When Things Don't Work Out As You Planned - More Than Just A Barn Star

Paint: $1.39

Foam Brush: $.69

Realizing that I don't love the new change: Priceless.

If that barn star was in any other home but mine, I'd love it. But it's so not jiving with my neutral pallet. Ah well! I'll be spray painting it black one day.

Here's what I mean by "one day".

I must admit that I have been dreading writing this post. But I need to tell you what has been going on in my life in the past few days. This past Thursday evening, my visa was revoked so I am no longer able to live in Canada at this present time. For those of you new to my blog, let me briefly explain my situation. I met my hubby almost seven years ago while I was working at a church in Canada. A year later we started dating and a few months after that I ended up moving back to the States. We decided to keep dating as we liked each other so much and to make a long story short, later got engaged and then married. Three days after our wedding I moved to Canada to start my life with my hubby. As part of that process, I was put on a visitors visa that merely allowed me to stay in Canada. I could not work, attend school or have access to the Canadian health care system. As part of our situation, I needed to apply for Permenant Residency which would allow me to stay in Canada, work and have health care. The paperwork is about an inch thick, incredibly detailed (listing guests at our wedding, listing everywhere I lived and worked in the past 10 years, photographic evidence of us dating and our wedding, ect.).

We had been steadily working on the application process since 2007 - but also a big part of this process was getting background checks and fingerprints for each country I lived in (Canada and the USA), medical tests including chest xrays, blood work and an entire physical. I had to have photographs taken and a whole host of other things. To top it off, the fees of this whole thing was over $1300 - not counting the trips to the States for fingerprinting and background check. (Pennsylvania does not mail them to other countries and you can only pay with a US credit card. Such a nightmare.) All of this to say, it's been a long process for us and we honestly didn't realize how much time it would take. What we also didn't know is that we had to get this application done in less than a year - the length of my first visa. See, since that first visa, I've renewed it twice and never had a problem. Until Thursday night.

My visa was about the expire and since we were headed to PA for the weekend, we stoped at the border to have my visa renewed. To make a long story short, the woman who delt with us was horrible. Mean, shrewed, confrontational - and denied my visa because I had been in Canada for 2 and a half years (though she kept saying three years) and hadn't submitted my Permenant Residency application. She revoked my visa and told me that we needed to leave Canada and if we attempted to cross the border they would "come chase us down".

So here I am. In Pennsylvania. Until who knows when. My hubby is submitting the application this week and then we wait. There is the chance that when we submit the application and get a reciept that we sent it registered mail (and we will be photocopying each page of the app as proof) we can go back to the border and "if we are lucky" (border gaurds words) we will be able to get another visa so that I can wait out the application review in Canada. If not, (meaning we get a border gaurd in a bad mood), then I will have to come back to my parents house and live here for what could be the next nine months. It's an awful feeling to know that my life is being based on whether or not we are "lucky" enough to have someone who will give us another visa.

As you can imagine, this has been such a devastating thing for Shane and I. He leaves to go back to Canada tomorrow and I am truly dreading that day. My heart has been broken in half thinking of being without him. Unfortunatly, this has been such a theme of our relationship though. Long distance dating and engagement, him being in trade school each year of our marraige (which means he lives three hours away from our home for two months - home on weekends). We actually just got done with him going to trade school - from January to March. We had all of April together as we have been on unemployment due to him being in school since January. Can the hits just keep on coming?

I'm doing my best to stay positive. I have a wonderful family who is keeping me busy - this upcoming week we have lots of plans. They have a great calling plan to Canada (free calls!) and they have been more than supportive. How blessed can I be? My friends have been so great too. But still, my heart is hurting. I'm dreading tomorrow when Shane leaves. I know there will be lots of tears. I have about a weekends worth of clothes - but never in my wildest dreams would I have thought to prepare like I would be living away from my home for an undertimned amount of time. It's so hard to think about being away from my husband, my dogs, our home, my stuff. I've also been having a hard time with the thought of blogging and reading blogs as I tend to like to read about home decor - and well....I won't be in my home for well...maybe the next nine months. I think I just need to take a bit of time off. Maybe just a few days - maybe a bit longer. I'm not sure. Right now I'm just not even sure what on earth to blog about that anyone would find interesting. Please just bear with me. :) Please.

Thanks for taking the time to read this long post. Feel free to ask me any questions if I haven't explained well. And though I say I may be taking a blog break, who really knows. I mean, it might just be the thing I need to keep my mind off of what is going on in my life. Please pray for Shane and I that our marriage stays strong, that we grow only closer during this time apart, that this application process goes quickly and smoothly in our favor. I know that God has a plan!! I know that he does. I'm trusting and hanging on as tight as I can.