The BIG Day!

Well, all of the knot tying ceremonies are done. It’s official. On May 3, we had a beautiful ceremony with family and friends. There were many ups and downs leading up to the big day. We had to replace a bridesmaid two weeks before the wedding and a groomsman two days before the BIG day. So we ended up asking two people from church whose names we didn’t even know. There were issues with transportation for some who were coming from California and for a short time my soloist had to cancel on me, but ended up coming after all. For a while I couldn’t find a pianist, then I had one, then I didn’t, and then I did. On the Thursday before the wedding I heard that he was in Florida, but would be here. That concerned me just a little. In the meantime the number of attendees was growing and we were searching everywhere to find a place where we could rent some glass plates because we only had 125 and were expecting about 75 more. So we ended up buying them for $1 each at Ikea in San Diego. Right after we paid for the flowers I had passed by the florist and it was closed with a sign in the window. All I could read of the sign was “For sale”. I was on my way to church and forgot about it afterwards. Then the next day or so David and I were passing by and again the florist was closed and the same sign was still in the window. By then I was panicking inside. I had called the florist just a few days before and I remembered the phone number so David called while I drove. No answer! Now I want to scream. On the way back home we stopped by, even though it was closed and David spoke to a neighboring business owner who informed him that the florist was opened just earlier that day. I read the sign in the window and it was for land that was for sale. WHEW!!! I was feeling better. Later that evening David called the florist and this time she answered. Suits, tablecloths, and many other wedding details were all issues right up until the day. Oh, the church had been given an enormous fan from some ship and there it was on the day before the wedding right there in the sanctuary. After many ideas on how to move it and many hands pushing it we finally got it out of sight. (This is only part of it)
On the day of the wedding my plan was to be at the church by 12 noon. I got there at 1:30 a half an hour before the wedding was to start. When we drove up I realized that earlier that day I had given the keys to the decorator and failed to get them back from her. I called her and she had given them to someone else because they were going to take more tables to the church, but I had asked that same person to pick some things up from the store for me. So we waited for about 15 or 20 minutes and they arrived. The day before when the tablecloth lady was at the church putting the tablecloths on the tables and making me really late for the rehearsal dinner, she asked me if I wanted her to bring some candies to put on the tables. I told her that that would be fine. So Saturday while we were locked out of the church someone who worked for the tablecloth place drove up and delivered the candies. Or so I thought. When we got ready to put them on the tables we discovered that it was a box of glass ashtrays, not candy. How funny!
Despite everything we had a wonderful time and just as many reminded me, no matter what happens before the wedding, in the end David and I would be married.
Enjoy the slideshow.

Finally!

Well, after all of the hoops we had to jump through it's finally done. Before I tell you what's finally done, let me explain something. Here in Mexico clergy are not authorized to legally marry you. So if one wants to get married in the church, one must first be legally married by the state. So you have two wedding ceremonies. Some people legally marry long before their church wedding and some just weeks or days before. And now for the "finally done" part. David and I were legally married on Friday, April 4, 2008 at approximately 11:30 a.m. Now don't cancel your plane tickets and plans to come to our May 3 celebration. That's still on. David and I are still living apart. We are not yet enjoying the priviledges of marriage. So our May 3 ceremony will still be just as special as it should be. Okay? See you in 27 days. Check out the slideshow of our civil ceremony.

Getting Married in Mexico

Getting married in Mexico is not easy. Worse if you are a foreigner. Want to hear about what I'm having to do? Okay! Well, first we went to Registro Civil to find out what the requirements are. They gave me a paper with four things that I needed. 1. Get my birth certificate apostilled and translated to Spanish. 2. Have a marriage search done, apostilled, and translated. 3. Have my I.D. translated. 4. Get permission from Immigration to marry. In the words of my childhood heartthrob Magnum P.I., "I know what you're thinking". What in the world is apostilled. Apostille is a French word which means a certification. It is commonly used in English to refer to the legalization of a document for international use. So I got numbers 1 & 2 done in Fresno and that cost me about $70. Then I went to get a tourist visa since I do not have citizenship here. There I met an English speaking Mexican who has the teeny tiniest little office. He is in the business of helping English speaking foreigners get various legal documents. He gave me three options. I could do everything myself, have him tell me what to do, or have him do it all. All three options are exspensive. I chose for him to tell me what I needed to do and paid him the $20 fee for that. Him telling what to do was not the exspensive part. So he started doing that. Then he asked me what David did for a living. I told him that he worked for the ministry. So he figured that David did not earn much money and said that he would do the paperwork for me for free. What a blessing!

