Reflections from the Other Side

For months we've been focused on August 1st. August 1st would be the "big day." It would be the day we would finally travel to our consulate appointment in Houston to submit our documents. It would be a huge milestone for us, getting us one step closer to our outcome, at least that's what we are hoping for.

After months of preparation, we found ourselves at a small coffee shop on the Saturday morning before our appointment. We met with our translator who finished translating the last of our documents. We were relieved she finished them on time.

The Sunday before our appointment, we spent the morning at the Kinko's FedEx store making copies of all our documentation. After months of running around collecting documents and sending them to translators, the day had come to make copies of all our documents. That day, one folder would become two. lol

We decided we'd all dress up for our appointment because, well, it couldn't hurt our chances of getting a visa. So the day before our appointment, Nick and I spent 4 hours at the mall looking for business casual clothes for him to wear. He's grown so fast this year that it has been hard to keep up with him. Three hours after finding him shoes, a shirt, and some slacks, we headed out of Austin for Houston.

We were paranoid enough about traffic, we decided to stay overnight in Houston. At a hotel only 10 minutes away from our appointment, the morning seemed to flow easily. Before we knew it, we were loading the car and heading over to meet Nick's Dad in the lobby of the consulate office building. He had driven in that morning and made good time. Other than being rerouted due to an accident on the freeway, he had a pretty smooth drive in from Austin, thank goodness.

While the consulate appointment was nothing like I expected, I am still glad we went through all the effort to look nice and double check our documents.

Instead of being called back into an office and interviewed from across a desk, we met our visa processing agent at a window. The window had a speaker and a large enough opening to slide our documents through. It reminded me of going to the tax office or the DMV. It was very anti-climactic.

While I was a bit disappointed that the consulate wasn't in some cool, old building downtown, I was grateful that it was easy to find and had plenty of parking. The building was your typical business building and as we made our way up the elevator to the 6th floor, all I could think about was all the effort it took to get there.

Nick was tired and of course very displeased with us that we wanted to take pictures of him. He was all dressed up, you know. Of course we wanted some pics with him!

I decided to go uber anal retentive with the presentation of the documents which helped us out tremendously at our consulate appointment. One lady told John our documents were perfect and she appreciated how easy we made her job, (reviewing them). Phew!

We had a couple of things to navigate through, including filling out the EX-01 and M790 forms, (again), for all three of us. They wanted us to put our rental address on the forms. The good news is we learned to understand and write Spanish addresses.

All in all, we seemed to have made a good impression and last we heard, we would probably be going back the first week of September. But until I get an appointment confirmation for that, I'm assuming we don't know what date we will return to their office or be leaving for Spain.

On the other side of this appointment I can say this: I am tired. My body is resting and recuperating today. It is the Thursday after our appointment and as the adrenaline surge has died down, I find myself in a semi-surreal state of being. I worked a lot yesterday which was probably a good idea because today I don't know what to do with myself.

This week has been like finals week in college. You know how you feel after finals are over? You hope you did well but there is nothing more you can do, so you have to move on. But your body and mind are tired from all the weeks you studied. Ah, the feeling of accomplishment and relief mixed with a dash of uncertainty. Priceless!

I do wish to say that I am so grateful for the assistants who helped us understand the process. And for my family for being so supportive and loving during this transition. We have much to be grateful for as we wait to hear back from the consulate. For now, though, I see a nap in my future.