Thursday, December 22, 2011

Panama here we come!

I had hoped to have time to write a longer blog tonight looking back on 2011 and looking forward to 2012, but packing has taken me much longer than anticipated and I need to get to bed so I can get up bright and early tomorrow to head to the airport. I spoke with Raul about an hour ago and he was at the airport in Mexico City. He decided just to stay overnight in the airport since his flight for Panama leaves early in the morning.

I, along with my sister and her family, will be headed to O'hare tomorrow morning and we will meet my mom and two of my "adoptive sisters" from Iowa Wesleyan at the airport. Though we leave tomorrow morning, we will not arrive in Panama until tomorrow night because we have a lengthy layover in Newark. Thankfully we have no blizzards in the forcast so there shouldn't be a danger of being stranded in the airport at Newark. That would be pure torture for me!

I am so thankful for this trip. It has been a rough year for my family and we have all been looking forward to this vacation and change of scenery. Thanks so much for all of your support and prayers.  Merry Christmas from the Gizzos!

Monday, December 5, 2011

On to the next step

As I type, Raul should be on a plane headed back to Mexico City. When I talked to him on the phone following his consular interview, he sounded pretty relieved that this part was over and that he would soon be headed "home" to Santa Monica. He arrived at the consulate at 7:00 a.m. today and finally got called in for his interview around 2:00 p.m. He said the interview itself did not take long. Apparently, everything went okay because they gave him the go ahead to schedule his waiver appointment. Raul didn't elaborate much on the questions he was asked, but he was relieved that they didn't ask him many dates. Numbers and dates are definitely not his friend. :)

We found out that one of our friends from Iowa knows a missionary couple in Juarez. I was able to talk to them on the phone on Sunday and they offered for Raul to stay with them when he has to travel to Juarez for his waiver. That will be very helpful to us so we won't have to pay for a hotel room, especially if he ends up having to stay longer than anticipated like this go around.  We continue to feel very blessed by the people that God has been bringing into our lives through out this journey.

Thank you all for your prayers. I don't even want to imagine where we would be without them!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Still Waiting

As most of you are aware, Raul had his appointment this morning at 11:15 for his Consular interview. After waiting the entire day, they called him to the window at 3:00 p.m. only to tell him that he would have to come back on Monday. As you can imagine, this was very disappointing for Raul. He was looking forward to heading back home to Santa Monica tomorrow morning, and now he has to stay over the weekend in Juarez.

It would be putting it mildly to say that I was upset when I heard the news. Not only must my love spend longer in lonely Juarez but this is going to be very costly as well since his plane ticket for tomorrow is non-transferable and we will have to pay for extra nights in the hotel. Though I intellectually know that God will provide for our needs, I have trouble trusting in that as I see our savings being drained by things beyond our control. Again, thank goodness that God is so faithful even when I am faithless. He must just shake his head at me sometimes when I freak out over money and other things which are beyond my control. I hate to say it, but I see a strong similarity between me and those grumbling Israelites. He performs miracle after miracle and still I complain and doubt.

Other than those glitches, things are going pretty okay for the Gizzos. We're looking forward to our Panama vacation over Christmas. It will be hard for Raul to be away from his family in the States for Christmas, but at least we will be together and he will be able to be with some of my side of the family. We have really been enjoying speaking on the phone this past week since he has a phone in his hotel room and he doesn't have to pay for incoming calls. When he is in Santa Monica, we usually try to limit conversations to 15 to 20 minutes, but this week, I've been able to chat about nothing for up to an hour. Just like the good old days when we were dating!

Though this whole situation has been frustrating, I have been seeing blessing after blessing that we have been receiving through it all. Raul was joking that every newly wed couple should go through a time of separation to help strengthen their relationship. Taking a step back has really helped us see how blessed we are to have each other.  God has also been using this time to teach me some of the areas that I need work on in our relationship.

Even after all of our frustrations, we are reminded that God is still in control. The God who parted the Red Sea and who has power over death itself is still our God and his ways will prevail if we let him do his work. Glory be to God.