The green card

So David and I have started the process of trying to get him an immigrant visa to the U.S. We're still not sure we're going about it the right way, but for now, all we can do is wait and see.

Our first step was to fill out some forms, copy my passport & birth certificate and our marriage certificate, get some passport photos taken at our favourite photo studio (Goldfinger), ask my parents to write a personal check, bundle all the documents together, and send them by DHL to the U.S. embassy in Accra, Ghana.

Why Ghana?

We're not actually sure, but this is what a friend of ours had told us, so we're trying it. We sent the documents four weeks ago, so now we're just waiting. The next stage will likely be extremely lengthy and complicated, but as we haven't gotten there yet, there's not much we can do. There is something we've started to process that we can do ahead of time (we think), but David is so nervous about the process that he won't let me write about it. *sigh*

So we're waiting--as patiently as we possibly can. We have no idea whether this will take six months or six years. But I have confidence in the efficiency of the U.S. immigration services. There's hope for us somewhere.

Home sweet home

David and I have now moved all our new furniture into the apartment we’ve been living in for ten months, and we’re really enjoying the change! We cleaned out both of the bedrooms—rediscovering wedding presents we’d forgotten about (you can only use so many sets of dishes at once!)—and set up both beds. I’m still not sure where to put all those extra dishes still in their boxes, but I suppose I’ll find a place. I really wish we had cupboards in the kitchen!

So far this week, the carpenter has come several times to fix our bed, which is just slightly too small for the mattress but somehow fits it anyway; put a new lock on our front door (which we just did a few months ago) because the key had broken in the lock; and repair our curtain rod in the living room, the bracket of which had come out of the wall. (Our walls are made of pseudo-brick and crumble far too easily. Anything heavy set on a nail just pulls the nail/screw right out of the wall, breaking the wall with it!)

Today the electrician, Alex, came to assess our electrical problems—the ones we’d been ignoring for months since we thought we’d be leaving soon anyway. These include (4) burned out incandescent lights that will probably need new sockets, (3) burned out fluorescent lights, and (4) burned out electrical outlets. And he’s going to install ceiling fans in our bedrooms. Yes!

As I write this, David is in town getting cable to hang up curtains in our bedroom windows, which right now just have sheets draped over the top louvers, and our toilet and bath rooms. I’ve hung up our new drapes in the living room—at least on the one curtain rod that wasn’t broken. (We had sheers hanging before, and they were beautiful, but they weren’t very private, and the morning sun poured into the living room, making it an oven all day.)

Our fridge is a wonder, and I am thankful for the investment we made in it! No more spending hours chipping away ice so that we can get the freezer open—or shut!

And now that we have a hutch for our dishes, we have space on the bookshelf (the dishes’ last home) for all of David’s books that have been sitting on the floor of our bedroom for the past ten months. The room looks so much less cluttered now!

Although we still have no running water nor any hope of every having any, our friend gave us a large water container (about the size of a curbside trash can in the U.S.), so we’re hoping to make it through the dry season without too much trouble this year.

So now that we’ve decided to stay here, and the repairs are underway, this house is beginning to feel more like home. We still need to do something about shelves and cupboards in the kitchen, and I’m hoping to get some baby things for the other bedroom, but all in all, I’m happy with the progress we’ve made this week!

Photos of our flat will be on Flickr by the end of today! (My handle is SaralynnNG.)

Grasping at straws

This week, one of my best friends came out of the closet.

This has never happened to me before, and I'm perplexed. I've already written a response--one that I hope was full of encouragement but clearly stated my views--but am left feeling bewildered, frustrated, and more than a little heavy-hearted.

I know some people believe they are born with an attraction to the same sex. And I can't deny it is probably true that some people are born that way. It's "natural"... in the same way that it's natural for teenage boys to want to "conquer" pretty girls. Sexuality is a natural instinct. I know that. I'm not saying it isn't. But just like a boy's lust must be controlled--and a man's lust for women apart from his wife--I believe homosexual feelings must be controlled, too. I don't pretend to think it's easy. But it's one of those things that must be done if you love Christ--the same way I have to give up being selfish and complaining. (Still working on that!)

I know that what I'm saying goes against all American teaching about tolerance and relativity. Maybe it will make me a few enemies. But I hope my friend is not among them. I'm a sinner, just like the rest of the world. I can't condemn anyone. It's not my place or my right, and I don't want to have that role. But I can't just pretend I accept homosexuality, either. I believe the Bible is pretty clear on the subject.

So please pray for me, and especially for my friend.

