All the Christmas tunes say it best_ “I’ll be home for Christmas” and “There’s no place like home for the Holidays”. I decided to return to America for a short stay to visit family and refresh my winter wardrobe before flying back to the Netherlands at the end of December.
So, here I am, back in the U.S. for just a few weeks, or so I thought. . .
How does a person make two huge visa mistakes in one year? It really gets complicated when you are going back and forth across the Atlantic so many times. This was my sixth time across the ocean in a course of 12 months. While I have become a professional at navigating airports, going through security, and staying occupied on a long flight, I have not gotten the hang of these visa guidelines. For anyone that was wishing I was staying longer than five weeks, your wish came true!
As I was making plans for my return flight at the end of December, I came across the “180 day rule” for visiting the Netherlands and other European countries. For every 90 days (by the way, I stayed 107 days) that a person visits the Netherlands they are to wait 90 days before returning. I will not be eligible for returning to the Netherlands until the end of February. Even then, my seventeen day overstay will pose an issue. Re-entry will be a challenge whenever I do decide to go back.
My heart is bitter and torn with regrets. I am striving to stay positive through it all and strong for both my husband and I, but it is difficult. Pieter and I kissed goodbye at the airport in Brussels thinking we would reunite just 42 days after that, but it will be much much longer now.
Our life together in Aagtekerke was wonderful. I had grown to love living in the Netherlands, the country that is such a big part of my husband’s history. We had so many plans for the year of 2016 that we would spend together. Greeting him when he got home from work was always my favorite thing. He was gone all day and I spent time cleaning, doing school assignments, packing his lunch for the next day, and preparing dinner for the two of us. I guess everything was going too well.
While our (American) visa process has shown great progress the past few weeks, we have come across a small bump in the road that may cause the progress to come to a halt. This reality scares both Pieter and I as our time together rests solely on this visa now. It may be March when we are able to reunite again, but it may take until June or July. The time of our separation is indefinite. The thought of that makes me cringe.
All I can ask now, our only hope, is constant prayer that the visa process for my husband will progress quickly.
All we can do now is hope and pray that Pieter is able to return here soon. 
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