The above is kinda very much how I feel right now: my hubby on the guitar being the green card application, and me in the foreground being absolutely horrified.
Let’s just say my desire to not do it is so strong I’m open to never leaving the country again, or if push came to shove, leaving the country and never coming back. Neither of those options being particularly glorifying to God, that leaves me with the only option of getting it done.
I guess one other thing I can thank this season of staying indoors for is a longer period of finding rest, finding God, finding myself and finally finding time to do a bunch of paperwork that I’ve been putting off… har har.
There’s so much that has happened in the past few years that I’m embarrassed I never got to write about it. Unfortunately this blog is already a right mess that I guess it no longer matters that things are so out of order, so I’m hoping that in the next few weeks or months I’ll be able to actually post more. I always say that though, so we’ll see. Quarantine does wonders to one’s mindset and productivity as an introvert, I must admit.
Jacky and I had our legal marriage ceremony on 1st September, 2019. It was a very small religious ceremony held in our church and lasted about 10mins, then we held our wedding celebration on 22nd February 2020.
I think between having persisted in a stressful job and work environment for over 2.5yrs to being laid off and full time wedding planning while also planning the logistics of moving to NorCal, to the uncertainty of the wedding when COVID-19 started hitting, to then the actual process of finally being able to welcome our friends and family to town who were visiting from 3 different continents and finally holding the wedding and then actually completing the move up to NorCal in my lil Honda Civic…
I dunno, in my mind I just needed a big fat breather.
After I moved up (road tripped up the PCH with my parents), sent my parents back to UK, settled in with my stuff, welcomed a friend into our home for a couple of days, sent said friend back on his way… then I kinda just locked myself up at home and didn’t leave the house again really. Actually, part of why I self-quarantined anyway was because COVID was becoming much more of a threat, especially in NorCal, and I had asthma. A week later, the Alameda County shelter-in-place order came into effect and my hubby joined me at home.
It’s been about a month now since I stopped leaving the house except for buying essentials and I feel like I’m finally in a place mentally where I have enough motivation and energy to keep going with this green card application.
Honestly I’d started it last month but it was so long and intimidating and honestly confusing in many parts and I didn’t have a lawyer and I was still recovering from all the micro-stressors that had been building up over time (okay, wedding planning while coordinating a 330 mile move while also like trying to make it fun for your parents’ first ever US road trip is actually quite a large stressor I’d say) so at one point for the sake of my mental health I just gave up.
But thank God for He is faithful and answers prayers! He’s been working in me a lot recently – to give me rest, but also comfort and assurance. Many of my brothers and sisters have been praying for me too to finally be able to get this done. So, I’m thrilled to say we’re back on track!
The first time I tried to do it there were just so many pages and so much reading and my environment was a bit too messy for me to handle (I’m a bit of a neat-freak) so I caved. I mean… seriously it’s a beast. I’m not even half way through with the application and I still have to compile all the additional evidence:
but the rest of the papers are all parts of the application. Isn’t that enough?? Gahhh.)
But this time, I am thankful for the reminder (through a YouTube vlogger, no less!) to clear up my space and write bite-sized to-do’s that you can easily complete and tick off, otherwise you’ll spend all day working and still feel unaccomplished. So, previously my to-do list looked like:
- Complete green card application.
Now, it’s looking more like:
- Complete I-130
- Double check
- Re-print pages __ & ___
- Complete I-130A
- Double check
- Re-print pages 2 & 6
- Print supplementary pages
- Complete I-485
- Pages 1-5
- Pages 6-10
- Pages 11-15
- Pages 16-20
And once I’m done with that, I’ll put together a list of things to compile for my evidence, but also in bite-sized chunks that are do-able so I’ll continue to be able to tick items off to make me feel accomplished, which will motivate me to continue pushing forward. And then I’ll be done!
You can also tell that I’m finally in a better place with more breathing space because I’m blogging again. It’s so wonderful to come back to something that has always been there to help me process my life, my thoughts, and grant additional perspective from reviewing things.
Elsewhere in life I’m also reading again, doing daily/very regular devo’s, have more or less put the apt in order (there’s only 1-2 final projects we need to tackle but it’s pretty much done), taking time to (re-)connect with friends and build 1-1 relationships. As an introvert, those things are all so important to me. I’ll still have days where I’m just not feeling well and most of what I do (after cleaning) is sit and watch TV, but those days are finally few and far between :)
Yay!
Blessings,
Crystina