England awaits!

Holy cow...15 days and I'm officially moving to England!?!?! WHATTT!??!?!?! So this post is all going to be dedicated to England, and how the Lord has moved in this process. It's really neat (I think), and I cannot possibly think of anything better to tell you than the Lord moving in mighty mighty ways.

So when I first decided to go to England, it wasn't a "whim", but it was definitely a "why not?" reaction when I read the email from Janelle saying I should think about it. After talking with everyone who I thought would be a road block (my boss, my committee chair for my grad school program, my parents...), there was nothing in my way. It was weird. Even though the Lord was moving things out of the way for me to go in this beginning process with "getting permission" from all those people to leave, especially when I thought it wouldn't be possible with my parents or something, I still wasn't shouting out His faithfulness to the masses. Mostly because I was insecure. I didn't have a cool story about how He's been tugging on my heart for 8 months to go, or anything like that. But when the opportunity presented itself to me, and I started moving with it, He was moving faster. It was like He had already talked to all those people for me, before the thought had even crossed my mind, and they were just waiting on me to say something...

That just confirms that whole philosophy of the Lord preparing the way for us. I remember in college there was a time where people would pray for me and upcoming conversations - and they'd say things like "Lord go before her. Comfort her in the fact that you're already there..." That's exactly how I felt with EVERY conversation I had with these people. It's like they were confused why I was asking, as if they had already told me yes before.

So after that came about, even though I personally thought that was a miracle, I didn't feel like talking about England because I thought people wouldn't understand. I have no idea why I'm going, what I'm doing there...but I know I'm supposed to go. If I wasn't, the Lord would've shut a door. Especially with my parents. There was already so much to praise the Lord about at this stage in the preparation for England. But it just got cooler from there. We got our blue cards at the beginning of September and started getting excited about going! There was some confusion as to whether or not we had to apply for Prior Entry Clearance. It looked like we needed to, and the date was October 31st, but no where in our paperwork did it say that we needed to do it. So for a month we had assumed we were good to go.

On October 5th around 5am I received a text from Janelle freaking out about PEC, and how we needed it. There were so many steps to get to the end process. The most important one was getting a Biometrics appointment. We hit the ground running October 6th, and finished our applications for PEC so that we could get a Biometrics appt. Praise the Lord that Thursday October 9th we had an appt at 2 in Houston, and that we were able to get off work and go down at the same time to save money with gas! We drove down there, had a 7 minute appointment which consisted of fingerprints and getting profile pictures. After that we mailed off all of our information that same day, and overnighted it to the Los Angeles consulate. These dates are important because we were pushing it with getting approved by Oct. 31st, and even getting stuff back by the time we leave December 28th. This process is supposed to take 6-8 weeks, maybe even longer they said. So we did all we could do, and mailed it out ASAP. October 14th we got an email from the consulate saying they had received our paperwork and would need 5 business days to process it. Within an hour of that email, we got another one that said that they would need an additional 10 business days to process it because of the high volume of visa applications.

By this time, it was my turn to freak out. I was so nervous. I truly thought that we were not going to get a visa, especially since we rushed through our applications and didn't necessarily turn in all the supporting documents that we found out later were recommended for work visas. I think it would be beneficial to have a checklist, so that they actually receive every piece of information they want to have from you, BEFORE you send it. Not on a link of an email they send you AFTER they receive your paperwork. That's some serious lame-sauce right there. Regardless, what can you do? Nothing. And the worst part is that you can't pay them to speed it up, you can't call to check on it. You just have to.....................................wait. Ugh. Patience - horrible. Can't do it. I heard once that if you struggle with patience, the Lord will bless you with a child who will test it. Awesome. I'm going to have terrible twos, threes, fours, everything until I finally grasp this patience bit. Or start to get better. Oh how I need grace.

In this waiting I learned one thing - it's awesome to reflect on stuff. Now there wasn't much time for reflection, but I didn't know how long I was going to be waiting so I just tried to put on thankfulness. Tried to see the good. And here's what I found: the Lord's faithful. I found that almost instantly. I just had to stop, and watch Him moving in this. When I thought I wouldn't get to go - He let me start the process. When I thought I'd have to eat the $1500 for my room next semester because I wouldn't find a subleaser - he provided 4 options all in one week. And now, when I "thought" I wouldn't get to go because I'd get denied a visa - he provided. And quickly. Almost instantly after I took my eyes off myself and my worry, he provided. He just wanted me to recognize what He's done. Cause at that point He had done a lot. And then He had to go show off :) and do a huge miracle. So back to to the timeline...this 15 business days stuff to process, and 6-8 (more like 10) weeks it'd take to give it back to us...that's so silly. We got an email October 21st saying we'd been approved, and received the actual visas and all our stuff back Thursday. Less than 48 hours after the email we got the stuff. The stuff that was supposed to take forever to come. The stuff that might not come. Shoot, the stuff that was supposed to be sent to us on Thursday and we might have gotten it this coming Monday.

I love when I'm wrong, and He shows me He's right. He shows me His ways are better than mine. The excitement that rang from my voice, my actions...I hope it honored Him. I hope He looked down upon me beaming with joy with a happy heart. I hope He had a huge smile on His face because He gave me one of the best gifts (besides grace, salvation, the Holy Spirit, etc.)...

I know when I see people get stoked about a gift I give them, it warms my heart and makes it all worth while. I hope that's how He felt about me. I'm so blessed. I just had to share. It's cool to KNOW that you're in the will of God, even if you don't know what's going to happen next. I'll keep you updated!