During this past week Mini-T and I have both had the immunisations necessary for us to be deemed fit to enter the United States. Hoorah! I needed my MMR and Tetanus/Diptheria, (I had them at the same time so felt like I was pumped full of diseases) and Mini-T had his combined Hepatitis A/B. There were tears (his) but we both survived with the help of Nurse Karen’s peekaboo dinosaurs!

We had the immunisations done at our local GP's surgery and on the drive home I was thinking about how much I like our surgery. It is a small practise which is fairly local, and because of pregnancy/childbirth/childhood immunisations I have visited fairly regularly. (I'm not normally the kind of person who goes to the doctor very often). All the staff there are friendly and helpful, and I especially like the nurse who has done all of Mini-T's injections. I think the fact that we are moving to a country that doesn't have an NHS has made me think about how blessed we are in this country with our health service. I know everyone moans about the NHS all the time but I have to say the majority of my experiences (including emergency caesarean at a very busy hospital) have been very positive. I was reminded of a comment by Bill Bryson in his book 'Notes from a Big Country', when he is talking about the wonderful conveniences of American life such as free ice at restaurants, having your groceries bagged for you etc;

"I don't want to get heavy here, but given the choice between free iced water in restaurants and, let us say, a national health service, I have to say my instinct is to go with the latter."

I wonder what Mr McCain and Mr Obama's views/plans are with regard to the medical services in America. Hmmmm, maybe I should investigate (not that I can vote, but it would be interesting nonetheless!). I have to admit that at the moment I feel like I don't know much about how it all works, other than the fact that we will have to get some kind of insurance.

The book mentioned above is one of my absolute favourites. It is a collection of short musings (originally newspaper columns I believe) from the point of view of an American returning to the States after 20 years in England, and viewing American life through 'British-coloured spectacles'. It is hilarious but I also find it really interesting as a British person preparing to move to the States myself. We go to a church run by an American pastor and his family, and some of the most wonderful people I know are Americans. This and the fact that we have visited a number of times as well as knowing every episode of 'Friends' by heart can lead me to feel like I 'know' America, and yet I know there will be some big cultural adjustments to make when we arrive. This is really exciting though and feels like one part of the big adventure!!

Anyway, now that the immunisations are done we have a big scary form to go through (the 'affidavit of support') which will need some time and prayer, before we are ready to move on towards our interview. I'll keep you posted!


With blessings,

Lydia

Hello everyone! This is the very first entry in my online journal (I'm not keen on the word 'blog', and especially not 'blogroll'....it sounds a bit too 'scatological' for me!). I am hoping to share with anyone who is interested our experiences as we proceed with our visa applications, organising an international move and settling into our new life in the States. For us as a family this isn't just a case of going through the necessary practical steps. Our faith is being moulded and stretched every step of the way. We are growing closer as a family and closer to God as we rely more and more on Him to take us to where we need to go. I am confident that we will have exciting testimonies to share of God's goodness and love which will hopefully be an encouragement to everyone who reads this, no matter what your beliefs or background.

So, the reason I chose today to write this first entry is because yesterday we achieved what has so far felt like a huge hurdle in the visa process.... (cue dramatic music..)the medical! Basically for anyone unaware of the process of applying for a US immigrant visa (which I imagine is most of us!), there are three steps:

1) The petition. The US citizen (in our case Masa) submits a petition which requests permission from the US government for their family members (Mini-T and I) to apply for a visa.

2) Assembling documents/medical. This step has a couple of mini-steps involved! First, once the petition has been granted, the applicants send back to the embassy some biographical data (birthplace, previous addresses and all that jazz). Second, the applicants have to assemble a number of documents (marriage certificate, police certificate, photos etc) as well as attending a medical. (Now you know where we are up to!). Once this is all complete, the applicants send a form back to the US embassy to say that they are 'ready for interview'.

3) The VISA interview.

So, we are working our way through step 2, assembling our documents and having the medical.

