13 months and 9 days...

The moment came at the perfect time.  We were at the home of Irma, an amazing Finnish woman who glows with the presence of God and who owns a lovely piece of property in the outskirts of town. We had just sat down for afternoon coffee with her and our dear friends here, the Pauls, when Darcy busted in the front door from playing outside screaming, “I have to go POO-POO!”  Colby got up to help her when I heard his phone ring.  My stomach immediately dropped and the Finnish fancy cake I was chewing on suddenly made me want to vomit.

This was it.  It had to be.  We had been waiting for 13 months and 9 days to get a residence permit and today was the day we would hear the decision.  I made eye contact with Heather and we both tried to politely listen to the conversation that was happening around the table, both knowing that something monumental and life-altering was happening in the other room.   I was nauseated with nervousness. 

I excused myself and entered the bathroom where Darcy was loudly trying to get Colby’s attention because she needed to be wiped… and Colby was hiding in the shower with one hand plugging his ear, trying to hear the person on the other end of the phone.  He was smiling with a giddiness that I hadn’t seen in a long time, and I leaned into the phone just in time to hear the words, “You have been approved.”  It was almost visible—the weight that I watched lift from Colby’s shoulders…the burden that had been there for so long that I had begun to not even recognize it. 

He continued to talk on the phone with our representative from Iceland, and I made my way to the closest chair in sight and collapsed in it.  I watched him pace back and forth around the living room, laughing, glowing.  We made eye contact.  He moved the phone away from his lips and mouthed to me, “It. is. over.” 

I couldn’t believe it.  I sat in the rocking chair in a state of shock for a long time.  Now that I think about it, I don’t know if anyone ever wiped Darcy.  Poor child.  All I could hear were the words, “It is over.”  All I could see in my mind was a long and painful road that we had finally--hand in hand--come to the end of.  Not just us, but many that have traveled this road with us were behind us cheering and smiling.  I didn’t know what to think.  For so long we hadn’t known WHEN this would end, WHERE it would end or if it WOULD ever end.  And now it was over.  This journey was finally over.  And it was finally beginning...