Destination Paradise

Here are some images of how Mexico's independence day is celebrated at school! Carolina's class: I  Video:

It has clearly been an eternity since my last post and much has happened. Let's do a quick review for the benefit of those who have been following and wondering, or for those who are new to our story. A lot of this will come from the perspective of my Facebook account. January 2014 Just to recap, our last visa interview was in Seoul in 2012, where we were denied a visa and the opportunity to file a waiver. Since then policy has changed indicating that people in Carlos' situation SHOULD be able to argue for the chance to file a waiver. So that's what we were doing at the start of the year. I finally gathered the necessary documents and shipped them off to our lawyer so she could file our I-601 waiver.  Here's a picture of the stack of evidence of hardship I sent. Keep in mind this is just a portion of the waiver, as our lawyer then proceeded to construct a thick brief to give all of this context. A major undertaking. February 2014 Our lawyer finished con...

I've been pregnant in 3 different countries (the US, Mexico, and now Korea), and I can say that by far, the experience in this one has been the best. Why is that? Let's see... Of course, my view is skewed by the fact that the last time, we were in the middle of our first attempt at the US immigration process, I was stressed out beyond all belief, I was unsure of whether to continue in Mexico or the US, ended up bouncing between both countries, and ultimately giving birth in the US while Carlos watched on Skype. Obviously it's much more ideal to be in one country and together full-time with my husband. During my last pregnancy, I guess I just rolled with it and survived, but now I realize how much I missed out on. For example, this time, I'll only have had to fly pregnant once (already done)! Instead of...four-plus times like I did last time. This time, I actually got to have Carlos there at the ultrasound where they checked the baby's anatomy and told us she...

Maybe it's been a little too long since my last post, huh? I don't get how all those mommy bloggers do it. I can barely get a few ideas strung together before I'm asked to fix a broken helicopter, read a big trucks book, or replay some scenes from Toy Story or Curious George. For example, this post was actually written over a period of 7 different sessions. What have we been doing? There was a trip to Mexico in September shortly after my last post. Even though that was many months ago, it's probably a good starting place as I try to get back into the blogging game. I live for moments like these: Our visit coincided with Mexico's historic bicentennial independence celebration. Although hysteria over potential cartel violence managed to keep us from going to any public events, we did get to enjoy the festivities from home, and from various small-scale celebrations during the week. Everywhere we went, people were selling flags, horns, and other fe...

I'm finally accomplishing one of my goals, which is to get this blog updated for the new decade and the fight ahead.  I'm a little behind on that goal, but hopefully within the next few days I can check it off my list.  So, there's a redesign that's about 70% completed, and I'll be adding some new resources.  In the meantime I'm changing some settings with the feed and trying to fix up some old posts, so I apologize for any emails of old posts that have come your way if you're an email subscriber.  Hopefully it won't happen any more. By the way, we're back from Mexico (obviously) and have been for several weeks.  It was a good trip in the sense that we were all together.  However, our collective tolerance for Monterrey has long passed its limit, and we're anxious for Carlos to get out of there.  Hence a renewed sense of purpose for the fight. OK, hopefully see you soon with a new look!

There was a sale on airfare, so I booked. We will spend Carlos' spring break together, in Mexico. :) Suddenly there are a million little travel details to figure out. Primarily, how to handle a 4-hour flight with a toddler. But it's all good because we're going to be a normal family for 2 weeks!!!!! Counting down to the end of March...

October 3rd quietly came and went. It's now been one year since Carlos was officially banned from the US. Life marches on. Amy's been long-term substitute teaching near home. Just finished a month teaching a 3rd grade class in the Dual Language program, which was a fun chance to put to use all the practices she learned in her student teaching days at Inter-American Magnet School in Chicago. Dual Language has a lot of special challenges that you never encounter in traditional bilingual classrooms. Carlos is teaching a variety of levels at the English language schools where he works in Monterrey. He's even teaching kids right now, which is not for the faint of heart. He's exhausted from the one-hour (each way!) commute from home to work, and disappointed that there never seems to be any money left after the bills are paid. Lucas is 9 months old (almost 10!) and has developed a rigorous repertoire of crawling, climbing, and cruising around every inch of the hou...

...We're all here together in Mexico! Here's the photo everyone's been waiting to see: This is actually a screen capture from my parents' computer while they were talking to us on Skype as soon as we got home. Hopefully we'll get a nicer one taken while we're here... Some photos of Carlos getting to know his son: Carlos' dad meeting his first grandchild: Wake up, Daddy!!! I decided the last straw was when, after postponing our trip due to the "swine flu outbreak" in Mexico, I fell ill with a nasty strain of the flu. Ironically, it's very likely that what hit me was the same swine flu, due to the fact that there were a number of confirmed cases in the schools where I was substituting right before getting sick. Just when I thought I was recovering, Lucas started showing signs of it. Fortunately, after a check-up at the doctor and lots of Tylenol, he recovered, but we were nervous for awhile. It's always scary to see your ...

Oops. It's been over a month since I was in Mexico and I still haven't posted most of the photos. I'll add them in a second. An update on immigration: our amazing attorney is now filing a separate appeal that will go to a completely different office. So she's basically working from two angles, and if either is successful, we're looking at a brand new chance! So we just need prayers that we'll get quick and favorable responses. Now, back to the trip. Aside from the absolute insanity of our experience with immigration, we had a good time together. Here are some highlights: Carlos bought me a slice of German Chocolate Cake for my birthday! Baby G and I both enjoyed it. We went to this huge market/strip mall, "Los Cabacitos". Several food vendors make stuff that's so good, this place is known all over the city. These gorditas are one example: picadillo con papas (ground beef with potatoes) is the top one, and calabacitas (squ...