Live from Chicago

Hello friends and family!

Well, things are not going quite as expected for us! We were actually supposed to be in England by now, but apparently God had other plans...

We moved out the Dally household (with tears!) 2 weekends ago, on the 1st of October. We came to Chicago, where our friends John and Heidi live now. We were to recieve my work permit from England (that was approved the Friday before we left the Dally's) early in the week. All my new work in England had to do was send it to me. So we made an appointment at the British Consulate for Thursday at 10:15am to get our Visas and bought plane tickets for Friday night.

However...FedEx lost my work permit, and we were freaked! We ended up emailing back and forth with England at 4am Thursday morning in order to get FedEx to get us the work permit in time for our appointment at the Consulate at 10:15. They couldn't do it, so Jason drove to pick it up from FedEx instead. Since they didn't open until 9am, and it was 20 minutes away from me (I was still at John and Heidi's, printing out the application form, which I couldn't do until Jason picked up the work permit with my work permit number on it! That number had to be typed in on the form.), it was a tight squeeze for time! So Heidi drove me to meet him, we got in the car and drove to downtown Chicago in rush hour traffic to get to the Consulate on time! And let me tell you, WE MADE IT! Exactly at 10:15, it was a miracle!

However, the work permit we worked SO hard to pick up on time was INCORRECT. The lady I am working with, Sheila, had mis-typed my birth date in her computer. Therefore, when I got my work permit, it said I was born November 24 instead of July 27. We were at the Consulate all of 2 minutes before they denied me.

So there we were, me crying outside of the Consulate on Michigan avenue and Jason discussing things with Sheila. We had to re-issue another work permit from England, cancel our flight (pay a BIG sum of money to cancel that, too, but Sheila paid us back in full already-praise the Lord).

So now, we are just hanging out at John and Heidi's in Chicago, waiting for my new work permit to come. It has been issued, and we are hoping to hear that it's completed and CORRECT tomorrow. Then they will send it to me, we will make another appointment at the Consulate, and AFTER the actual Visa is in my hand, I'll book another flight. So hopefully, by this time next week, we'll actually be in Hereford.

Some good news in all this waiting, is that Sheila did fully reimburse us the money for the cancelled flight. She felt terrible. Also, the lady in charge of my Unit from my new job has graciously asked Jason and I to stay with she and her husband until we can find an apartment of our own. Everyone in Hereford is awaiting me anxiously, which makes me feel good. They are excited for me to join the team.

So, Jason and I are enjoying Chicago right now, we have visited the Aquarium, Millineum Park, Aunt Connie (Heather and Shannon's aunt), and just the general downtown area, which is fun. We are trying to see "Wicked", because we can possibly get cheap tickets through a lottery right before the show. We are basically relaxing and enjoying John and Heidi.

So, that's where we are now. Your prayers are still appreciated so that we can get there soon! We will let you know the details when we know them!

We love you,
Sarah and Jason