A really long week

I just got back from spending five days at Miango for our writers' workshop, and boy, am I glad to be home! It was good but exhausting. We did have hot water and power almost the whole time, so I got to take a few hot showers... Granted, they were "squatting" showers because we had a tub with a hand-held shower fixture rather than an actual shower. *sigh* Oh well. I can't complain. But I certainly did not get much rest. I feel like a walking zombie. And it was really hot, at least for me with my little internal heater burning me up! The good thing is that we have first drafts now for all 52 of our year 1 lessons! Yay! We also had some really interesting and intense conversations about our lessons, including an hour-long discussion on "dating." But I don't want to get started on that topic. Nosiree.

It was really a time of spiritual attack, though. I know I mentioend before I left that two of our key Joint Project staff had losses in their families. Well, I didn't know all the details, and I want you to know them.

We have a small staff at Joint Project. There are three full-time workers, and three of us who are more part-time, plus our chairman/CEO. So that's seven. About two weeks ago, our office manager Rev. Nore contacted Adena to tell her that his mother had died. (She'd just been diagnosed with TB) So Nore traveled that week to bury his mother. When he returned, about a week ago, he received a call from his wife, who had gone to her hometown to care for her mother (who had recently had a stroke). Nore's wife told him that her mother had just died. So Nore traveled to be with his wife and bury his mother-in-law.

That's not all.

The same week that Nore lost his mother, our chairman, Jonathan, called to say that his uncle had passed away, and that he would be spending time with his family and attending the burial down south. Just after the burial, he called to say that his uncle's sister-in-law had been killed in a car accident on her way back from the burial.

It was awful. THEN on Monday, one of our writers didn't know up, and he called to inform us that his nephew had been killed, so he needed an extra day to be with his family. On Tuesday, Adena got a call that her son had been injured playing soccer at school. It wasn't serious, but still. And on Thursday morning, another of our writers, Mercy, told us that she had just found out one of her dear friends and mentors had died suddenly of a heart-attack in her late thirties.

So we really felt under attack. You can imagine.

And then I chose to write the lesson entitled, "Why Does God Allow People to Suffer?" It truly was a growing experience, reading what others have written--especially Dr. Dobson--and praying through the thoughts in my head. I came to the conclusion that we're asking the wrong question. Instead of asking why God allows us to suffer, we should ask how we should respond to suffering. We are so tiny and insignificant. It's totally arrogant to think we should be able to understand God, or that He owes us an explanation! As Dr. Dobson put it, it's like an amoeba trying to understand a human. I think people here in Nigeria, who face death daily (literally) have a much healthier grasp on who God is and who we are in comparison.

Anyway, I learned a lot. But I'm SO glad to be home. Tomorrow we're hoping to move our furniture into our house at Evangel, and start sprucing the place up, including putting up drapes in the living room to make it more private. Yes! Oh, and I look forward to sleeping tomorrow!

Loose Ends

This afternoon I'm going out to Miango (the village in which I was married last year) for a five-day writers' workshop put on by my organisation, Joint Project for Sunday School Materials. I'm ashamed to admit I've been dreading it for over a month. I'll have to give a presentation on self-editing, plus a devotional, and I hate public speaking. Granted, it's a small group, but still. The worst part is that both our CEO and our office-manager-and-boss lost relatives this past week so will be unable to attend the workshop. Obviously, I'm grieved that they had deaths in their families. At the same time, I'm anxious because their absence will mean much more work for those of us remaining. *sigh* We'll manage somehow. We have some strikes against us already, but I'm confident that God is in the midst of all this, so we will succeed, as long we keep our focus on him. I'm hoping it will be a good week, that we'll all learn something, and that we can get our lessons written. The aim of this workshop is to write Sunday school lessons for Book 1 of our new teen curriculum. That's 52 lessons, all of which we've planned ahead of time as far as objectives, themes, and Bible passages.

But I've never written a Sunday school lesson before in my life, so this is a totally new experience for me. And it's scary.

The nice thing about Miango is that it's a retreat centre. It will be quiet, probably a little cooler than Jos, and we'll get three full meals a day. And I'm also hoping for reliable power and maybe even running water! :) It will be nice to take a shower. (Last time I was at Miango, I had no hot water! And although we have a shower stall in our house, there's never any water with which to take a shower.)

I just wish David could come with me.

So I'll be gone this week, not posting unless I can sneak an hour into the Internet cafe there. Wish me luck!

Decision made

Well, we're staying.

David made his decision, and we're both happy with it, so now we can take some time to improve the house we've been living in for ten months. I'm relieved that the decision is made so now I can focus all my energy one way or another. (Plus it means I don't have to pack!)

