How many days did I drive this familiar route taking our kids to school!
But instead of turning the corner towards school, I headed out of Frydlant and on towards Frydek-Mistek this morning.
With this building as my destination. Recognize it from another post not long ago?
Unless you've ever lived in a foreign country and had to go through the process of applying for permission to live there, it's hard to understand what it means to receive a visa that allows you to continue with life there.
Especially when you've lived in the same foreign country for almost 21 years! There are times I forget that I'm a "foreigner" and am only here by permission of the government.
But today was NOT one of those days where I forgot. Because today was our return trip to the foreign police office to pick up our new visas.
That's them, peeking out just over the white counter - the pink and blue cards laying on the desk. Such valuable items!
After just a few moments of doing fingerprints for identification, the card was in my hand.
A card that I'll have for TEN years!
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| How many changes of hair style and color will I go through during the next ten years?! |
As Dave and I walked out of the office just minutes later I pondered the question, "What will our lives be like in ten more years?"
How many will be on JV staff by then? Will our kids be living and serving in Europe (as they plan to be)? Will we have grandchildren??!!
I remember the day we picked up our last ten year visas and I wondered the same thing. At the time our kids were 9, 11 and 14. College seemed like a long ways off then.
But here we are, empty nesters now, with all our kids studying in the States, and our sons even married (what a sweet gift our precious new daughters are!). I sure wouldn't have dreamed that up ten years ago.
So it makes me wonder what life will be like the next time I'm in the foreign police office to get another visa.
There is a lot to look forward to!
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