Visa celebration

November 9, 2009

I got a phone call today. “Jamie, where are you?” I think I was in town somewhere, but I don’t really remember. The next part was the part I remember. “We got our visas. They are in our hands. We’re going to celebrate with coffee and ice cream! Would love for you to join us at Bourbon.” My good friend Adrienne and her husband were just leaving the embassy with visas in their hands that would allow their family to return to the US. The fruit of a nine month long process, which included lots of papers, prayers and patience on the part of Adrienne and Berchimas. But here they were, calling me in complete joy, as their hopes and prayers had been answered. Adrienne is finally going home. Berchimas finally gets to meet the family he is now a part of. God’s promises are sure...

Observing the process that they both went through in the past few months has been interesting and inspiring to me. As someone who has never had to think about getting a visa into a country before, I’ve never realized the sheer agony that can accompany the process. Not only are there many forms to fill out, documents to collect and a medical evaluation to undergo, in Rwanda there is also an added hurdle of obtaining the necessary papers. Due to the war many people’s legal papers were lost or destroyed. I lost count of the times that Adrienne told me Berchimas had to go back to his hometown to work on getting his papers. At some times I wondered how they kept their hearts right, and didn’t get extremely discouraged. I believe I would have had a hard time keeping a positive outlook towards everything. Needless to say, I’m impressed by them, and extremely happy they obtained their visas...