Happy Independence Day!!!
There were fireworks last night and today there were parades by the plazas of many the town.
But, today I would like to share with you the miracle God did for me last week. I have been working on getting together a list of 17 documents (many of them which needed to be consularized, authenticated by a lawyer, taken to the National Register, translated, and/or taken to Relaciones Exteriores.) Needless to say, it has been a frustrating, hairy process, especially since some documents are no longer valid after x days or months. But, thanks and praise be to God!! I was able to hand everything in yesterday!!
The big miracle was going to Relaciones Exteriores on Friday and getting in 27 minutes something that I was originally told would take 3 days!!! Head to the blog for the story!
Last week I came very close to having a cow. There was no being tranquila. I thought my criminal record was going to expire on Sunday the 13th, which meant I had to get everything handed in last Tuesday because the lady at the Alianza Evangelica needs time to look stuff over before she has her weekly appointment in Migracion on Thursdays. Well, that didn't happen on Tuesday. We were still waiting for documents to come back from the lawyer. Her gopher in San Jose wasn't able to accomplish what needed to be done. So, Wednesday we tried to get everything together, but we were waiting on a letter or something. And the lady in Relaciones Exteriores wasn't in and she was the only person who could do what we needed. For you see, not only were we chasing down my 17 documents, we also had to get several documents together in order to get CCI accredited as a legal entity in the eyes of Relaciones Exteriores. But, then I found out that my criminal record wasn't going to expire the 13th. We had until the 23rd because that is when it was stamped by the FBI (I thought I only had until the 13th because that was when they took my fingerprints). So, praise the Lord for his grace! I had more time to get everything in. (But the next pressing issue became my tourist visa expiring this coming Saturday the 19th.)
Anyway, Friday Minor (the handyman from church) was my companion and we went into San Jose to Relaciones Exteriores. We were greeted by a lady we named “The Filter.” She looked over everything and told us several documents weren't acceptable and why and where we had to go to fix it and gave us a sheet of paper that told us what we needed and that it would take 3 days to get the accreditation that we needed. My hopes fell to the floor once more. But, Minor suggested we wait for Dona Nazaret (the lady that wasn't there on Weds) and see what she had to say. So, we did (and got my other documents authenticated there in the meantime). And she wasn't near as picky as The Filter! All we had to do was go to the National Register and get dates stamped on a couple documents. Somehow they hadn't gotten stamped when the lawyer's gopher was there... :-( And, before we left Dona Nazaret's office, she told us that once we got everything to her, she would see if she couldn't do it for us in one day. What a relief! So, off to the National Register we went! We were nervous because Minor hadn't been in years, and the way he remembered it, the place was huge, sprawled out, and really difficult to navigate and figure out what you had to do where. Well, thanks be to God the place has been redone so everything is centralized and there are people out front that tell you what to do. Once we got inside we only had to wait in line 15-20 minutes! (that's impressive) And the lady who attended to us was a Christian and saved us from having to buy more stamps and authenticating paraphernalia. Instead of possibly taking a long time, she just stamped what we needed and let us go! Praise the Lord! Apparently things at the National Register can often take days to be processed!
Since we were close to that neck of the woods, we swung by the Alianza Evangelica. We wanted to show what we had and make sure that we had everything except the accreditation we were waiting on from Relaciones Exteriores. The girl hardly even looked at my papers as I went down this list saying yup, yup, I have this right here. (And the list she was using wasn't near as complete as the list I got off the internet that told me what needed to be authenticated, consularized, etc.) So, that was a bit discouraging, but oh well. We hurried up and got back to Relaciones Exteriores, hoping and praying that Dona Nazaret was still there.
It had started to rain, so Minor dropped me off and went to park. They let me in to see Dona Nazaret right away. She looked over everything and said it was good. Then she told me I could come and get the certification on Monday. I pressed her for specific times and she gave them to me, but then she paused and said, “Well, actually I can do it right now if you don't mind waiting.” My heart figuratively leapt from my chest onto her desk. She said she'd be out in a half hour. I thanked her profusely and entered the lobby with a huge grin on my face as Minor entered from parking the car. We waited gladly, but somewhat impatiently. It was 2:30pm. I had eaten breakfast before 8am and was ravenous! We had been too busy running around trying to get everything done before places closed for the weekend. She emerged in less than half an hour with the accreditation certificate in her hand. Glory and praise be to God!!
I treated Minor to lunch (at 4pm) and we were thrilled to have Emilia (who has been another HUGE blessing to me in this process) rejoice with us once we got back to church. Ana (my Honduran sister) blessed me hugely on Saturday by getting 2 photocopies of every single piece of paper I had to hand in. That way, when Migracion or the Alianza lose things, we'll have backups. Yesterday (Monday) I went back to the Alianza Evangelica and turned in all 17 items and this time the girl carefully looked over each document and apparently everything was ok. So, Thursday, Dona Patricia has her appointment in Migracion and Lord willing will hand in my papers, I'll be “In process” and at peace and able to focus on my real work once more! Praise the Lord for His goodness, faithfulness, provision, and for caring for us!
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