This is a lengthy blog, but I pray that God’s glory and His hand will be evident for you in this account and that it will be a blessing your life.
After waiting four months for our invitation letter from our church in Spain, Parque Victoria, to get approval from Spain’s Ministry Department in Madrid, we were very ready and excited to take all the other gathered paperwork and that last missing piece, our letter, to the Spanish Consulate’s Office in Chicago. Well, the Lord still had us delay, wait and be patient on His timing. Since the letter was mailed from Spain the week before Christmas, even sent two day air mail, it didn’t arrive here until between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. We were still prepared to make the drive up to Chicago and had a slight break in the winter weather to do so. However, we still had to be patient and wait. The Consulate’s Office was closed during the holiday and wouldn’t reopen until the week after New Year’s Day. So, we set the date of January 4 to take all of the visa packets to Chicago.
The day before our departure, we started getting all of the documents we had gathered in order and copied per the instructions on the consulate’s office’s website. The first hurdle that we had was the visa application itself. We had gathered all the necessary information to fill them out, but we had only printed off an application for each of us and not completed them. To make this matter more confusing, our invitation letter from the Spanish Ministry Department arrived with a sample application to fill out. This visa application was completely different from the visa application on the Spanish Consulate’s Office in Chicago’s website (the one Jared had printed off for each of us.) We were unsure which to fill out. It was suggested (Thanks, Dave!) that we fill both out and take it all that way we could give them which ever one they required. Which we did, however, in making our packets, we had left behind the website’s application feeling positive that the application that had come directly from Madrid, Spain, where our visa’s would get approval, must be the right one.
Also, in our getting all of our documents ready, we discovered that we had overlooked the need for 4 original passport photos to accompany each of the four visa packet copies (plus the original documents which we had an original passport photo for left over from processing our passports this summer). In frustration, we gathered the girls and headed to the local corner drug store to have more passport photos taken and printed. To add to the frustration, passport photos are only ordered in twos, therefore, we had to order two sets for all four of us. At almost $20 a set, we had an unexpected expense. God allowed us to refocus our frustration in praise to Him in the midst of this event while standing in the store. One, He had provided us with the funds to purchase these necessary items. Two, He had revealed the need before we were in Chicago (without the girls). Three, He had allowed the letter to arrive and we were finally making the long awaited trip to Chicago!
Now let me pause here to share some background. Jared and I had originally purposed to take the girls with us on the trip to Chicago but, in the end, decided to leave the girls behind and not take them to Chicago to drop off our visa applications. We were told that there was no fanfare to this part of the process. While it felt to us like a great momentous occasion, in actuality, we would walk to window in a small office located in a high-rise office building, hand them the packets of documents we had prepared, and be sent away with the official response, “We will call you when these are finished.” Also, I had never been to Chicago before. We had toyed with the idea of making a day of being in the city together or even having an overnight stay. In the effort to save time and money, we had rejected those ideas as well. In determining when to make our journey, we consulted with the office hour postings for the consulate’s office.The Spanish Consulate’s Office in Chicago operates on “Spain time” even here in the US. The office hours were 9am-2pm. We prayed and then purposed to leave Indy early in the morning to get to office within its first hour of business. We felt we would avoid most of Chicago’s morning rush hour commuting and we would be able to drop off the packets with a little time left over for lunch and perhaps some sight seeing in the city. We also prayed for fair weather conditions for our trip with the uncertain daily winter weather between Indianapolis and Chicago which we had already been experiencing leading up to our trip. These are important settings to truly see God in the midst of the rest of the story.
After making all the copies of all the original documents and each of the documents translated into Spanish, having all the photos and identification pieces in hand that were required, possessing the money orders for the processing fees, and large envelopes for each of us containing all of this paperwork, Jared and I dropped the girls off at Grandpa and Grandma’s and made our way to Chicago. We were blessed with a clear and crisp (20 degree) sunny day to make the three hour drive. We praised God for this answer to prayer and again providing for our needs and desires. It was a great drive for Jared and I with uninterrupted conversation and great worship music to be the sound track of our trip.
We made our way through some mild Chicago traffic and found our destination almost effortlessly. With a valeted parking garage on the same block, we praised God again for His provision and were excited about not having too far to walk in the bitter cold wind whipping through Chicago’s high-rise shaded streets. We found our way up to the Spanish Consulate’s Office arriving around 10am. We waited only a about five minutes for our turn with another family in front of us. The husband (later to find out from Cuba) was speaking in Spanish to the office worker. I was encouraged to realize that my Rosetta Stone studies have been paying off and I could understand the basics of their conversation! Our turn arrived as we went to the window for our uneventful drop off. Well, God had different plan.
