For the past few weeks, we have been expecting our NOA2 (Notification of Action 2) for our visa to show up. I had signed up for an e-mail alert to let me know when the decision would happen. Now there was a chance we could have received a RFE (Request For more Evidence) so we kept wondering when we would hear and if we heard what the outcome would be.
Oh, and don't mind the lingo, I have become well versed in my research on visa's to know all the short forms imaginable.
Anyway, today was my day off and I was really tired from the weekend. Jim came down for a visit and whenever we are together we seem to subconciously know we only have a limited amount of time. We always have a lot to do and so we tend to let sleep be the thing that slides in our time together. So today I was really tired. So I slept in a little, and spent some time recharging.
After dinner, I got ready to head to the gym. As I was working out I was thinking that it would be really cool if I had an email waiting for me. But I quickly laughed off that idea since it was almost 7:15 at night and surely they would send out information during the day, not at night. Well, I got in my car and checked my phone and sure enough there it was. Sent at 7:05 a notice saying we had been approved. We received our NOA2. On the way home, I was so excited. I also realized on the way home that this notice is coming from California which is 3 hours behind us so it still was during the day there.
As soon as I got home I let my mom know and dialed the phone as fast as I could to call Jim. I called and the machine picked up! I thought for sure he was just taking a nap, so I called again. Nothing. I called a few more times and finally left a message that it was very important he call me. After waiting a bit I called again and finally he answered. I thought for sure he was sleeping the whole time, but he wasn't. He was out running errands. I had thought of attempting his cell phone but he is not like me. He never has his cell phone on or with him.
When he answered he had already figured out what had happened, since there were like 6 hang up's from me! LOL We were both really really excited! And we both remembered that today is our 9 month anniversary of dating officially. What a great gift the US government has given us!
So what happens now? The petition gets moved to a National Visa Processing Center, where it will stay for a minimum of 1 week (sometimes it could take up to 4). Then it gets sent to the local consulate handling our case which is Montreal. After Montreal recieves it, they send me a packet of information that I have to fill out and return to them. This packet has a checklist of things I will bring to the interview, as well as a bunch of other information on me. I also need to pose for a few more passport photos.
After Packet 3 comes and I send it back they will send out packet 4 which will allow me to book an interview and a medical. This whole portion of the process from NOA2 to the interview takes 3-5 months. So with the wedding 8 months away we should be good with our timeline. :)
What a great day! :)
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Living My Life....
Wow! I guess I haven't been very good at updating the blog! I haven't written since the 15th! That is so unlike me. Part of the reason I haven't wirtten is I have been pretty busy with stuff at work. I am in the middle of Confirmation preparation as well as organizing a small faith sharing group for members of my parish (among other things!). Between work, going to the gym, spending time with family and talking to Jim nightly my life is pretty full.
This weekend Jim will be coming to visit. I am really excited for him to come down. It is always nice when I can count the time between visits in days and not months. Once we get past the 4 week mark of being apart, it always gets harder. This time it will be 22 days between visits. We are trying not to do too many wedding things and just have a nice relaxing weekend with each other. The only real wedding thing on the agenda is to decide on invitations. (Of course knowing me I will try to throw in a few more wedding related things!) A friend of mine from church will be doing them for us, so we want to decide on a design and wording so we can get the ball rolling on them. Other than that, our weekend will consist of visiting family and friends and just spending some quality time alone.
In mid February, I will be making my second visit to Minnesota. This will also be the last visit there until I move there for good. That weekend will also only consist of a little wedding planning. We plan on getting our wedding rings. :) It will be really nice to feel acclimated a bit more to Minnesota since I have only been there once, and that was way back in July. Jim and I usually meet here in Canada or in Chicago so it will be nice to spend some time in the state we will be living for once.
Other than that, life has been a whole lot more of the same. We are still waiting to hear something regarding the visa. We are thinking it will be closer to the time I go visit Jim that we may finally hear something. I am trying not to focus on that, as I can't change how fast or slow the government moves. I will just drive myself crazy if I try to focus on it. I would appreciate however some prayers or good wishes that everything goes smoothly with the visa and that our wedding can proceed with its current timeline.
