So, as many of you have heard, the first big step of our immigration process has been APPROVED! It’s a huge weight off our shoulders and a really exciting step for Billy and I.

Unfortunately, the weight that was lifted has just been replaced with the next few steps we have to take. There is still a bit more paperwork and of COURSE a lot more money that goes into the process. So it is not over yet, but it is surely getting there.

A lot of you have wondered what this means for us, so I’d love to take this time and explain the general idea of what we are going through.

The step we just completed was essentially a petition for Billy to come to the states. It was us submitting our information, kind of like putting our name on a waiting list. They checked us out, made sure our we are who we say we are and all that. The news we just received basically told us “we checked you out, you’re set to apply for the green card” I guess that news takes close to 8 months to decide…but who’s counting. *sigh*

Now what we need to do is send in all of our information. For Billy, that means police and medical checks. We both need to send in passport information and birth certificates. We need to send in our marriage certificate. I have to send in all of my tax information to show that I can support him moving to the states, even though he’s making more than me. But I am technically responsible for Billy so it’s a matter of making sure we are financially sound and won’t mooch of the government. (there’s a LOT I could say right here that I’m just going to leave alone). Between each step there is a few weeks of waiting. Right now our case is being transferred from USCIS to NVC, and even that takes a few weeks. We have been told it could take anywhere from 6 weeks to 3 months. Even 6 months but I’m just going to pretend I didn’t hear that one. 
That all gets submitted, and then they send us a date for our interview. The interview is the BIG MOMENT. In that very moment the decision is made if he gets approved or not.

it’ll look a lot like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWXst70GO5U

After that- we get to FINALLY BE DONE with all of this. It’ll be the most glorious day in HISTORY. Until then, please keep us in our prayers. This next part of immigration is frustrating because it’s a lot of money and a lot of paperwork that is just time consuming. And we have heard that the place we are sending our information is pretty backed up.

Some things you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers for:

*Clear direction in what we need to do. There’s a lot of information and we aren’t using a lawyer so just pray for protection that we do the right thing!

*Grace for this time apart. It’s not getting any easier :-/. We won’t be able to spend Christmas together on top of it. 

*Favor in the time process for these next steps. That all of this would happen supernaturally quick! 

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If I have your attention, I’d like to take this time and share a story that has been an amazing testimony that God has not forgotten Billy and I. He is aware and involved even though a lot of the time it hasn’t felt like it.  

I have gotten Tammy Baldwin’s office involved in keeping track of our case. I called her early December and she was able to tell me that our case was with an agent- but we would hear from them in 30-45 days. That was putting us into January. And seeing as we thought we were going to hear about our approval early November, this was not good news. It really took the wind out of my sails. I realized I was having a really hard time trusting God to show up and take care of us. I know that He does, and that He is faithful, because I have heard so many stories. But I was really lacking expectation of Him in MY life. With that being said, my mom called my family together, Billy being on Skype, for a family prayer the night of the 17th. She felt strongly convicted that we haven’t really gotten together like this as a family to pray, that we all have been praying separately  The prayer time was really uplifting and I was able to really express my lack of trust. I told God “I don’t know if I can trust you, I don’t want to ask you to intervene because I’m so scared of being let down. But I am choosing to trust you.” I was crying and literally so scared of praying that prayer. I asked Him to just give us a sign that we are not forgotten.

The next day, Billy and I were skyping. He said “you know Ash, I think it’s going to come tomorrow.” I just rolled my eyes and said “oooookay.” Even after the prayer I still had a lot of hesitancy in my heart toward anything too miraculous. The next day…I wake up and check my e-mail. There was an e-mail from USCIS saying that they had approved our 1-130 the day before. I literally have not gotten out of bed that fast since the day of our wedding. It was literally less than 12 hours after we had prayed. We had prayed late at night and I woke up pretty early, so I’m not even sure if anyone was working at the Immigration Office during the time they said it was approved. 

