Family, Friends, Supporter and Sponsors,
I apologize that we have not updated our blog sooner. Life has been busy as you will see. Please know that we will try much better to keep the blog updated more regularly. If you know someone who would like to receive email notifications of blog and prayer updates, please have them send their email address to staytonservingspain@gmail.com. I will always send update notifications through email and through Jared and I's facebook pages. Thanks you for joining us on this amazing journey. Thank you for being patient with us and alongside us! Lora
The blog has been quiet for a few months now because it had been quiet here for awhile. Then, life did a quick fast forward on us. And, now, we are back on pause. So, in this pause, I want to get everyone up to date on the happenings with our family and our mission. In this blog, I will do a quick fast forward to get everyone caught up on what has occurred since the beginning of November until now, the middle of February. Then, on my next few blogs. I'll rewind to testify to what the Lord has done in the midst of the events I'm about to share. No need for a remote, I've got it. Here we go...
Our original departure date was set for Dec. 7, 2010. At the beginning of November, it became evident that we would be unable to leave for Spain on that date as we were still waiting for our invitation letters to arrive from Spain's Ministry of Justice. So, we celebrated Thanksgiving with our families bringing some traditional Spanish Tapas dishes to the dinners. And, we started making plans for the Christmas season and into the first of the new year. This news was met with great relief and excitement among our families (and some of our friends).
We received a God sized gift the week of Christmas. Our long awaited letters arrived from Spain. Now, we were able to take our complete visa applications to the Spanish Consolate's Office in Chicago. We were ready to get up there immediately. However, the holiday office closings and the weather were not in our favor. We had to wait until the week following New Year to make the drive to Chicago. So, on January 4, 2011, Jared and I made the drive to Chicago and dropped off the visa applications for our family. While there, we inquired on the time frame for processing in order that we might scheduel flights. We were met with some astonishing news. "The process takes a minumum of 3 months." WHAT?!? "But your website says, 'The process is 4-6 weeks.'" The kind lady responded, "Yes, that could be. But it is 3 months. It could be more or could be less. Wait until you get your visas to book travel." We were also told the journey our visa applications must make (from Chicago for intial processing to Madrid for national approval to Rincon de la Victoria for local approval and then back to Madrid for final approval and then back to Chicago). Once the approved visas return to Chicago, we will receive a phone call informing us to come and pick them up. Jared and I are apporved first, then they process and approve the girls. We have 30 days to pick up our visas and pray that within that 30 day window the girls will be approved to pick them all up in one trip to Chicago.
Since, we were going to be around for a potential of 3 months. We made a few changes and have mainatined a pretty busy schedule. We celebrated Jared's 37th birthday on January 7 with a "Man vs Food" dinner at his parent's house. After we spent two weeks getting all the little things cleaned up and out of our campus housing and only our clothing and items that we are taking to Spain packed into suitcases. (That was adventure!) We moved the third week of January out of campus housing. Some great friends and supporters, Greg and Katina Downey, have opened their home (and basically their entire finished basement) for our family to live in while we wait which helps cut our outgoing expenses by a few hundred dollars. Jared has had some work come in and Lora has done some substitute teaching. These help keep a little income for us to live off of in this time. The girls are getting back into the routine of home schooling keeping focus on reading and math and for Laila some handwriting. We are all doing our Spanish lessons on the Rosetta Stone program that we have been given and are encouraging our friends who know Spanish to communitcate with us in that language to give us the extra practice we all could use.
Speaking of extra practice, we were able to get lots of Spanish practice in during the visit of Pablo, our soon-to-be pastor in Spain. During the week of our move, we learned of his impending visit around February 5. We were in the midst of adjusting to our new living arrangments, celebrating Lora's 35th birthday on February 1st, and enduring a nasty bit of winter weather while busily making preparations for Pablo' visit. He arived in Indy on Saturday, February 5 and was here until Wednesday, February 9. It was a great time of fellowship, encouragement, and blessing for us all.
So, we are still paused. Tomorrow will be 6 weeks since we have dropped off our visa applications in Chicago. We pray each day to receive a phone call that we are approved. That phone call would enable us to confirm flights and have a new departure date. Until that call, we are making the most of our pause. We would love to visit and fellowship with as many of you as possible during this time. Please call, email, or facebook us. We have already been so blessed with the fellowship that this pause has given us with some of you. We are so blessed by God's testimony that He is proclaiming during this time. We know that soon we will be out of pause and thrust into fast forward again with our days left here in the states few and precious. Until then, we hope to enjoy the pause with you! Romans 15:24
