How to Eat an Elephant

How do you eat an elephant? Well, first off, don't refer to it as an elephant--no one in their right mind would eat cute, "little" Dumbo anyway. Just pretend it's chicken, add in some seasoning, and start with the first bite. At some point you'll finish, right?

Likewise, how do you survive an unwanted and unavoidable separation from the person who owns half of your heart? Trust me--this is harder to digest than 20 elephants! This elephant-sized ordeal is what my husband Paco, and I have been "chewing on" for over a year now (roughly 9 months--and counting--longer than we naively anticipated). The difference is that our "bites" have been days, and I'd wager that a well seasoned elephant leaves a better taste in your mouth than a year without your sweetheart.

I can't tell you how many times I've prayed to the Lord, "Please, just help me get through another day!" I knew that if I could make it through one more day, I'd be another day closer to finally being in my husband's arms (which certainly couldn't be more than a few months away, right?).

But a few months turned into more than a year now. I know--it sucks...rocks! Big ones. Big! Muddy! Stupid! Rocks! And yet, I'd do it all over again, because this is the path we needed to take to get Paco and the girls here (THANKFULLY we won't have to do it again) and, well, I can't live without him.

So how have I survived the past year? The truth is that sometimes it feels like I haven't. There have been a LOT of tears, and a LOT of frustrations. Why should newlyweds be forced to spend this year apart? (By the way, we totally claim rights to do-overs on the whole "newlywed year" thing--just sayin'.) Thankfully (unlike 29 years ago when we first dated and then lost touch when I returned to the US), we have modern technology to keep us connected. We communicate every day, several times a day, via the Internet through email, Facebook, instant messaging, webcam, etc. We also talk on the phone almost every evening thanks to 2-cents-a minute international calling cards. True, all of these things aren't the same as "being there," but hey, it's all we have, so we take advantage of it to the fullest.

But even technology has its flaws. Last December my trusty Dell computer crashed. Thankfully I was able to use my kids' laptops. (Guess what Mom got for Christmas? Thanks for my new computer, Preston and Amber!) Then there are the times the Internet has been out, or the phone lines have been down, yada, yada, yada... (refer to previous paragraph about "frustrations").

Technological glitches, I can deal with. Bureaucratic glitches--not so much! This, by far, has been the greatest frustration of our year apart (SEE PREVIOUS POST). The good news, however, is that just this past week we found out from the National Visa Center that our file was deemed complete! Now all we have left are our interviews. The NVC will be scheduling October's interviews the second week of September. We WILL be amongst those interviews (no negative thoughts allowed). And when Paco walks out of his interview, he will have his and the girls' visas in hand. Within a few weeks they will be on an airplane headed for Houston,

And the rest will be history--OUR history! I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Stay tuned--there's more to come.