It’s almost storybook perfect how God works. I will definitely use this testimony for my days to come and I thank Him for giving me an encounter with how much I can trust in Him. Call it luck, call it coincidence, but I call it God!

thanks for reading xx

Ash

I have never felt more caught in my entire life. This whole process of immigration is the most rawest thing I have ever experienced. He can’t live here until he gets his green card because it will ruin his chances of actually getting the card if he has no proof of current employment during his interview. I can’t live up there because I need to prove that I can financially support him to bring him over to the states. We literally cannot do anything else than what we are doing. And what that entails is living separately, working crazy amounts of hours in jobs we hate, going to bed alone, waking up and doing it all over again. I’m not sure I can quite explain to anyone how it feels. Knowing that you have no way to be together without taking a major legal risk is not as romantic as the movies portray. We are separated by an invisible line. I constantly live in the fear of what opening the door to all my emotions would do. It’s like when your mom asks you to clean your room, and it’s too much and you don’t to sort it, so you shove it away in the closet. Then when you need something from the closet, you go to slowly open the door, and it all threatens to fall all over you, to completely engulf you in the mess you are trying to forget about. That is exactly what my heart feels like. The moments I am alone and my mind subconsiously wanders to the realization of the situation I am in, I start to slowly open that door, and I can physically feel the weight of everything starting to topple out. I snap back to reality and slam the door and distract myself with Pinterest. I know it can’t be good for me, but can drowning to death in your own thoughts really help either? 

We had brief moments of good news that were quickly taken away from us and turned into awful news. By a miracle I got off a whole week of work from both my jobs for his birthday. I was about to buy my plane tickets up there but then I find out things got messed up with my passport. Strike one. 

Our original plan was for him to be home FOR GOOD come Christmas. He was going to put his two weeks in and we would have Christmas together and never have to be apart again. He would drive down which would be much cheaper than flying. Well, after researching, turns out that’s pretty much a green card death sentence for him to be living with me when his visa is being processed. So now his job will only give him 2 days off. And plane tickets are over $1,000. So Christmas is not happening for the McGrails this year. Strike 5,000,000. That feeling in my chest won’t go away for quite awhile.

 We just really need good news. The thing that drives me most nuts is we cannot do anything without messing up our immigration. 

i just. want. my. husband. 

“Your priority is not to keep everyone else in your life happy by doing all the things they expect; it is to live a life that is pleasing to God and one that you can enjoy.

Too many people are not living their dreams because they are living their fears. In other words, instead of doing things out of their heart, they do them because they are afraid of what will happen if they don’t.” 

Today is the big day!

I am officially starting my gluten-free lifestyle. I have thought about it for awhile and feel fairly confident in my research of why this is a smart decision for me. At around 16 I was diagnosed with IBS, which is a chronic abdominal disease. I had constant stomach pain, heartburn, fatigue, and appetite changes. I missed a lot of school and activities because of the pain. I even got sick during my first homecoming! Through a long process of tests, they weren’t exactly sure what it was, usually IBS is most known for changes in bowels, which I didn’t have, but I came closest to the symptoms of IBS. 

My doctor prescribed me a series of medicines, all which I stopped taking. I am one of those people who hates taking medicine, I believe my body was designed to take care of itself and I just need to put the right stuff in it to make it run at it’s best! On all the medicines I felt like I was on medicine, and I didn’t like that. It helped my stomach in ways, but the pain was never completely gone. Now my symptoms have been changing over the past year or so, and my doctor again prescribed me medication. I realize that I can’t go on ignoring what is happening in my body, so I decided to do a bit of research. It turns out I have a great number of symptoms that are associated with Celiacs disease, or an intolerance to wheat and gluten. I found out that it does run in my family, and this got me even more curious. So over the past few months, I have researched and talked to people and decided to take this last effort. If it doesn’t help, I will have to go back on medicine, so this is my last attempt to save myself from needing to take it! 

I am not ‘diagnosing’ myself with Celiacs disease, I just find what I’ve read very intriguing and am deciding to make this switch for my health. 

Today is my first day of a gluten free grocery list. Here is one I found online that will act as my guide when we go out today. 

http://www.freeprintablegrocerylist.com/preview/Gluten_Free_Celiac_Grocery_List

Another website I found was Tenley Molzhan’s Blog- she’s from the Bachelor and lives a totally gluten-free lifestyle. She has a thousand awesome recipes and tips to motivate and encourage me! 

http://www.tenleymolzahn.com/category/gluten-free-me/

Wish me luck!! xx

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