As we handed in our packets, the first info that was given to us was that we had too many copies. We only need the originals and three copies. Ok, so I have an extra for our file at home (which I already had one there anyway, but still two is fine). The next bit of info we were given was that we had completed the wrong visa application! Remember, we had left the one from the website at home. You got it! That was the application we needed. (They had just revised the application.) So, the young lady handed us four copies of the correct applications for us to fill out. Perfect, I can do that in a few minutes. Just a matter of transferring the information from the incorrect app to the correct app. But, I still needed to make three copies. The office worker informed me that that don’t make copies there so we would have to leave, make copies, and return. I can deal with that..I’m sure Chicago has a Kinko’s, Staples, or similar store somewhere close to make these necessary copies. Then, in a final unexpected turn, the consulate employee said that our FBI background check was incomplete. The document was suppose to be accompanied by an Apostille Seal. A what? Well, it’s a seal that you have attached to the document from your Secretary of State! Ok, now we are in trouble. We are in Chicago, not Indy. We are in the wrong state! How are we going to get this seal? Did we really just make this trip to not even be able to accomplish the task we had set out to do? As we said a silent prayer, God provided a potential answer. The office worker voluntarily informed us that the Illinois Secretary of State’s office was right around the corner (two blocks up and two block over). She was uncertain if they could provide us the seal without being residents of Illinois, but we were willing to try in an effort to not have to go home and return at a later date. So, we gathered all of our paperwork, placed them back into the envelopes, and began our hasty trek through downtown Chicago. (After all, we were uncertain of how long this process, if any available was going to take. I mean we were going to a government office in downtown Chicago! Remember the consulate’s office closed at 2pm.) I guess that I was getting to spend sometime in Chicago, just not in the way I had expected. But God works best in the unexpected, Usually only then do we rely upon the Lord and let Him have total control.
We began the fast paced walk along the path given to us by the consulate office employee. During this walk Jared and I continued in an attitude of prayer. Along the way, we passed a Staples which made me smile knowing that we still had to make copies of the correct visa applications that needed to be copied. I also made an aside note that our bank was right across the street from the Staples saying you never know when you may need the bank. As we continued on the walk, we were met with intermitted sunshine and a bite from the wind between the buildings. We arrived at the Illinois Secretary of State’s office. We were met with welcoming news and no wait. At this office, we were told that we had to fill out a form which needed to be notarized by an official notary. Not being from Chicago, we inquired where one could be found. We thought in a government office building that there would be quite a few who offered that service. Instead, the Secretary of State Apostille Seal office worker instructed us to go to our place of banking and they would provide the service for us and would do it at no cost being a customer. (Thank you Lord for putting the bank along our path! His provision continually left us in awe.) Knowing exactly where we were headed. We backtracked on our path a couple of blocks. We were able to get the notary with only a few minute wait. We then were able to return to the Apostille Seal office to turn in the notarized form. We had to have a seat and wait, but I now that God provided that break in time for us to complete the correct visa forms for each of us. Just as I was finished with the forms, our name was called from the window with our Apostille Seal ready and attached to our FBI Background checks. Now, we walked very quickly to the Staples on our way back to the Spanish Consulate. We speedily made copies of the correct visa applications and the Apostille Seal to accompany the already made copies of the FBI Background checks. With our packets now completed with three copies of each document and the new additions per the instructions of the consulate employee, we made our way back to the Spanish Consulate’s Office.
Upon arrival in the office, we praised God that it was just before 1pm and we had done all of this footwork in the time allotted to us by the consulate’s office hours. We only had a few minute wait and we were able to proceed to the window for a second time that day. We were met with a new face than we had on our first visit (though she was there on the computer). When we turned in our packets, the employee went through all the docs being sure everything was in order. She first told us we only needed the originals and one copy! (What? The first employee told us something totally different and the website gave conflicting information as well. We are learning from those who have lived or do live in Spain…”Welcome to Spanish life!” Also, we had spent money on too many copies of paperwork AND on original passport photos to accompany each of the copied packets.) She then proceed to give me back all of our original birth certificates and our marriage certificate saying that a copy (uncertified) was all they needed for the processing. In the last shock, she returned our passports to us informing us that they did not need them with our application packets (even though it is stated on the website). I inquired if they needed copies and was answered with a definitive, “No.” (Again, a side note…we received a phone call 8 weeks after dropping off our visa application packets from the Spanish Consulate’s Office in Chicago. The office in Madrid had contacted them to contact us because they were needing a full copy from front cover to back cover of my passport. To be safe we scanned an emailed Jared’s as well! Oh, yes, “Welcome to Spanish culture!)
A relief finally came over us as we got the nod and the final bid of farewell from the consulate employee. “We will call when they are ready to be picked up.” We were met with a bit of uncertainty when the office told us that they cannot give even an estimated time for processing. All they could tell us was that it would be three months, plus or minus. (This week marks the 13th week since we have dropped off our packets.) With our mission (in Chicago) accomplished, while not pretty, it was done and we were in the final phase of our departure process. The clock on the wall read 1:10pm when we walked out the door.
Jared and I gave much praise to God as we had a celebratory lunch in a restaurant near the Spanish Consulate. Thankful we had left the girls at home who would have slowed us up and been miserable tracking and backtracking the streets of Chicago. Yet, we were assured in our hearts and minds that they will travel with us to pick our approved visas. We were astonished at all that God had allowed us to accomplish despite the hurdles and obstacles that seemed to be in our way. We were blessed all day by His provision, His timing, His planning, and all to testify to His glory. We continue to rest in His sovereignty as He has put us again on a pause in this journey. To God be the Glory in our lives.
