Christmas in the States

2009 was an interesting year for Bekah and I. During this time we have lived on 3 continents, have been homeless twice, and I both graduated from law school and passed the California bar. For those of you who do not know we started 2009 in London where I studied for my last semester of law school. While there we assumed that I would be able to find a job to begin after school and have something waiting for us when we got back. God, however, had other plans for us. First, God sent constant reminders that International Justice Mission should be something I should think about. Then God sent two friends to London who were IJM fellows to visit Bekah and I and tell us how we should thinking about IJM. And then God affirmed our decision to apply by both closing doors and giving us encouragement that reinforced our decision. (Including encouragement from one person offering me a job, who told me it would be best for my career to work with IJM.) I am glad that I ended up with IJM this year and am looking forward to being back at work.

Since our last update we have been able to have lovely Christmases with our families and friends running from one part of the Midwest to the next. In a matter of one stretch of four days we spent 24 hours in a car. We were able to see our friends for New Years thanks to the little public transportation that the midwest has. Then this last weekend we drove with friends 15 hours each way to Orlando, Florida for one of my best friend’s wedding. One would think that Florida would be warm, but it was only slightly above freezing there so we did not get play outside as much as we were hoping. This, however, did not stop us from swimming outside in the pool the night before the wedding and doing some synchronized swimming. If you are friends with me on facebook there is a video of us posted, and if you are not friends with me on facebook... why aren’t you? During this entire time, about every other day, I spent time on the phone with our airline trying to get reimbursed for a cancelled flight. The airline is still (up to this point) playing hardball, but hopefully we will get our money back.

Most importantly during this entire time we have been trying to get a new visa to go back to South Asia and get back to work. Shortly after arriving in the United States our office started getting varied reports from the different embassies about what type of visa we should get. One embassy said that we should apply for business, another employment, and another yet entry. We also received notice from the American embassy that people with tourist visa wouldn’t be let back into the country in South Asia unless they leave for over two months. Since we are not planning on being gone for two months, this meant Bekah also had to apply for a new visa. After waiting for over a month and still not getting a clear answer from the embassy we have decided to go ahead and apply for visas and pray that God will work His will in this matter.

Needless to say the constant moving, combined with sleeping in new places, and never being able to plan for longer than 5 business days (the amount of time it takes to get a new visa) this month has been a little rough for both our relationship as well as our nerves. Please continue to pray for us. Pray that God will continue to provide as He has in this time. Pray that we will use this time as a learning experience and God will teach us something. Pray that our relationships are able to make it through this time.