Mary K.'€™s Blog

21 December 2006

Update on the goings on, on the other side of the Equator

Hello all!!! I am sorry it has been a long time since I have blogged. It is hard when your only source of internet is at the house of another. I am thankful and greatful that I have access to the internet. (Thanks mom & dad)

So, to update you from the last post of mine that was dire and drear. Finally after 2 failed tries at registering our marriage, W & I signed the book on the third attempt and the wedding certificate is in our posession!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! We are now completely married and I have the paper to prove it. Yes-sir-ee bobby!!! There was a moment when I held my breath because the man that was reviewing the document made a very long pause over part of the document but then he went on and went to get the book we had to sign.

Now, with the marriage certificate in hand, I have gone to the Federal Police office and have made my official request to recieve my permanent visa. I now have a little protocol paper that says I get to be here until the information is posted that I am permanent and then I will get a new stamp in my passport. Yeah!!!! The semi-sad part of this is that I will probably get my permanent papers before my parents who are waiting for the same type of publication.

W & I are still settling into the house. Dad still has a handful of things to get fixed there. Otherwise it is a wonderful life this being married thing. W takes very good care of me and I am trying to do the same. Please pray for the many new ans about to be new-ly weds at our church. Our advesary, satan, is at work in a major way to mess up our lives. He is very present here and he is working hard. Some marriages are in crisis and others are having issues getting all the paperwork they need in order to get married and that is causing great stress. I am fighting for them in my prayers and it has brought a result of greater warfare in my life as well so keep us all in prayer please.

The weather here is turning hotter every day. It is so VERY hard for me to believe that it is December much less Christmas in a matter of days. (Yeah, my first Christmas as a wife. Woo Hoo! Yes mel-in God's time.) I did my Christmas shopping before I left the states so I brought it with me and not shopping adds to the unbelief that it is Christmas.

Well, let me send Christmas blessing and prayers over your New Year from my part of the planet. I love you all and miss you too. (You could write you know. ;7) ) May God's blessing and grace be abundant in your every day and may His mercy bring you through all that you encounter.

Love and hugs,
Mrs. Q.

fofinha posted at 9:18 AM

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07 December 2006

Please pray for me

I am writing this blog post begging for your prayers for me. I covet your prayers because everything that could be going wrong is going wrong, or it sure feels like it.

Here in Brazil you have to get married in a civil ceremony or you are not married. In the US, the religious cerimony serves for this but here it does not so you have to either have the civil part at the wedding (like I did) or you go to the Registro Civil and take care of the paperwork there. I am wishing now that we had done the second thing. When you get civily married at the church, you sign a paper with the pastor and 2 witnesses. This paper has to be registered with an official signature then taken to the Registro Civil by the couple for the Registro Civil to review the paperwork and then have the couple sign another book to make the wedding and marriage completely official. We took the paperwork to the RC and there were errors. We corrected the errors but the pastor was traveling to Manaus so we sent the paperwork to him next day mail. He sent it back, we got the other signatures and went today to finalize things as I have to have the marriage certificate to start my other paperwork in order to live here permanently. There were still other errors. I left out of the RC in tears. My time on my tourist visa is ending and I don't have what I need for my permanent and it is still wrong and the pastor is getting ready to return but not for a few more days. Not enough time for express mail. I have a feaer of being expulsed from Brazil to not be allowed to return becasue of all the issues my parents have had with their visa. So, I went back home to get my passport and mom and I left for Sao Sebastiao for the Federal Police office so I could get my tourist visa extended another 3 months. On the way there, the little truck had the emergency light on and it started to rain. Once we were there, they started the paperwork, mom went to pay the tax for the extention and while I was waiting, the young man asked about a fee I was levied in Sao Paulo. This fee came from a mistake 7 years ago and I was told all was cancelled from this error. I got scared but he made copies of all my passport pages. Mom arrived and I got my extention.

I am still stressed and stretched to beyond my limits so please pray for me because the wedding paperwork is still not settled.

I am having issues settling into how red tape works here in Brazil and that red tpae is strangling me.

I love you all and hope to have a happy post soon.

fofinha posted at 1:16 PM

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