an unusual move – prt. 1

Welcome to the continous story of how Wes and I moved to Redding, CA with nothing but a car full of our stuff. It is a story about God’s provision, the incredible hospitality we found in the Church, and all the fun encounters, decisions and discoveries along the way. So far it’s been quite the ride. Here’s the first part of “an unusual move“. 

I kept a brave facade for a few moments before I burried my face in Wesley’s arms and soaked his shirt as I cried another round of disappointed tears. Yet another day had come to an end, and still there was no news from the government. From 3-11 pm I had refreshed my e-mail at an embarrising interval of five minutes. I longed to badly for news, that seemingly refused to arrive.
Ten months had gone by in this limbo of unknowns. Ten months of flying back and forth, a few months here, a couple of weeks there and an awful lot of forms and fees to fill out and pay. Right before Christmas we had been asked to send in a final supporting document and we submitted it immediately. It was the last documents before the interview that will grant me immigrant status. We waited in anticipation. The previous round of documents had been approved quickly, so we expected this one to go through without delay.
A week went by. Then another one. Still not a word and no activity on our online immigration account. On the third week the waiting and the constant disappointment was taking such a toll on our emotions that we decided that we needed to figure out what we could expect from the National Visa Center. Uncertainty is so unbearable.
Previously we had e-mailed them only to recieve an answer months later, so obviously that was not the way to do it. We found a costumer service number and dialed. The first 23 calls we didn’t even make it to the hold.
“We are recieving a lot of calls at the moment. Please try again later. Beep-beep-beep“. On the 24th call we finally made it to the line. Wesley spent an hour and a half listening to on-hold-music and frequent “thank you for your patience. We will talk to you as soon as we have an open line“s.
Finally they picked up, but only to tell us, that since we had had a request for additional documents our case had been moved to the bottom of the pile and the 40 days we had already waited for the apporoval had been reset when they asked for additional papers. Some simple math could tell, that we were no longer 60 days into our estimated 60 day wait. We were only 20 days in.

For a little while we were at a loss and deeply frustrated. Then we reminded each other to take courage and that God is good. Pen and paper got pulled out. We prayed and wrote down our options. It was January 13th.

Option 1
Wesley flies to California now and get started on work, since he has to be out of Europe in a few weeks anyway. Molly stays in Denmark and waits for the NVC to give us a date for the immigration interview in Stockholm.
Pros: We can both work and Wes can try and figure out a place for us to stay when the immigration is finally done.
Cons: We don’t know how long it will take to get the interview and therefore we would be seperated for an unset amount of time.

Option 2
We both fly back to California and look for work, a place and a church together.
Molly flies back to Europe by herself when we finally get the interview date.
Pros: We get to stay together and pursue the things we are dreaming about.
Cons: It’s going to cost a lot more to fly back and forth two times and there is a change that we hear from the government right when we land in California and Molly will have to go right back.

We looked into each others’ eyes and knew which option we leaned towards, but it was getting late so we decided to sleep on it. The next day I ran it by my best friend. She said exactly what I had been thinking.
“You two have already spent more than enough time apart. You need to stay together. And I know it’s the more expensive option, but seriously, everything can’t be decided by money.”

The decision was made. I had told people, that the next time I entered the U.S. I would have my greencard. That wasn’t happening. I was going on my tourist visa one more time. We booked a flight for Februray 4th at 7 am. Norwegian airlines provided again. I have nothing but love for those beautiful Dreamliners (except they won’t even serve you a sip of water on an 11 hour flight…). They’ve carried my love over the ocean many a time.

I’ve moved in and out of my parents’ house quite a few times over the last four years. You’d think I was used to packing up, but when I pulled out my suitcase something felt different than all the other times. This wasn’t just another trip, another few months. This time I was actually packing up my life to move to the other side of the world and settle with my husband. I got a lump in my throat more than once while folding my clothes and sad music was forbidden in my presence those days. It makes me emotinal and I was determined to enjoy and  make the most of those last precious weeks of residing in the basement in the big, red brick house in Aalborg.

Friends and family was informed that we were leaving now. My brother was so kind to ask what the plan was and I explained to him the little I knew.
“Well, we kinda need to get a car, so we will go to Wesley’s parents for a few days when we land and get that figured out. When we have a car, I think we’ll just load it up and drive to Redding. We’ve heard there’s some good churches there and it’s a really beautiful area. Then we’ll just see what happens. Neither of us have ever been there, so we don’t really know where we’re gonna stay and where Wes can work, but something will work out.”

“Hmm, I’ve never heard of anybody moving to a new place like that,” he responded. It cracked me up. “Me neither,” I said. “We just want to try something new. Not that we haven’t been doing that every few months these last years, but…”

We realized that we were really taking a leap of faith. We had prayed about where to go and through prayer and processing with each other we landed on Redding. It all sounded intriguing and terrifying at once, but I was really excited for it because we wanted to put ourselves in a position where God could have some flexibility. We knew he had equiped us with appetite for adventure and faith to see him provide. After all we had pulled off traveling around for almost a year without lacking anything and without going negative on our bank accounts. All credit to God. He is really good.

Thanks for reading this far. You’re invited back for round two of “an unusual move”.