While
spring isn’t as easily defined here in the DR as in PA, the rains have started,
the flowers on the tree outside of our apartment are blooming, and the El
Cercado mountains glow in their re-found green-ness. I’ve always loved this
time of year. New life. New beginnings. It’s been fun to have teams who saw me
pregnant last year, return again and get to meet the little boy who had been
growing inside of me. It is a meaningful season, and it is also the start of a
bittersweet season for Wellington and me.
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| Quiet time on my balcony is always a gift. |
Wellington
was recently approved for a residency visa from the United States. It’s crazy
exciting news for our little family, and it’s also sad and difficult news. It
means that we are on our way to new adventures, but also that we will be
leaving San Juan, at least for the time being. When we married, we knew our
life would be a bit complicated, knowing that if one of us lived near our
family of origin, it would mean that the other would be far from theirs. Now
having Owen, we feel this at a new depth. However, we are trusting God to continue
to lead our steps.
So
many factors played into our decision to start the residency visa
process, but ultimately it was listening to God moving through it all. You
might remember how we hadn’t been successful at obtaining visitor’s visas for
Wellington in the past two years, which has been a game changer for us in
thinking about the future. While my family has been amazingly supportive of us being in San Juan, even as my father has had an especially difficult past two years battling stage 4 metastatic appendiceal cancer, this has also weighed on our hearts. The residency visa process has gone faster than we
ever imagined, way faster than what we understand the normal to be, and I feel
like perhaps God was erasing any doubts that I had about this being the right
decision at this time for our family. Imagine, it took less than 8 weeks from
first submitting the petition to have the processed visa in hand. They can take
up to 90 days just to approve a petition; ours was approved in 2 days.
Wellington’s interview at the embassy was maybe 5 minutes long before receiving
a “yes,” and we were out of the embassy by 8:15am. It usually takes two weeks
to process the paperwork and visa; his was ready the following day.
We
are excited to see how God leads us during this time. While we know we’re
heading to Pennsylvania, we’re not sure of much else. Tentatively we’re looking
at making the move towards the end of July/beginning of August. Our goal is for
Wellington to obtain citizenship, which will open opportunities for our family
that we would not otherwise have. That will take at least three years living in
the states. So, we’ll be searching for housing, for furnishings for our home,
for jobs, for transportation, for language learning for Wellington. For a slew
of things, but we’ll stop there before I get way too overwhelmed! One step at a
time. Just as God has gone before me moving to San Juan, we know that He will go
before us as we move to PA. There are many things to look forward to,
especially being able to be an in-person part of life with family and friends
there, and sharing favorites with Wellington.
While
on one hand this feels like a “see you later” rather than a “good-bye” to our
San Juan community, it will not be an easy adjustment to not see our friends,
co-workers, and DR family on a daily basis. This is (also) our home, and we’d
like to be here and a part of Solid Rock again in the future. Yes, we’ll be
able to flush toilet paper, enjoy warm showers, and count on 24-hour power, but
those are little things in comparison to what all this involves.
I want to end
well here. I find myself reminiscing already. There have been tremendous
moments during these last 5 ½ years that I have lived in San Juan. I want to honor
my relationships and work by leaving well. That will mean being present and
real and vulnerable, and well, I, we, need your prayers. It’s only been with
the crazy amounts of support through prayer, encouragement, and finances that
you have poured out on me and my family that we’ve gotten to this point. And
while we’re stepping away from San Juan for now, I, by all means, hope that
the relationships we’ve formed with all of you continue into this next phase
too.
So much gratitude pondered in my heart.
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| La familia Rodriguez |
