We are now spending the night at Cindy’s mom’s house. Our days are get up early, work all day getting ready to leave, fall into bed between 10:00 – 11:00 pm and get up the next day and start again. The work load is not bad. It’s the stress of the deadline of January 7th looming in front of us that makes it hard. January 7th is a hard deadline. No changing that one if we don’t get everything done.
This morning we drove to Gentryville, IN for one of Brad’s friend’s wedding. It was nice to take a little break from the getting ready to go mode and just spend time with each other in the car.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
January 4, 2008
This day was spent running errands. Many, many, many errands. We were giving the jeep away to a friend of a friends and it was suppose to occur today. But, with the slow pace of errand running and still trying to get all those remaining “little” items out of the apartment we decided to push it off until Saturday sometime. Somehow we generated another 25 bags or so of trash. How can this be?
Cindy said “If someone asked me if we had much stuff I would have told them no. All I want is Brad, me and one bag each of clothes. How did we get so much stuff?” Cindy told our pastor “You should preach on excess this week and use us as an example.”
Cindy spent a good part of the day at The Women’s Hospital saying goodbye to her friends. She has been working there since they opened and considers them more like family than co-workers. It was both a good day and a sad day as you can imagine.
Cindy said “If someone asked me if we had much stuff I would have told them no. All I want is Brad, me and one bag each of clothes. How did we get so much stuff?” Cindy told our pastor “You should preach on excess this week and use us as an example.”
Cindy spent a good part of the day at The Women’s Hospital saying goodbye to her friends. She has been working there since they opened and considers them more like family than co-workers. It was both a good day and a sad day as you can imagine.
January 3, 2008
MOVING DAY. Today was moving day. Between 8:00 – 8:30 am we had 10 people show up with three pickup trucks, two trailers, and one large box truck eager to help. We had to take stuff to our daughter’s apartment, our storage facility, and the bulk of it we were giving away. With the military we have moved many times and usually moving day was an all day event. By 10:30 am everything was gone. Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! We were overwhelmed. We spent the rest of the day trying to sort out what to do with the stuff that remained in the apartment and transferring the title of our son’s car from our name to his. We tried to explain to him that his net worth had just increased by a couple of thousand dollars with this transfer but he didn’t seem too impressed.
January 1-2, 2008
We already covered our trip to Chicago for the failed effort at getting our visa paperwork.
December 27-31, 2007
We started packing today. This means we begin the process of sorting through everything we have to decide should we take it with us, save it for the kids, give it away, or throw it away. This is not an easy process or a fast process. We thought clothing would be an easy decision but we emailed some of our team members in Honduras about what clothing we should bring. They told us one of our team members wears sweaters frequently. What? Sweaters! Now what type of clothing do we take? Short-sleeve only or take some long-sleeve shirts? We decided to take a few long-sleeve shirts just in case.
Our trash pick up is on Friday. By Thursday afternoon we had ~25 bags of trash by the curb ready for pickup. We called our trash company to ask if we could pay an extra fee so they would pick up all the trash. They assured us it was unlimited picked. We tried to explain how much we had and we would be happy to pay some extra. They told us we didn’t need to pay extra and they would alert the guys picking up our trash. We tried not to be around when they picked up the trash because we doubted they were saying anything nice about us.
Our trash pick up is on Friday. By Thursday afternoon we had ~25 bags of trash by the curb ready for pickup. We called our trash company to ask if we could pay an extra fee so they would pick up all the trash. They assured us it was unlimited picked. We tried to explain how much we had and we would be happy to pay some extra. They told us we didn’t need to pay extra and they would alert the guys picking up our trash. We tried not to be around when they picked up the trash because we doubted they were saying anything nice about us.
December 22-26, 2007
We decided not to try and move out of the apartment on December 29th because it would have required us to spend the entire holiday period packing. We spent the holidays with family relaxing as much as we could and enjoying being around our families.