I also wanted to thank you all for continuing to support us by your good wishes and prayers and most of all by taking an interest in the blog and following our story. You all mean so much to us! Thank you!
This weekend Jim will be coming to visit. I am really excited for him to come down. It is always nice when I can count the time between visits in days and not months. Once we get past the 4 week mark of being apart, it always gets harder. This time it will be 22 days between visits. We are trying not to do too many wedding things and just have a nice relaxing weekend with each other. The only real wedding thing on the agenda is to decide on invitations. (Of course knowing me I will try to throw in a few more wedding related things!) A friend of mine from church will be doing them for us, so we want to decide on a design and wording so we can get the ball rolling on them. Other than that, our weekend will consist of visiting family and friends and just spending some quality time alone.
In mid February, I will be making my second visit to Minnesota. This will also be the last visit there until I move there for good. That weekend will also only consist of a little wedding planning. We plan on getting our wedding rings. :) It will be really nice to feel acclimated a bit more to Minnesota since I have only been there once, and that was way back in July. Jim and I usually meet here in Canada or in Chicago so it will be nice to spend some time in the state we will be living for once.
Other than that, life has been a whole lot more of the same. We are still waiting to hear something regarding the visa. We are thinking it will be closer to the time I go visit Jim that we may finally hear something. I am trying not to focus on that, as I can't change how fast or slow the government moves. I will just drive myself crazy if I try to focus on it. I would appreciate however some prayers or good wishes that everything goes smoothly with the visa and that our wedding can proceed with its current timeline.
I also wanted to thank you all for continuing to support us by your good wishes and prayers and most of all by taking an interest in the blog and following our story. You all mean so much to us! Thank you!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Love Lifted Me....
Today, I was reflecting on how I have changed since I met Jim. In knowing him and falling in love with him I know that I am a different person. I can't think of a way that I changed that has not been for the better. For instance, since I met Jim, I have softened considerably. I used to refer to myself as a robot, and no one was ever going to get emotions out of me. Jim has changed all that. I have gone from a robot to someone who is not afraid to share their feelings. I think I have become a better friend, a better Pastoral Minister and an all around better person because of him.
There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for him and all that he has done for me. He has helped me grow closer to God, he has helped me to know what real self-sacrificing love is all about and he has become my best friend. I don't know where I would be without him. Also, he makes me laugh so much everyday! I have never laughed harder with anyone!
As our wedding approaches we are both just so anxious to be together. Every night Jim says something along the lines of "I am sick of talking about our future. I just want to start living our future." (NOW...who would have thought those words would have come out of his mouth a year ago! ;) ) As we reflected on our time together at Disney, we know what a great team we make and much we are ready to start this amazing journey.
Now are we perfect people? No. My nephews will tell you I am "messy" and Jim's family may say the same about him. But we can no doubt overlook our imperfections to start an amazing new phase in our relationship as husband and wife. Well, maybe not all our imperfections. We have to do something about all the X-box playing.... ;)
There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for him and all that he has done for me. He has helped me grow closer to God, he has helped me to know what real self-sacrificing love is all about and he has become my best friend. I don't know where I would be without him. Also, he makes me laugh so much everyday! I have never laughed harder with anyone!
As our wedding approaches we are both just so anxious to be together. Every night Jim says something along the lines of "I am sick of talking about our future. I just want to start living our future." (NOW...who would have thought those words would have come out of his mouth a year ago! ;) ) As we reflected on our time together at Disney, we know what a great team we make and much we are ready to start this amazing journey.
