A (hopefully small) Change in Plans

Sometimes when G gets all worked up we tell him to close his eyes, take a deep breath, and say "Life is a cookie."  Though he probably has no idea what "life" really is, he definitely knows about cookies. And cookies make him happy.  We have no parenting strategy in doing this. It's just funny for us to watch, and saying it makes G giggle.

So last night, after a difficult, whirlwind trip to D.C., I found myself in the shower, closing my eyes, taking a deep breath, and saying "Life is a cookie." Guess what? It worked. I even giggled.

Nothing went as planned for us this week.  I could innumerate the details, but the bottom line is that we are back to waiting.  All of our paperwork is in the hands of the Spanish Embassy. It will go back to Spain for another round of approval and then the visa will be granted. For various reasons, we thought this would take from 1-7 days. The difficult news we got this week is that they expect it to take from 1-3 months. 

I'll be honest, I've felt like throwing things. But then, Jono reminded me, I'd just have to clean up after myself.  Instead I've asked God to give me His peace and prayed for a thankful attitude.  So here are some things we're grateful for:

1. Very helpful people at the Spanish Embassy. They answered our endless questions, gave us their cell phone numbers and email addresses, and walked us step by step through what we needed to do. They gave good advice and did everything they could do to assist us. Believe me, this is not always the case when working with any government system.
2. We thought we would be homeless in North Carolina as of July 24th. But we were offered somewhere to stay, right next to where we currently live. So now we need to decide if we want to stay in NC while we wait or go ahead and move down to Georgia.  
3. God is able! We continue to pray for the visas to be put in our passports in a miraculously short period of time. A one-month delay really isn't a big deal. Three months puts our move really close to my due date, especially considering how early Sims arrived. 
4. YOU! Thanks for all the prayers (and sympathy). We know that in the big scheme of things that this is not a huge deal. We are all alive, healthy, and in the hands of our good God. But it means so much just to hear people say "I'm sorry. Please tell me if there's anything we can do."  
5. Our awesome kids. We dragged them around and into chaos for four intense days. They had good attitudes and brought us a lot of joy when everything else felt disappointing. 

Please pray with us that we'd have the visas in hand within a short period of time.  And pray for wisdom as we make decisions about what to do in the upcoming days (regarding housing, etc.).  We have to be out of our current home by July 24th.  Pray that God would give us clarity and grace for whatever is up ahead.

In the meantime, we'll be sure to eat lots of chocolate, which makes everyone happy!