My baby is home!
James flew into Chicago yesterday. Immigration and customs all went very smoothly. Our I-129f is now on the way to Detroit to await our AOS application. Alas, James’ Air India flight was an hour and a half late and very slow in deplaning and as a result we didn’t beat the thunderstorm but rather ended up in the middle of it. 🙁 So there we were in torrential rain and lots of lightning with flood and tornado watches being broadcast on the radio. It would have been a lovely storm if we hadn’t been trying to drive in it! I don’t do at all well driving in bad weather, so we got off the highway in Portage, Indiana and stayed at the Days Inn. The weather was much better this morning.
So now James is unpacking and trying to find places to put his stuff in my little one-bedroom apartment. Hopefully it’s only for a few months since we’re in the process of looking for a house to buy. We’re doing our first looking for real this Wednesday night!
We also got word yesterday (via text message) and this morning (via email) that James’ brother Matthew is going to be coming this weekend too. Very happy news! So now we get to look forward to having both James’ mum and brother here for a few days.
Several times yesterday James made comments like, “You don’t have to take me back to the airport,” and “I live here now.”
The “rest of our lives” starts now.
James has blogged about his visit to the US Embassy to get his fiance visa. You can read all about it here and see the actual visa itself.
Only two more days until he comes!
James was issued the fiance visa by the US Embassy in London yesterday. Yippeeee!!
He said there was a lot of sitting around and waiting – some of it which felt rather pointless and inefficient. But it all went smoothly, the embassy official who interviewed him just asked a few routine questions, and James was done with everything (the medical and interview) in just over four hours.
So where are we going from here, you may ask?
James is planning to fly to the US on May 23 (details yet to be worked out with Expedia). My father will marry us in a little ceremony on our back deck on May 29. James’ mum is also hoping to fly here on May 28 so she can be with us for the weekend. We’re so glad she’s going to be able to come!
We’re still planning to do the big ceremony and celebration on October 22 complete with wedding dress, attendants, flowers, music, vows, and the whole bit. We’ll just be legally married before then. We see ourselves as fitting into traditions – both current traditions from other cultures (including Persian) and more historical Western traditions – that stretch out the wedding celebration and often include more than one ceremony. James promises to blog about it at more length soon.
We’re going to do our best to be intentional about celebrating each step in the process and making each special in its own way. With our families and dear friends by our sides, we’re confident that we will and excited about what’s to come!
UPDATE: James’ mum has reserved her ticket and is in fact going to be flying to Chicago on the 28th, going back to the UK on the 31st. It’ll be a quick trip (not much hope of adjusting to the time zone…) but we’re really glad she can come at all!
6:23 a.m. Saturday morning. The phone woke me up.
I looked at my alarm clock and thought, “That had better be James and he’d better be calling with good news!”
Sure enough! James got his packet from the US Embassy on Saturday morning. (Well, it arrived at his parents’ home and his mum called with the news.) His interview is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. this Friday – May 14. Yay!! What a good way to wake up on a Saturday morning! 🙂
He’s pulling together the last of the bits of information that he needs for that such as vaccination records. And
