Where to begin? It is has been an eventful few weeks few months since we left Nashville for California back in September. What was planned as a 6-week trek there and back again, turned into a bit longer. As we hope you all know by now, we have not left for India, as was our original plan. California has become our second temporary home of the year! SHIFT OF EXPECTATIONS It would turn out, acquiring the visas from Travisa & the Indian Embassy is not a 5-day process as we were led to believe initially. Go figure. Instead, what we discovered is that a visa that is at rest will stay at rest without intervention. By that, we mean it would appear that it is not abnormal to have a visa application sit on someone’s desk until they (the Indian government) feels motivated to address the application, which could actually be quite a long time. So, in this way, the Indian government closely mirrors ours here in the US. When we discovered this particular fact, and quickly learned it could take up to 6 months to acquire the needed visa, we panicked… no seriously we kind of sorta did. Good news was that our recovery time was quicker than in the past, and we tackled this speed bump like we have the rest of the speed bumps along the way: we prayed, trusted God was smarter than us, panicked a little bit again, then trusted God. We discovered this delay at the perfect spot on the trip- just as we were pulling into San Diego and, more specifically, up to my dad and mom’s house. For those that don’t know, my mom lives to embellish people with her cooking! Quickly, her devious scheme to fatten us all up before we left for India was discovered. Admittedly, we proved very receptive to this particular scheme and put up little to no resistance. God timed things well, and in spite of our timeline not going according to our wishes, we landed in a good spot. SEEING THE POSITIVES Though it’s been hard, our hearts may be even more prepared for the unique challenges our new life in Ongole will bring. More time to cuts ties with the familiar life of Franklin, TN has given us a chance to walk out grief, fears, and homesickness from the States- like pulling off a band aid slowly! As we’d always suspected, “stuff” isn’t so important; we’ve been living for 3 months off things that were packed for a short trip! Our 4 kids have learned to live together all in one teeny room (no small feat!). I’m not going to lie, we are aching to have our own place, but trust there is purpose in this transition time. The extended wait has provided quality time and rest with family that we don’t see nearly often enough, or long enough: parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. We’ve celebrated Thanksgiving, and our girls’ birthdays with them. Lots of memories being made! When it became apparent we’d have a tremendous amount of time on our hands as the visa situation worked out, Tisra and I began tackling some foundational projects for SCH from 11,000 miles away. Looking at the positives, we’re able to recognize that a few of these important tasks would have been near impossible to work on immediately upon arrival in India. Finding a source for groceries, adjusting to the culture, and setting up house would trump all else! Our telecommuting tactics include Facebook, Skype, e-mail, and instant messaging to the SCH staff in India! The last few weeks and months we have been immersed in both familiar and unfamiliar waters. WHAT WE’RE WORKING ON Tisra has been familiarizing herself with the new CARA guidelines (Central Adoption Resource Authority is the Indian govt. organization that oversees adoptions) that go into effect starting January 2012. She designed and oversaw the sale of the 2012 SCH Calendar fundraiser, has been educating herself on fundraising avenues for SCH (including grant writing), and has been working on a new logo and website content… all this on top of homeschooling 3 of our 4 children. I have been able to successfully identify and merge several Internet domain names that had been registered over the years for SCH into a single account. We have also procured multiple software and services grants from Google, SalesForce.com and an organization called TechSoup. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment we have been able to work on together is the new website. Up until now, SCH has had sporadic websites go up as short term, and well meaning, volunteers would design something. However, without someone permanent overseeing that area, they have been sporadic in design and deployment. Sarah’s blog has been the single most common web presence and voice of SCH in addition to Facebook. With the development of the website (so many thanks go out to Harry Hamernick for being a great source of knowledge!) we plan to have a solid and current website platform from which we can better tell the story of the kids at SCH as well as highlight and promote fund raising efforts and, eventually, a child sponsorship program. Having had the time here in CA, we have been excited to see so many of- what we consider to be- the basics of our work get established for SCH. We are looking at these things as great momentum for the tasks that will be continued in India! “WHEN?” Speaking of getting to India… As I said earlier, a visa at rest stays at rest, unless you hire an attorney. Through Tisra’s online research (did I mention she is fantastic at that type of thing?) we came across an immigration lawyer in India. He had been helpful in discerning some particulars of applications etc. for our Visa some months back. When we realized we were stuck, we contacted him again and he offered his assistance, feeling he could work things out. (Thanks here go out to Jordan Sekulow and the ACLJ for their help in vetting the lawyer and giving us advice in the matter) So, for the first time in our lives, we hired a lawyer! That was 3 weeks ago, and we received word this week that our visa application is no longer at rest and is now whizzing through the process. Hallelujah! While it is too early to put specific dates on anything yet, things are “un-stuck” enough that we have developed another projected timeline. A best-case scenario now has us leaving California after Christmas (with visas in hand!), returning to Nashville for a week or two to wrap up loose ends and say a final goodbye, and then flying to India in mid-January. SEND OFF PARTY When October was our planned departure, the weather in Nashville was warmer. We thought we’d have a goodbye party with everyone at a park or other outdoor venue. In light of a January winter send off, we are looking for free indoor/warm location to hold a large crowd. We need your help- any suggestions or ideas are appreciated! On that note, we’ll conclude this extremely long update. Our prayers of thankfulness for you and your involvement extend, and we look forward to keeping you updated on the visa front. God Bless you, Eric (and Tisra)