Monthly Archives: November 2011

Tuesday we headed to Santo Domingo for Leo to pick up his medical results needed for his residency-visa interview on Wednesday.  We left Jarabacoa at 7am… 8:20 we were zipping down the highway when we heard a strange sound & Leo pulled over.  We had blown a tire… BIG TIME!!!  It had 5-8 slashes through it… we couldn’t believe the jeep didn’t go out over control… or even shake at all!!!  We saw His hand taking care of us & keeping us safe.  Our jack didn’t work, but don’t worry, a nice man from a motorcycle tire place on the other side of the road came to help us & took off on his motorcycle to borrow a jack from someone he knew & helped Leo change the tire.  Leo personally had to report to pick up the medical results before noon, even with the flat tire delay & then horrible traffic in Santo Domingo we arrived at the pickup window around 11am & all was good.

Our interview appointment was at 6:45am, so we stayed at a hotel near the consulate in order to be able to walk over Wednesday morning.  The majority of the morning was spent waiting.  We waited about 45 minutes in line outside of the consulate & then lost all concept of time as we couldn’t have cell phones inside & there were no clocks anywhere inside.  We were called to a window where they asked us a couple questions, took Leo’s passport & Dominican ID & some of the other documents we had to get within a week of the appointment.  Sat & waited some more & were called to a different window where Leo had his fingerprints scanned.  We then sat & waited some more & were finally called to the window where our interview took place.  We had with us all sorts of proof of the authenticity of our relationship (pictures thoughout our relationship, wedding pictures, rent contract, bank info, etc.) but we simply had to raise our right hands, swear to tell the truth & answer some questions… maybe a whole 5 minutes later the interview was over & the visa was approved!!!

We have been waiting for this to be a reality for quite awhile, but know that His time is best.  We are thankful to all who have helped in this process, all who have joined us in prayer & above all to our Heavenly Father who is Faithful & does all things well, whether it’s what we hope & expect or something else.  Once arriving back to Jarabacoa we purchased tickets & will be arriving to Iowa on December 10th!  Hope to see many of you soon!!!

Oh yeah, not to mention we’re thankful for the last 7 years…. 7 years ago yesterday Elizabeth moved from the US to the DR & 7 years ago today she arrived in the DR… we had no idea all that God had in store for us!!!  Thank you Abba for all that you have done in the last 7 years!!!!!  You are so good!!!!!!

The day is finally drawing near… after beginning the process of Elizabeth requesting Leo’s visa/residency as her spouse in December 2010 & countless hours of filling out all the different paperwork for all the different hoops we’ve had to jump through for the US Government, we finally have our appointment date!  Next Wednesday, November 16, at 6:45 am (Atlantic time) we will be in the US Consulate here in the DR for our appointment.

Please pray!:

1- That our trip to Santo Domingo would go smoothly.

2- The process of acquiring last documents (that we have to get the day before the appointment & no sooner) would go smoothly.

3- That God’s peace would reign over our nerves.

4- That we would have grace in the eyes of the consulate worker who will review our case.

5- If this is God’s timing, that nothing would hinder Leo receiving the visa on Wednesday.

6- That there would be tickets available for us to purchase as soon as Leo is granted the visa & that His hand would be in & over our travel plans (Lord willing we will be in the midwest in December-January, we will share more details once we know).