So he did my paperwork and I paid him for the copies. Then I bought a visa, went to the bank and paid $240 for one permission and $60 for something else. Only the Mexican government knows what that was for. Anyway, David and I went and got our blood tests done and then took the results to a doctor. There they took our weight and blood pressure and signed a paper saying that they talked to us about ALL kinds of things. They actually didn't talk to us about ANYTHING. So that was almost $50 for the blood work and doctor visit. Next I turned in my paperwork to Immigration and they said that the permission should be ready by April 7th. Then we went back to Registro Civil and and bought an application and found out that we would have to get married in 14 days or do the blood tests and doctor visit again. Why you ask? Because the blood tests are only good for 15 days. We had them done the day before. I wouldn't get the permission until one day before the blood work expired. Also I still hadn't completed number 3 of the requirements which was to get my I.D. translated. So now one option was to go back to Immigration and ask them if they could rush my permission and then request an urgent ceremony for which we would have to pay extra, of course. And the other option was to wait until the 7th to get my permission and then do the blood work and doctor visit again. Which of course we would have to pay again. It came out to be just about the same price. So we decided to go and cry to Immigration and see if they could speed up my permission. Well, of course the person that does the permissions was on vacation, but they said that they would have it by March 31st. Praise God! As for my I.D. I was told that if I use my passport I don't need to have it translated because it's already in three languages with Spanish being one. So I'll see if they accept that. Last night we had to attend a two hour pre-marital class. Yet another requirement. Actually, they said that it wasn't required, but David said that we needed to play it safe and not let our non-attendance be a reason to deny us our civil ceremony. So we went. It wasn't bad. We also had to ask them to rush the proof that we attended. Tomorrow I will be a busy little beaver. Collecting all of our papers from different places and turning them in at Registro Civil and paying for our ceremony and for them to rush it. Another $130. Oh yeah, we have to have four witnesses. FOUR!

What's Happening?

Hello everyone.

It has been awhile since I have written. I have been very busy trying to get everything ready for my upcoming wedding in May. Exactly two months from today. YEAH!!! Anyway, things are a little quiet around camp right now, but next week we will start our Spring schedule. We will be pretty busy then. We have been making some improvements around the camp and talking over ideas of ways to better the ministry here. I am still planning the meals, shopping for the food, and running the kitchen. I'm trying to add more meals to our meal rotation, but it is not easy finding meals that can be prepared for large crowds in a small amount of time. Also, I don't always have access to the same ingredients here as I do in the states. So I don't have many meals in the rotation yet, but I'm still looking.

Also, I have been notified that I am about to lose my medical insurance because I do not have enough financial support coming in to sustain it. I not only need support to keep my insurance, but also just to be able to continue in the ministry here. To be totally honest, I have several things that I have to pay monthly. Some are: rent, food, and car insurance. Now that I will be getting married and hopefully expecting shortly thereafter, I will need support even more. Yes, David does have a job and we will both have to put money into our new life together, but if I don't have enough to support myself it will be hard to bring another person into the picture. So, I ask that you will please prayerfully consider supporting me and the work that I have been called to. I have been here now for four years and God has been faithful. I trust that he will put it on the hearts of many to give to His ministry here that I am so priviledged to be a part of. I have added a "Donate" button to this page that you can click on and donate securely through Paypal. If you would like to partner with me financially on a monthly basis please click on the YUGO link under "These are a few of my favorite links", Resources, Donate & Support Info., and the Donate now. I need you!