Now are we perfect people? No. My nephews will tell you I am "messy" and Jim's family may say the same about him. But we can no doubt overlook our imperfections to start an amazing new phase in our relationship as husband and wife. Well, maybe not all our imperfections. We have to do something about all the X-box playing.... ;)
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Good Life
For the past couple months I have been searching and searching for the perfect bridesmaid dresses. I am pretty sure my sister (who is my matron of honour) must have tried upwards of 50 dresses on. I wanted to make sure all the girls were happy with the dress and I wanted it to be one that fit with the overall wedding as a whole. Some people have the girls wear mismatched dresses and while I like that idea, I am a traditional kind of girl and I wanted to have all the girls wearing the same dress. Well, I am happy to say that we have found a dress! Now I can move onto something else like centerpieces or transportation.
Also, I just wanted to give you all an update on our visa situation. Back when we applied for the visa WAY back in September we expected not to hear anything for 4-5 months. Well, the service center our visa went to has slowed down considerably. On average it is more like 5-6 months for most people. We know this because of an amazing website called visajourney.com. They have people sign in and list their timelines and as people get approved they keep track. They are just now approving people from August. Tomorrow will be 4 months since the service center got our application. So we are expecting another month or 2 before we hear anything. After we do, our application gets sent to the National Visa Processing Center for transport to our "local" consulate Montreal. Once it gets to Montreal they send me a package of information that I have to send back and then they send me another package to arrange my medical in Toronto and my interview in Montreal. All of this should take 3-4 months. So, we are still hopeful that our timeline will work out well and there will be no glitches. Don't worry, everyone who reads this blog will know the same day we get our notification, I promise! :)
The only other news I have is that I joined a gym. I have been meaning to do it for awhile, but haven't had a chance. A local gym has a shape-up special for 3 months and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get in a little better shape for the wedding and use it as my de-stress time as I am sure to have lots more stress in the coming months. My hope is that when the membership runs out it will be nice enough outside to continue working out in the great outdoors (or, at the very least on the crappy treadmill in my apartment building.) I will keep you updated on any progress I make. All in all, it has been a good start to 2012. I am so excited for this year and all it will bring! :)
Also, I just wanted to give you all an update on our visa situation. Back when we applied for the visa WAY back in September we expected not to hear anything for 4-5 months. Well, the service center our visa went to has slowed down considerably. On average it is more like 5-6 months for most people. We know this because of an amazing website called visajourney.com. They have people sign in and list their timelines and as people get approved they keep track. They are just now approving people from August. Tomorrow will be 4 months since the service center got our application. So we are expecting another month or 2 before we hear anything. After we do, our application gets sent to the National Visa Processing Center for transport to our "local" consulate Montreal. Once it gets to Montreal they send me a package of information that I have to send back and then they send me another package to arrange my medical in Toronto and my interview in Montreal. All of this should take 3-4 months. So, we are still hopeful that our timeline will work out well and there will be no glitches. Don't worry, everyone who reads this blog will know the same day we get our notification, I promise! :)
The only other news I have is that I joined a gym. I have been meaning to do it for awhile, but haven't had a chance. A local gym has a shape-up special for 3 months and I thought it was a perfect opportunity to get in a little better shape for the wedding and use it as my de-stress time as I am sure to have lots more stress in the coming months. My hope is that when the membership runs out it will be nice enough outside to continue working out in the great outdoors (or, at the very least on the crappy treadmill in my apartment building.) I will keep you updated on any progress I make. All in all, it has been a good start to 2012. I am so excited for this year and all it will bring! :)
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Do You Believe in Magic....
Yesterday, I got back from the most Magical of all vacations! My whole family (including Jim) went to Disneyworld! There is so much to tell you that I don't even know where to start. This vacation was a gift from my mom. You see, she and my dad had always wanted to take my sister and I to Disneyworld when we were little, but we never quite got there. When my mom sold her house, she made the decision to take some of that money and take us to Disneyworld. Even if our dad couldn't be there (since he passed away), it would be a vacation to remember.
We managed to keep the fact that we were going to Disney a secret from my nephews. My mom had to let us in on it, so we could arrange time off etc. but we worked really hard to keep it from my nephews. On Boxing Day we had our family Christmas celebrations. My mom had a whole system to let them know we were going to Disney. She put all of our names in seperate gift boxes and then one gift then eventually had the boys open boxes that said "On December 28th grandma wants you to join her at" and then they had to open boxes with Mickey ears in them. Their reaction was priceless.
