The Roller Coaster of Recent Events

On May 3rd we all celebrated together in approaching the finish line as Pieter's visa was approved! Invitations were sent out for the welcome back party, the caterer and venue were booked, and the balloons and streamers were purchased in preparation for his arrival. On May 12th we learned that the visa would need more processing before being issued and on May 17th Pieter's visa was denied. We spent that day completely falling apart as our future and our plans had been shattered. Our hope was renewed just the next day when Pieter received a friendly phone call saying he could meet at the consulate once more on Friday, May 20th. This gave us more time of waiting for answers and built up hope. Pieter's visa was officially refused that day and we began facing the facts, picking up the pieces, and making a plan for the next segment of paperwork and waiting.

As many of you can imagine after following us in this journey, this new set of news comes as a shock to us and we can officially say we are worn out.

Having been on twelve flights in a time-frame of eighteen months is not adventurous, spontaneous, or exciting to me_ I see it as nearly $6,000 spent that could have been used to save for a house or a future family.

Due to this new setback, our future has been put on hold once again. Starting a family, beginning careers, and me returning to school is something that will have to be put off for yet another year.
In all of this, the hardest part is having this amazing man who I fell in love with and vowed to share life with who is an ocean away from me. I keep wanting to turn around and see him right there. But he's not, he hasn't been for quite awhile. Being apart has not gotten any easier with time. I hate coming home from work after a long day and not having him here to talk to about everything that happened or even to just sit quietly with.

I already had a return flight booked because for some reason, round-trip tickets are more affordable than one way tickets. I will be flying back to the Netherlands in July to spend a short time with my husband before returning to America in August. Our next phase is to file a waiver, with the help of our lawyer, to clear up any confusion with border control. This can take anywhere from 3-5 months. Our prayer is that it goes smoothly with no other hiccups in the process!

I am no good at answering questions about immigration. I do not know how any of this works. All I know is that America has rules for individuals who come into our country. Border control tries hard to guard those borders in order to keep us safe. Rules are meant to be followed and we are following the proper procedure that they require. There is no magic way or special person to get him back into America. Trust me, if there was, I would have found it by now!

With this reality we now know that 2016 is another year of hoping, waiting, and wondering when and if this will ever be over. After having a week of looking forward to Pieter's return and making plans to go car shopping, house shopping, and imagining things we would do together this summer, some days it seems almost impossible to move forward in yet another segment of being a long distance wife.