You can't just go to any old GP for the medical, it has to take place at a specific (private, posh and expensive) surgery in central London designated for this purpose (not really an issue for us, but imagine if you live in Newcastle...!!). The medical consists of a blood test, X-ray and full examination which according to the information we were given beforehand looked like it would be extremely undignified, but hey, I've given birth so it couldn't be any worse than that....I hoped! We also needed to take our vaccination history to establish whether or not we meet the (extensive) immunisation requirements. This proved to be very tricky for me as it seems that a lot of my records weren't available for one reason or another. However we managed to scrape together what we could via my GPs surgery and with the help of my parents.

As well as the ins and outs of the medical itself, our day yesterday included what felt like a couple of major challenges, one of the main ones of which was taking our toddler son on the train and tube for the first time. It might not seem like a big deal, but there was just so much to consider (it was like packing for a week rather than a day!!) and we had no idea how he would respond. Would we be spending a long hot day with a miserable toddler? We prayed hard about this and every other detail of the day!! God was faithful (as always!) in answering our prayers, and I thought I would list some of the ways He blessed us in answering. So, here are my Top 4 answers to prayer from yesterday!

1) We had a fun family day out! This actually took a lot of faith for me, but we prayed that we would enjoy ourselves, and we really did! It was a beautiful day, the kind where you feel really privileged to be up and about early to see the world when it's still enjoying the hazy morning sunshine. After we'd had the medical Mini-T went straight to sleep in his pushchair, so Masa and I were able to go to a little sushi place and have some sushi which was a real treat for us as opportunities to enjoy a meal out are few and far between these days. Afterwards we walked back from the Bond Street area to Waterloo via Piccadilly/St James Park/Westminster and it was just so enjoyable. We saw all the cool sights like the London Eye and I really felt that I understood why people love London. We also sat down and had a drink at the Royal Festival Hall Cafe on the South Bank where Mini-T got to stretch his legs and have a good run around (picking up leaflets to all sorts of concerts as he went).

2) God's grace with Mini-T. We just couldn't believe how well he did, and I'm positive that that was God's grace. To start with he loved travelling on the train. There was a really nice guard when we boarded the train to London who showed us the best place to sit with the pushchair (a miracle in itself), and we parked it so he could see out of the window and he just watched the world go by, waved at a couple of trains, sang to himself, played peek-a-boo with a friendly stranger (I love how wherever we go, there is always someone to play peek-a-boo with him. The Tesco’s checkout staff are particularly good at this) and was generally very happy. He also did really well on the tube, although I have to say, the tube is NOT pushchair friendly! I'd never even thought about this before, but only a handful of stations in London have disabled access and therefore lifts which make it easier with a pushchair. We managed by Masa carrying the pushchair and me carrying Mini-T, but how you would cope on your own is beyond me!

3) The medical itself. The medical took place in a very posh flat near Bond Street/Wigmore Hall. Everyone was really nice and the whole experience felt peaceful and relaxed. Although the information we had been given gave an extensive list of all the ways Mini-T and I were going to be poked, prodded and examined, we only went through about half of them, none of which were at all painful or embarrassing. I have to admit, at first this did not feel like an answer to prayer, because they weren't as thorough as I imagined them to be especially for the amount of money it cost. However I believe that God spared us the unnecessary examination just to make it easier on us, and Mini-T in particular.

4) Our financial miracle. Last but definitely not least....The night before we went into London we were praying and one of the things I prayed was that God would do a financial miracle which would mean that we would come back from London having spent less than we planned. As I mentioned earlier one of the aspects of the medical was making sure we had met the vaccination requirements to enter the United States. We suspected that I would need 2 immunisations and Mini-T would need 1, which they would do on the day, costing us an extra £105 in addition to the cost of the medical. The great thing was that although we needed to have all 3 of these immunisations to pass the medical, when the nurse there was going through the details with me she offered to write a letter to our GP asking them to do the vaccinations for free. What a great answer to prayer!

Our whole day yesterday was a real faith builder. God answered all our prayers with ease and I feel really confident about proceeding forward with Him walking right beside us. It also really encouraged me to pray about every detail, and not to think that anything is too big or too much trouble for God. I’m excited to tell you the next things God will do as we proceed, and will be keeping you updated with all the new developments!


With blessings,

Lydia