Green card

David got a phone call this afternoon from my grampa’s wife Julie, saying that they had received a letter for him in the mail that felt like there might be a card inside… and that it was from Texas!

Well, we knew that David’s green card application was being processed in Texas, so David almost flipped out with excitement. It was just like watching my ten-year-old brother Luke (then nine) at Christmas flitting around while we were getting ready to open presents! Here was this 35-year-old grown man practically jumping up and down. I had to calmly remind him that we had to wait until Timothy woke up from his nap before we could drive to my grandparents’ house to get the letter.

I think the wait nearly killed him. We ended up waking Timothy from his nap and heading out. David insisted on driving, and when we got there, he said, “Just stay in the car. I’ll get the card and be right back.” Gosh. Okay, so we watched him go to the front door, saw Julie hand him the letter, watched him open it, and then we heard her say, “Congratulations!”

Yay! David has his permanent residence card! We celebrated with dinner out, just the three of us. We’ve waited for this for so long! (And yet not nearly as long as so many people have to wait.) Tomorrow (after he takes the TOEFL) we’re heading to the Social Security Administration. Yippee!

I’m Linked

I’ve joined LInkedIn (actually a few months ago) and am still looking for contacts, so if you would like to be in my professional network, let me know. Here’s my public profile. Please feel free to make suggestions on how I can make it better.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/saralynnbnege

Some answers

This week was hard, and I’m glad it’s over. It’s not that there was anything in particular going on. It was just a bad week. We all have those. You know what it’s like. And now it’s over. Phew.

We did get a few things done this week. The most fun news is that David passed the driving test for his California driver’s license!! Yay! We all knew he could do it, but it’s still a relief to have it over and done with. Congratulations, David!

We were also able to finally start the application process for David’s first USMLE exam. We submitted all the necessary documents and now have to wait—possibly several months—to schedule the exam. He actually applied to take the most complex test first, for reasons that are difficult to explain unless you know the process, so we’re hoping that sometime in the next eight or nine months he’ll be able to take that exam and maybe one or both of the other two.

One of the downsides of this week was hearing that it may be another two weeks before David receives his green card, and we’ve heard differing opinions on whether we can apply for his SS number before we get the green card. In any case, we’re a little wary of applying to jobs for him until we have his SS card in hand. So we’re taking a break from that for a week or two.

I’m still actively job-hunting. A friend told me about a possible part-time job at a church nearby, and initial feedback was positive, so I’m going to follow up on that this week. I’m also training to be an online teaching assistant for a college, which would be part-time, too, but still something. And a friend has offered to pass my resume on to a family friend who works in publishing. So… who knows? They’ll probably all fall through, but at least I don’t feel as desperate as I did last week.

Also, David is going to be taking the TOEFL this Friday(the Test Of English as a Foreign Language), which should help him if he ends up doing any academic training (grad school or nursing). And I signed up to take the CBEST, which would then allow me to apply to be a substitute teacher in California.

Other fabulous news is that David has agreed, after reading a very persuasive piece of mail from a very special person, that it’s not in our best interest for him to join the military. YAY!!!

However, we still have no idea what our long-term plans are for 2009, how long we’ll be in the area, whether or not to start looking for an apartment, etc. It’s frustrating to still be in limbo, but we’re trying to take it all one day at a time. I still have many more “down” days than “up” days, but at least I can put on a happy face for my blog-readers. :)

Slump

What does one blog about when one is so depressed that one simply wants to stick one’s head in the toilet and flush? If anyone has any answers to that besides “God will see us through” or “$&%#*@$#,” I’m all ears.

In the meantime, I will spare anyone who might actually still be reading this blog the misery of reading about my despair.

Have a good day.

Hard decisions

We’ve been in the States for a week now and are faced with lots of hard decisions. My aunt and uncle have been super nice about letting us stay with them, and we’re slowly settling in. We’ve got cell phones now and just got a computer the other day. We’ve just found a great car that fits our budget (though we haven’t finished the transaction yet), and now we’re making decisions about work.

I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to not blog about it until we’ve made our decisions, since that way I won’t have to go back and forth. But now you all can experience the yo-yo life I’ve been going through for the past few months.

Originally, when we planned to come to the U.S., we thought David would do his medical licensing exams and start applying to residency programs this fall, to begin next spring or summer (2010).

There were complications with that, and delays, so we thought our next best option would be to look for work and take another year to do David’s examination process. We’d both have to work, especially if we stayed in California, and David would start applying for residency programs to begin in mid-2011.

But if we’re going to take that long to do the exams and residency application, David thought maybe he should do a 12-month accelerated BSN so that he’d have a ready-to-go career as a nurse in case something went wrong to delay his residency entrance. The problem with that is its cost. But we figured we could  manage it somehow with loans and grants.

…Except that when we sent David’s transcript in to a service to be evaluated for the BSN program, we were told that it must be sent to his school for verification (probably because of his lost diploma). That will set his BSN applications back several weeks, if not longer. By that time, the programs will probably all be full for the fall semester. There goes that idea.

So now David has visited an army recruiting office and is dialoguing with them about enlistment. It’s not our first choice by any means. In fact, I’m very dubious about it. He can’t be an officer because he’s not a U.S. citizen, so even though he has a bachelor’s degree, he can only serve at the bottom of the totem pole. Yuck. On the other hand, it would be a stable job with benefits in a gloomy economy… but would require his being away for two months of basic training, plus specialty training, not to mention any tours overseas. Hmm, this doesn’t sound great to me.

But since he hasn’t gotten his green card yet, technically, I have a few weeks to find him an alternative job. I’m desperate—beyond desperate. I’m panicking. If I can’t find anything for him, or a full-time job for me that could at least help keep us afloat, we’re doomed to the military life. I have to believe that since God is merciful and gracious and loving, He has something better for us in mind than the army. But my hope is failing… failing…

Holy Cross Catholic Church

We left Jos on Saturday, January 24th. It was heart-wrenching, and my mom was crying. But we felt that we were doing the right thing, and so that was a comfort.

The next day, we decided to go with David’s sister-in-law Stella and her household to mass. We woke up a bit late to join them for the 8:00 service, but we decided to go anyway. We got dressed hurriedly and waited downstairs. Around 8:15, the others showed up, ready to go. Stella has three kids, aged 11 months, 4, and 5. She also has three helpers in her house, two young ladies and a young man. And we were all going to church. One by one we piled into her SUV. It felt like one of those clown shows at the circus in which the clowns keep getting into and out of the vehicle that obviously can’t hold that many people. Well, there we were, in an SUV supposed to seat four passengers. Stella and David were in the front, David holding the baby Sasha. In the back, the three helpers and I were squeezed in, three of us holding kids on our laps. It was the kind of thing that ought to have been photographed except that they probably saw nothing funny in it at all. Just picture it: six adults and four children all fitting into an SUV!!

When we got to church, the sanctuary was full, so we found seats on benches outside at the back under a tree. The sermon was already in full swing, but I couldn’t hear to understand it. One of the helpers took the two older children to children’s church while the other took care of Sasha. After we’d been seated on the bench for ten minutes or so, a man came to tell us there were about 20 seats in the front; would we please go with him? I declined, preferring to sit outside with Timothy, but Stella went with him inside. For the next hour, we enjoyed ourselves immensely, listening to the singing and liturgy but not having to participate. Timothy played with seed pods, threw dirt, and chased two goats across the churchyard. I’ve hardly ever enjoyed church more!

So our last Sunday service in Nigeria was a great hit amongst us. We’ll remember it fondly. Thanks, Holy Cross Catholic Church!