Living on both sides of the line

Hello Again

So after some discussions between Mac and I this afternoon we've come up with a plan of sorts, and it will flex as it needs to. We are going to set up our place of residence in Canada, specifically in southern ontario somewhere. We're hoping that we can find a room to rent in someone's house, or perhaps someone has a granny suite in their home we can occupy for awhile (hopefully 3 months or less). So if anyone reading this knows someone who might be able to help us, please pass our info along to them!

Our plan is to spend a couple weeks in Ontario and then drive down to Virginia Beach to work on the house for a couple weeks and then come back up. So we'll (hopefully) be spending our time 50/50 on both sides of the border.

So now we are looking to the Lord to provide us with a place to live, and a job that is super flexible (i.e. will let one of us work 2 on and 2 off). Your prayers are still very much needed.

blessings
melissa & mac

Visa Prayers Needed

Hello Friends!

Yesterday we returned to Toronto after a wonderful time in Virginia Beach visiting with Mac's family and friends and then a few days in Lancaster PA visiting with my cousins. Both were great! As I get a chance i'll write more about those adventures later, but right now, i need to ask you all for your prayers.

As we crossed into Canada yesterday we stopped in at the US Customs to ask them some questions about moving my stuff into the States and visas. Here is the short version of the stories. I cannot move any of my stuff or live in the States until after I have status in the States. I cannot get status in the States until after I have applied for and received my marriage visa -- which i cannot apply for until AFTER we get married. In fact the only way i will be able to travel into the states after we get married is if we have our permanent place of residence in Canada. Thankfully Mac still has a student visa for Canada and he is going to extend it for another year so he can be in Canada as needed.

So this throws all our nicely laid plans into the air and brings out a lot of questions.
What are we supposed to do now? Our plans were to move my things into the house in VA Beach in mid-July, and it looks like that will not be happening at this point. Then after the wedding we were going to be living in Mac's parents house to prep it for sale over the next year or so (they have moved into a seniors residence).

We have some options. Two of them are:

• Proceed as we had planned, filing everything the day after the wedding via mail or hand delivering the applications to the consulate office on the Monday after our wedding and hoping for the best. In the mean time finding some short term lodgings in CAnada until the visa comes through and we can proceed as planned.
• I enroll in classes at Regent Divinity School in Norfolk, VA and take a class or two (whatever is necessary to fulfill the requirements of the Visa). If i did this i would take some more biblical languages, which is something i wanted to do anyways. I'm not excited about this option, as i had hoped to be off school for longer, but as i don't have a job anywhere yet, this would provide me with something to do with myself. The other issue with this option is that i have missed the international application deadline (April 1) and so i would not get in until January 08 at the earliest. So it is not helpful, that we can see, for starting school in the fall.

We are finding that we understand Abraham a whole lot better now. Twice he passed Sarah off as his sister rather than his wife, so that it would go better for him. While Mac is not trying to claim me as his sister, nor would i suggest this, there are a whole bunch of options we could make use of if we wanted to lie, or use illegal methods to enter the States. Though we are frustrated that it would be easier for me to enter the States through less then honest means, we do not want to do anything that would mar our witness or dishonour the Lord. But while we want to honour God, we do understand that pull that Abraham experience to make things be easy.

Your prayers would be deeply appreciated.