So that's that.

Change of plans...again

Well, we were going to move ("pack," they say here) tomorrow, and now we aren't going to.

Why not? is a little hard to explain. It's very complicated. The basic gist is that David was informed yesterday he would probably be required to restart his residency program at the teaching hospital, putting him back two years in the program. This is unacceptable.

So... things have ground to a halt. Our lives are entirely up in the air. I guess this is God's way of saying, "Hi guys. I'm still in control. I know what I'm doing, even though you haven't a clue."

Now what? David has to make a crucial decision whether to quit work at the teaching hospital and try to get his job back at Evangel; or to stay at the teaching hospital and try to work around the problem...somehow. But as for moving tomorrow, it's not happening. There's obviously no point in moving all our things over to the new place if we're going to stay at Evangel. But at least we now have a BED! So even if we stay, we can sleep off the floor! Very exciting. And we've also already bought our fridge, with a frost-free freezer. You have no idea how exciting these two acquisitions are for me! Oh, and a rocking chair and a hutch. Oh yeah, I'm going to love our new furniture.

Next week I'm going to our writers' workshop, so I won't have to worry about it, which is nice. Poor David will be all alone with his decision. Pray for him!! And pray for us!

One day to go

Tomorrow's my last day as a substitute. I've learned a lot and had a good time for the most part. But dude, I am so exhausted. I don't know how full-time teachers do it. (I guess it helps to not be almost 7 months pregnant.) Today the guys who usually drive me crazy just cracked me up. They spent a good five minutes testing my knowledge of modern musicians, mostly R&B, I suspect. (We had free time after the lesson today, so it's not like they were interrupting anything important.) They finally said, "Auntie, what music do you listen to?" I said, "Musicians you've never heard of, like Beethoven and Bach." They just laughed. Actually, I hardly listen to any classical music (in the generic sense of the term), but I'm sure they've never heard of most of my favourite singers, seeing as they're primarily Christian. They were very glad to know that I listen to Bob Marley and that I've at least heard of Elvis and Michael Jackson. Ha. Poor deprived souls. They don't know what they're missing.

David started work at the teaching hospital this week. He's enjoying it so far, as the workload is quite a bit less than that of Evangel. But he's on call tonight, and he barely made it home for a quick supper (20 minutes) before returning. I'd gotten so spoiled with him working here, since he could sleep at home until he was called and return after he finished seeing the patient. Now he'll be gone all night when he's on call, and I'll only see him after work the next day. *sigh* I have to remind myself that this is normal for a doctor's family.

We moved our furniture this past Saturday--at least, most of it. We were a bit surprised to discover that the house had been flooded when a maintenance man accidentally left the taps on. Oops! It can happen easily, considering the water goes on and off a lot. Most of the house had about a half-inch of water, but the master bedroom was under a good 2 inches. Somehow, though, the guard David paid to clean it up managed to get almost all the water out in just a few short hours. Amazing! So on Sunday we were able to move all our furniture from the pile in the living room into the various rooms. The place actually looks like a home now instead of just a shell. We're hoping to move in this Saturday. (Lord, help us!) In other words, I'll spend all day Friday packing. Phew.

This is life!

It's Friday!

I don't often think about Fridays in terms of "the weekend is near," but this week is definitely one of those few times I am ecstatic about Friday. (I have a quiet way of showing my ecstasy, granted, but it's there!)

All right, so my classes haven't been terrible, or even particularly bad. There are just three boys in one class and three girls in the other that drive me particularly bonkers. I was never a sophomore at this school because I was on furlough in 10th grade, so I don't know how my class was, but I'm guessing...pretty much the same, actually. Of course, I was an ideal student--always paid attention in class, did my homework, aced tests. I never ever talked back to the teacher. *cough*

Fine, I wasn't perfect. But I was a good student. And I've got some of those in my classes, too. I've got two or three students who really ought to take Creative Writing before they graduate and would make great English majors.

Well anyway, like you care. It's warm today, and I'm sitting on the concrete floor of our porch, in the shade and breeze. I will be sad when the rainy season ends. We're moving most of our furniture tomorrow with a friend's help. (The apartment we've been in is furnished, so we still have furniture until we move entirely.) I'll be glad to get the clutter out of my way for the next week, or until we finish moving. Two couches in our little living room (and six lounge chairs) are just too many!

Hopefully next week I'll have something interesting to report. :)

Still alive

Hi! I'm still alive, still subbing, still feeling like my head is on backward. Pray for me!! These sophomores are really running me down!

And why the heck did they put an essay on the SAT??