In June,
we were settling into our new apartment and completing work contracts, and, I, was anxiously looking forward to a few weeks off for summer break (my roommate
had already been off of work for several weeks).
Without
boring you with too much detail, in order to live and work legally in China,
you must have a work visa provided by the company that you are working for.
Since I was changing jobs, that meant that I was going to have to go through a
new visa process; which included a trip to Hong Kong for paper work and leaving
the country and all that jazz.
Joanna
and I had planned a trip to HK to spend a few days with a friend of ours who
was about to move back to States to get her Master’s degree. However, it was
about two weeks too early to get my visa stuff processed at the same time. So I was going to
have to make another trip back a few weeks later. Here are the details to keep
in mind:
We left for HK on Saturday, July 26.
Return tickets scheduled for Monday,
July 28.
My visa expired (I cannot get back
into China) Thursday, July 31.
To make a
long story short, by some fluke [Divine] intervention, Jo and I missed our
train back to Xiamen by five minutes on that Monday. There were no more
available tickets until the following Monday, at which point my visa would be
expired and would not be able to go home.
This
meant that my new employer was going to have to mail all the paperwork to me in
HK when it was ready.
It also
meant that I/we needed a place to stay for an indefinite amount of time.
So we
returned to our beloved friend’s parents house, and they were kind enough to
house us for a few more days, during which time we were able to work out other
accommodations for the rest of the time.
But
something else happened as well. On the morning of Tuesday, July 29, I received
an email from my university informing me that I had been put on Academic
dismissal.
(Now,
there are so, so, SO many feelings and background stories that I could share
about this….but this is not the specific purpose of this blog, so suffice it to
say that, the process of getting to this point with the school had been long
and arduous.) Despite the process I had been going through with the school, I
felt blindsided by this information. And originally, the shame kept me from
telling pretty much anybody. But by God’s grace, the conversation kept
conveniently turning to it with various people that day and by the evening,
everyone knew. However, no one’s reactions were what I’d anticipated.
The email
had mentioned one last appeal option. We took it. Four of us, women from
various walks of life, currently different paths, with different skill sets and
talents got together and prayed and brainstormed and cried (well that was
mostly me), and, for two days put
together the best possible appeal proposal any school could possibly ever want
to receive from a student (esp one struggling on the other side of the world).
These days were precious and so obviously divinely ordained. I strongly believe
that I needed to be there in that house, with that family for that moment in my
life. My process would have been so entirely different, if I hadn’t had them by
my side.
I
received an email back from the university the day after submitting my appeal saying that they would
give me an answer within two weeks. For the next week and a half, Joanna and I had
time to relax, process, catch up with friends and just enjoy the many God
stories that He was giving us. (Even during this time, He never failed to
remind us that Daddy was the one in control, and that we could totally depend
on Him.) We even got a few days on the beach!
In the
end, I determined that apparently Daddy saw fit to give his girls just over two
weeks of not just down time, but time of refreshment and encouragement from
very good and very special friends. Something we needed and weren’t really
aware of.
Three weeks
later I finally got word back from the university. They decided to refuse my
appeal. Knowing that God had clearly been working through all of it during
weeks prior, there was a strange, unexplainable peace that came with the news.
Options were plenty, time was no longer an issue as I was able to get my visa, and
I was ok with waiting for the next step to present itself. I still struggle[d]
a bit with shame and judgment from others about this situation (if you’re
curious about more details, email me), but even in that He is/was faithful.
“Even
what the enemy means for evil, You turn it for our good and Your glory. Even in
the valley You are faithful, You’re working for our good and Your glory.” –
Soveriegn Over Us, MWS
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