to the 5 year ban that doesn't have an available waiver. I don't know why there's an exemption but not a waiver. The whole thing is so confusing. And even if he got the exemption, we would still have to do the waiver for the 10 year ban, so it's not a guaranteed thing if we did get the exemption. There would still be another step. But at least we would be one step closer to being together here, if we did get it!

I wasn't even going to say anything about this possibility. The first time I talked to the lawyer about it, after Davie's second interview with the embassy when we got the bad news, the lawyer said this would be an uphill battle, but one we still had to try. As far as I was concerned, if he's saying this is an uphill battle after what we just tried, there's no way I see this having a positive outcome! However, we were emailing again last week and he said he feels there is a possibility Davie could come home soon, so that makes me feel like we have to see this through and not make too many decisions that can't be undone beforehand, just in case. He says we should know something by the end of the year, so that would still give us enough time to get things done if it doesn't work. 

So now we're back to waiting. I'm going to keep working on cleaning the house and getting it ready to sell, in case this doesn't work. So at least we won't be completely at a stand-still while we are waiting. I'm also going to try to talk to one of OK's senators / congressmen and see if they can do anything. At this point, everything is worth a try!

Davie took Eduardo and Randy to a fair yesterday. It looks like the kids had fun, but Davie said he was too scared to try any of the rides. :) I love how he's like a monkey on top of a roof, but a fair ride gets him nervous. 

It's been really rainy there. Eduardo and Randy have so much fun together!

I'll continue to keep you posted. It's such a hard, frustrating process. And it's such a fine line to walk - trying to be hopeful but realistic at the same time. Thankfully, we were looking forward to plan B, so if this last ditch effort doesn't work, we'll be ok going back to plan B, I think. 

I hope everyone has a great week! I'm in Vegas for training. It's trips like these that make me really miss Davie - I wish he was here to see this with me! Maybe soon. But, if not, definitely one day. :)

I Believe

Man what a roller coaster week it's been. From excitement about the future to nervous/anxious about what's coming to mourning what could have been to daydreaming about what now will be, there's been lots of ups and downs. 

I was on my way back to work after lunch one day when one of my favorite songs came on. It's called I Believe by Blessid Union of Souls and it's a good 15 years old, I would imagine. But I still like it as much as I did when it first came out. (I totally have the CD. :))

It was a perfect song at the time as I was starting to stress out about everything. The refrain goes like this:

Cause I believe that love is the answer.

I believe

Love will find a way. 

And that's what I need to focus on. Our love will find a way to make this work, no matter how scary it might seem at times.

For example, things got exciting this afternoon when I found some potentially good job prospects. It makes me feel better to know I can find something good as I love my job right now and it definitely goes in the "Things I'm Mourning" column. Having something good to take its place will help a lot. And after today I think I can find that. :)

Davie tonight asked how many days until we're together again. I like that he knows I'll know. :) I answered 76! And he said "oh, a lot!" It was cute. But I don't feel like 76 is too many anymore. Because instead of looking at a never ending string of three month separations following one after another, potentially we would only be looking at one more three month set after this. And that's something I can definitely be excited about!!

I'm doing a one hour triathlon tomorrow. It sounds a lot more hard core than I think it actually will be. My only concern is that I have to be there at 7:45! So early for a Saturday! :) I hope everyone has a great weekend! Keep believing. :)

Decision Time

Well, Davie had his second appointment today.  Things didn't go quite how we had hoped, but we're going to make the best of it and move on to plan B.  We went into this marriage knowing that this might happen and that we were prepared to do what we needed to do.  So, we're going to keep moving forward and figure out where we want to go from here.  We're considering our options that would enable us to be together, even if it's not necessarily in the US.

We're actually excited about this adventure.  It will be different and interesting and parts will be hard but parts will be awesome and we'll be together and we can stop living in this limbo land.  And, best of all, we can take control again and start making plans and move forward with our lives.  We're both very excited about that part.