This was a special vacation for many reasons but one of those reasons is that it was my mom's first plane ride ever. She was understandably nervous but the ride was fairly smooth and she did ok. Here is a pic of her and the boys on the plane ready to go on vacation.
My nephews absolutely adore Jim. In fact I was a little annoyed that when I went to go sit next to my nephews they would say "Nope, this is reserved for Jim." But it was so great how much they all liked each other. Jim could only stay for 5 of the 7 days we were there. He can't afford that many days vacation this year with all the extra days he will be taking for our wedding and activities related to our wedding (and his brothers wedding which is also this year.) So before he left we snapped a photo of my nephews and Jim and I. Here it is:
After Jim left, a cold spell hit Orlando. The previous 5 days were wonderful but the last two days were there were downright freezing. I only brought one hoodie because I didn't think it would be that cold (everyone else in the family was more prepared than I and all brought two). So I had to go and buy another sweatshirt. They were all really expensive. The one I liked only came in really big sizes but I bought it anyway. Here is a pic of me freezing:
We managed to keep the fact that we were going to Disney a secret from my nephews. My mom had to let us in on it, so we could arrange time off etc. but we worked really hard to keep it from my nephews. On Boxing Day we had our family Christmas celebrations. My mom had a whole system to let them know we were going to Disney. She put all of our names in seperate gift boxes and then one gift then eventually had the boys open boxes that said "On December 28th grandma wants you to join her at" and then they had to open boxes with Mickey ears in them. Their reaction was priceless.
This was a special vacation for many reasons but one of those reasons is that it was my mom's first plane ride ever. She was understandably nervous but the ride was fairly smooth and she did ok. Here is a pic of her and the boys on the plane ready to go on vacation.
We arranged it so Jim flew in from his parents house near Chicago and his plane arrived minutes after ours. We met him at his gate. It was so great to see him again! It had been a month or so. I was looking forward to 5 consecutive days with Jim! It was a great opportunity for him to get closer to my family. We would definitely be spending a lot of time together in the upcoming week.
I can clearly only give you the highlights of the trip but here are a few:
One of the things we did was take a side trip to SeaWorld so my youngest nephew could touch a real life penguin. As you can see in the picture above, he loves penguins. It has been his 9 year old life long dream to touch a real life penguin. So a few days into our trip he managed to do just that. Here is a pic:
Another highlight was spending New Year's Eve with Jim. Last New Year's Eve we were on a break and not even talking so this was special for us to be able to spend this one together. Here is a pic from our night spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios:
And me (with Jim) wearing the Princess Tiara that my mom bought me:
Jim and I didn't get to spend Christmas together so we had to exchange the gifts we got each other in Florida. One of the things I got Jim was a shirt that says "Property of a Canadian Girl". While we were at Disney he made me a shirt that had a similar message and gave it to me. We also picked up some headgear while we were there.
My nephews absolutely adore Jim. In fact I was a little annoyed that when I went to go sit next to my nephews they would say "Nope, this is reserved for Jim." But it was so great how much they all liked each other. Jim could only stay for 5 of the 7 days we were there. He can't afford that many days vacation this year with all the extra days he will be taking for our wedding and activities related to our wedding (and his brothers wedding which is also this year.) So before he left we snapped a photo of my nephews and Jim and I. Here it is:
After Jim left, a cold spell hit Orlando. The previous 5 days were wonderful but the last two days were there were downright freezing. I only brought one hoodie because I didn't think it would be that cold (everyone else in the family was more prepared than I and all brought two). So I had to go and buy another sweatshirt. They were all really expensive. The one I liked only came in really big sizes but I bought it anyway. Here is a pic of me freezing:
We had a great vacation! I was so happy to be able to spend so much quality time with my family (and Jim)! I think we were all tired and ready to get back home but we will have many magical memories from our time in Florida. The seven of us (my sister and her hubby, nephews, mom, Jim and I) will always have these memories! Thanks mom!
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