Everything Changes Tomorrow

(This story is best read from the beginning. Click here.)

Mornings here are very different from what I’m used to. They tend to start early; 4:30-6:00 normally, but they take a while to get going. Sometimes it’s 9:00 or 10:00 before we really get going. A lot gets accomplished in that time but I’m not always sure what it is.

On Wednesday afternoons Ana works in another dental office. We started the day at her office gathering supplies and instruments for the afternoon appointments. Then we were off to the immigration office. We were told that my document would be ready by 12:30 but we got there around 10:00 and started waiting. The drive took less than an hour this time. That was much nicer then the 2 ½ last time. After waiting three hours, they called us to ask about one of the documents. We provided the originals for them to copy again and heard that it would be about 10 more minutes. 40 minutes later I approached the desk to see if there were any more problems. Before I could ask, the agent asked me to wait, got up and started searching for our file. After a few minutes he found it and disappeared behind a partition for about 10 minutes. He then called us up to the desk, had me sign a page and we were done. Once I finished reading and translating the document, I was relieved to see that I had my permission and they weren’t going to deport me. Once we got something to snack on and started back to Iztapalapa, Ana started to relax again. She has given me permission to say that she was an ogre for a while, back in the office. She was very ready to get someone’s attention!

It took her a while to relax afterward. The new problem is that the juzgado closes early each day. Because it took four hours of waiting and two hours of driving to complete a two minute task, we couldn’t get to the juzgado in time for them to review our documents today before the wedding tomorrow. Because of that, there is a chance that we will have to move the date again. We had the 7th scheduled but had to move it to the 15th because of paperwork issues (more about that when I explain “apostilles”). We are going to the juzgado at 8:30am tomorrow to be there when they open to see if we can still marry in the afternoon.

History
I started looking at rings a few weeks before the trip in September. I found a few that I liked but it didn’t make sense to start a marriage with a monthly payment that was going to last several years. And then the work calendar filled completely. I had planned to finish everything the week before the trip to have time to prepare. Unfortunately, the last project went waaayy too long and I lost that week of preparation. That included time to find the ring. On the Wednesday before the Saturday departure, I decided that I had no chance of finding time to get a ring. And then on Thursday, my crew and I were heading south to the project and I pulled off the freeway one exit too early. As it turns out, it was a better route to the project. We were working at night so I didn’t see the jewelry store, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cornfields on the new route. The next day I decided to take the same route to the project. We were able to start early Friday morning and when I saw the jewelry store, there was a sign out front that read “One week only. Everything half off.” I immediately had a sense that the ring I was looking for was inside. Nery, Ana’s sister, had been helping me with pictures and criteria of the rings that Ana liked. I went back to the store at lunch with the pictures (I always kept them with me) and found two rings that were perfect. After 30 or 40 minutes studying them, I made a decision and bought the ring just in time to take it with me the next morning. In addition, this was the last day of the store's first ever, week long half-price sale! Again, I was anxious to tell Ana how God was providing for us but since the ring was to be a surprise, I had to wait. Now all I had to do was get to Mexico (a little scary), meet the family (very scary) and see if I knew enough Spanish to ask permission from her parents. More about all of that next time.