We'll keep you all posted as we start figuring things out and decide how this is going to go.  We appreciate all the support we've gotten from family and friends.  You have all really helped, more than I can say.  This hasn't been easy, and there will still be hard things ahead, but our ultimate goal is to end up in the same place at the same time.  And we'll get there.  I know it.

Here we go again

Three hour layover in Houston before my flight to Managua to see my husband for the first time in 91 days = longest three hours OF MY LIFE! And it's really only been two hours so far. On the plus side, I've walked all over terminal E in the airport and I've gotten lots of steps. :)

Davie went today and got his birth certificate in Managua. With the things I'm taking him, he should have everything he needs for his follow up appointment next Friday. Now to wait until next week and see what they want when he gets there. I'm trying very, very, very, very hard not to let myself dream of miracles, but it's been harder than I would have anticipated. When his last appointment didn't go how I expected, a part of me keeps hoping we'll end up with an end to this situation sooner than we had thought. Seeing how there would be absolutely no legal basis that I'm aware of for things to go differently than we thought they would, I really don't think anything amazing will happen. But there's still hope. Because I just can't help it. :) Hope is better than despair though! There's been enough of that during this process. 

I'll let y'all know how the trip goes! I'll be back in Tulsa Monday night late, but I'll be in the US earlier than that. I'm back on the itinerary that stranded me in Dallas last time, but I learned. I'll have just a carry on coming home, no checked baggage. So at least if I get stuck in Miami or Dallas I'll have all of my things!! :)

I hope everyone has a good holiday weekend!

Island Vacation

Well, we're still waiting to hear what the verdict is from Davie's appointment last Thursday.  While I expected it to be pretty cut and dry, turns out nothing is ever what you expect.  I should have learned that by now with this process!  :)  They asked for more documents - a birth certificate for Davie from Managua, another police record from Ocotal (the town near where Davie is now) and proof that Davie and I are really married, including pictures, letters, copies of my itineraries where I've visited him, copies of the receipts where I've sent him money since he's been there, etc.  I don't really know what they want those things for, since they really don't have any bearing on what the appointment was supposed to be about, but I guess we'll see when Davie goes back.  He's trying to get a second appointment scheduled for September 3rd, right after I leave, since he'll be in Managua anyway.  I should know something today about whether or not he was able to get the second appointment scheduled.  It's all just so weird!

But, I'm very, very excited about my trip in November as Davie and I decided to go to Corn Island for two and a half days during my visit.  I've been wanting to go to Corn Island since last year, when I first read about it in a book.  It sounds amazing!  We'll take a little charter flight from Managua to the island, then spend the next few days snorkeling, playing in the sea and getting sun.  Pretty nice for November!  I can't wait!  I've got our hotel for while we're on the island as well as our hotel for the first and last nights I'm in Managua (we'll be at the Best Western across from the airport again).  It will be a busy, quick trip, but I can't wait! 

I'll keep y'all posted as I find out more about the next appointment!

It's a big day!

Davie will soon be on his way to the embassy in Managua for his appointment!!! He traveled to Managua Tuesday and had the required physical yesterday. Poor guy hates needles and they drew blood and have him three shots since he didn't have immunization records. He was there four hours! But he handled it like a champ and got a clean bill of health. 

We're hoping today's appointment doesn't take too long so he can head back to his moms house afterwards and not have to spend another night in Managua. Even though we know what answer we'll get today, a part of me can't help hoping for something different. How wonderful if would be if Davie could come home with me in two weeks!!!!! But even though that's really not a possibility, it is nice to know we are on the downhill side of this thing. 

I'm working on getting everything together for our next application and I have an appointment with the lawyer at 10 this morning to drop off the first round of support. My hope is that we can send in the application pretty quickly after I get back from Nicaragua September 2nd. Then we just have to wait! 

But hopefully we won't have to wait too long. :)