December 21, 2007 & January 1-2, 2008
Brad has been trying to reach the Honduran Consulate in Chicago for two weeks but he can’t get anyone to answer the phone. He even sent an email to anybody he thought might have a different phone number for them. Nobody had a different number. He decided to call them today just so he could say he has called every work day for two weeks – even though it’s the Friday before the holidays. Amazingly they answered the phone. We have to go there to apply for a resident visa but we’ve been told if you don’t have an appointment they may not be there. They told Brad we would have to come in January because we were moving in January. They told us to come on January 2nd. He double checked with them to make sure they would be open on January 2nd and we could get this done on that day. We also had to stop by the Secretary of State’s office in Indy so they could verify the people who notarized all of our documents were official notaries. (i.e. they had to verify the notary was really a notary - that was a new one for us. Apparently this is a common occurrence because the each state’s Secretary of State has a person specifically designated to perform this function)
So New Years day we drive to Indy and spend the night so we can be at the Secretary of States office when they open Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning we show up when they open and within ten minutes they have all of our documents authenticated and are on the road to Chicago. Are biggest concern now is that the Honduran Consulate will be closed. We drive through Chicago, pay large quantities of money of drive on their toll roads, and finally arrive at the Honduran Consulate. Much to our surprise it’s open.
We go inside and wait our turn. They call us up to the window. We explain what we are trying to do the gentleman behind the window says “You can’t do this today. It is not a one day process. The lawyer is not here today. Maybe we could do it tomorrow." Maybe Tomorrow?????? Brad tries to explain that we just drove six hours to get here based on what they had told us two ago. They could have cared less. He did offer to let us fill out an application. We filled out the application and then he brought out a list of all the documents we needed to apply for the visa. As he listed each document we were able to show him we had it (or at least something close to it that we did our best to convince him it was the document he was asking about). The then made a phone call. Came back and told us they could FedEx our documents to us. It would cost $240 each plus $20 more to cover the cost of the shipping. So, we gave him all of our original documents and $520 in cash. He proceeded to take all the documents, our application, and our $520 in cash and staple them all together. Then we left with the man’s word that they might be able to get it shipped out this week.
Yep, that’s right we left. What else were we going to do? As we were driving away for the SIX hour drive home we agreed we both felt pretty good about the status of our resident visas. We were leaving without any of our documents we had worked so hard to collect. We were out $520 cash. And we had no visas. We had no receipt or paperwork to even prove we had been there. Seemed like a pretty successful trip to us. We called the head of General Baptists International missions to tell him what had just happened and his response was “Welcome to missions.”
Since our return from Chicago we have spoken with two of the other families we will be working with in Honduras and neither of them had to see a “lawyer” or leave their original documents. Go figure!
So New Years day we drive to Indy and spend the night so we can be at the Secretary of States office when they open Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning we show up when they open and within ten minutes they have all of our documents authenticated and are on the road to Chicago. Are biggest concern now is that the Honduran Consulate will be closed. We drive through Chicago, pay large quantities of money of drive on their toll roads, and finally arrive at the Honduran Consulate. Much to our surprise it’s open.
We go inside and wait our turn. They call us up to the window. We explain what we are trying to do the gentleman behind the window says “You can’t do this today. It is not a one day process. The lawyer is not here today. Maybe we could do it tomorrow." Maybe Tomorrow?????? Brad tries to explain that we just drove six hours to get here based on what they had told us two ago. They could have cared less. He did offer to let us fill out an application. We filled out the application and then he brought out a list of all the documents we needed to apply for the visa. As he listed each document we were able to show him we had it (or at least something close to it that we did our best to convince him it was the document he was asking about). The then made a phone call. Came back and told us they could FedEx our documents to us. It would cost $240 each plus $20 more to cover the cost of the shipping. So, we gave him all of our original documents and $520 in cash. He proceeded to take all the documents, our application, and our $520 in cash and staple them all together. Then we left with the man’s word that they might be able to get it shipped out this week.
Yep, that’s right we left. What else were we going to do? As we were driving away for the SIX hour drive home we agreed we both felt pretty good about the status of our resident visas. We were leaving without any of our documents we had worked so hard to collect. We were out $520 cash. And we had no visas. We had no receipt or paperwork to even prove we had been there. Seemed like a pretty successful trip to us. We called the head of General Baptists International missions to tell him what had just happened and his response was “Welcome to missions.”
Since our return from Chicago we have spoken with two of the other families we will be working with in Honduras and neither of them had to see a “lawyer” or leave their original documents. Go figure!
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