New things to blog about.

Last picture before I left Germany. 

Considering I am no longer in Germany, I guess it is time to change what I write about.

I don't know that many people know how marrying a foreigner works. I am finding out along the way just how difficult it is. Thankfully, it is worth it. So, from now on, I will be using my blog to document the trials and errors (well, hopefully not errors) of our k-1 visa journey. Actually, that would get pretty boring. Along with the visa stuff will be wedding planning and updates, which, lets face it, is more exciting.

As most of you already know, I got back to the States on April 6th. It was pretty hard to say goodbye to Patrick after being together for 3 months, but we will make it work. We always do. The main reason I had to move back was to get the process for the K-1 visa started. The visa can take 6-8 months to process, depending on a number of things.

The first step in this long and probably stressful process was to get a job. Thankfully, I worked for an amazing staffing company before I left, and they found me a job right away! However, now I found out that my parents can sponsor Patrick, which actually helps the process move along a bit faster.

Between the Skype calls to Patrick and my kitty (I had to leave her there because she was so traumatized from the flight over) and working, I have been stepping it up on the wedding planning and visa researching. In the wedding department, I have been mainly looking for venues. I found an amazing venue in Monterey, but I am still looking for options in the Fresno area. There are pros and cons to getting married in Fresno and getting married near where I grew up. I hope to have a venue locked down by mid-May so I can move on to the fun stuff like dress shopping!

In the visa researching department, I am starting to make sense of all this visa lingo. My mom found me an awesome board on a wedding website that is full of girls who have gone through the K-1 visa journey. It is nice to know I am not alone in my stressfullness. The next step is to fill out the petition for K-1 visa, and send along all the paperwork that goes with it (sounds like it will be about a 20 page packet when I am done with it).

I am excited to document our journey visa and wedding planning. Even now it is fun to look back at when I first started this blog preparing for my move to Germany. I cannot wait until there is no distance between Patrick and I, all of the visa stuff is done, the wedding is planned, and we can finally just be together. Thankfully, it is just over a year away.