Viva La Visa!

Well, it’s here. The visas have finally arrived!

Let’s set the scene, though. Last Wednesday, I (Clay) get a voice mail from the consulate saying that everything looks good, we only need to send in Megan’s passport to complete the process. Sure. Fine… except I ALREADY SENT IT IN!

I called the consulate back, but they were closed for the day. I called a few times on Thursday morning, finally getting through to one rep. who took a message and by the time they got back, the consular’s office was locked, so no chance of looking for the passport until Friday morning. They promised to call back some time Friday afternoon, so once again, we wait.

Friday afternoon, 2:30. My new friend from the Belgian consulate calls to say that they have looked everywhere but cannot find it. They even opened the packets of all the other pending visas to see if it slipped in there. No luck. She said they can keep looking, but that it would be a good idea to think about applying for a new passport and that they’d cover the costs. She said they’d get back to me early in the week with a final answer, but things weren’t looking too hopeful.

We had just begun to accept this as the way it was when I got a call saying they’d found it! I wish I’d have thought to ask where, but it didn’t occur to me at the moment. I was just so relieved we didn’t have to go through the passport process again.

So, after a loss-of-passport scare and a little time spent waiting, we’re on to the next step! We’re looking at early March for our departure date, but we’re still waiting to nail down a few small details before we can decide for sure. It’s really exciting that after literally years of preparation, we’re now only a few weeks from taking off! It’s neat, too, that a number of our friends from CIT have made it to their places of ministry already: China, Ecuador, Germany, Thailand, Uganda. It’s great to see Believers strategically placed throughout the world!