I left home eleven days ago, and I have another fourteen to go. I'm taking bets on whether or not I'll make it another two weeks without a nervous breakdown. Anyone willing to put money on it?
I had a fine trip from Nigeria back to the States, including a layover in London. I got to stay with my friend Vikki, a med student who spent a few weeks in Nigeria in 2005 and knows my husband David a bit. I got to see a lot of London in the dark. :)
I spent 2 days in San Diego with my grandparents, and then I came here to Virginia to stay with my sister Lisa and her family (husband Steve and two kids, Naomi - 4-1/2 - and Josiah - 3). They live about three hours south of DC, so I decided to go in to the Nigerian embassy in person to deal with my passport situation.
I was going through my documents Monday when I realised I didn't have David's passport with me. Oh crud. When he gave it to me before I left, I was terrified of losing it. He looked at me and said, "It's okay. I'm giving it to you. You have my permission to lose it." If only he'd known! Grampa & I went to photocopy his passport in San Diego last Friday, and I left it in the photocopier!! An emergency call to Grampa alerted him to the situation. He called the shop and called me back with the news that they had the passport in their vault, so he would send it immediately. Phew. Thank God for honest people!
Fortunately, I had all the copies I needed, so Lisa & I decided on Monday to drive into DC that afternoon and spend the night with her friend Uta, then go to the embassy in the morning. So we packed some clothes & blankets, jumped into the car, and headed to DC. When we arrived, Uta helped us a find a parking spot where we could leave the car overnight.
...Or so we thought. When we got up the next morning and went out to where we'd parked the car, it was gone! We looked at the parking sign and discovered we'd misread it - all three of us had misread the sign! So instead of going to work, Uta helped Lisa get the car back (it turned out it had only been towed to a quieter street a few blocks away). And I walked about 2 miles to the Nigerian embassy. (It took me an extra twenty minutes to find because there was no street sign at the correct intersection!) And once I got there, they told me I'd forgotten to make some necessary copies. Oops! I begged and pleaded, and they finally made the copies for me. Phew!!
Lisa & Uta pulled up just as I was coming out of the embassy, so we dropped Uta off at work, spent an hour or two on a driving tour of the monuments, and headed home, with a quick stop at Borders for coffee.
And then I had to decide when to try and return to Nigeria. I could assume I'd receive my visa when promised, and leave before Christmas, or I could play it safe and purchase a ticket for after Christmas. This became a family decision because I'm super indecisive. And I cried and fasted and prayed. What a nightmare.
But we finally decided to get the ticket for December 29th, getting me home on Saturday, the 30th. So I'll miss my first Christmas as a married woman.
To add to the mayhem, Lisa is about 37 weeks pregnant and will be delivering probably while I'm still here. We've started putting together freezer meals for her to make after the baby's born. This is a madhouse. Lisa and both kids have colds. I'm depressed because I'm apart from my husband, especially at the holidays. Wow, what fun. Did someone say something about Christmas being a time of joy? Praying for joy in this household is like praying for world peace. Someone just has to keep praying, but somehow we don't expect to actually be answered.
...The story of my life.
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