We Dare to Dream

I haven’t felt this nervous since the day I left Minneapolis and flew to a new life in Mexico. Wait a second. There was the whole checking-into-the-hospital-to-have-a-baby incident. So I guess this would come in as the bronze medalist for nervous days in my life.


Pablo and I entered the wonderful world of the US Visa process six years ago when we naively purchased airline tickets to spend Christmas 2002 with my family. November 22, 2002 – a day of infamy . . . the day a rude awakening awaited us and set us on a journey that still hasn’t ended. A quick entrance to the consular offices, an even quicker denial and then a grueling four-hour bus ride back from Mexico City, heartbroken and crying our eyes out, pondering, not understanding why we had been denied a visitor’s visa.

Since then, I haven’t spent Christmas with my family in five years. Five Years! And every year we deck the halls with less holly, feel just a little less jolly and . . . ok, now I’m being dramatic!

Now we almost laugh at ourselves for thinking it could have been so easy. Now, six years later, we have been hardened, allowed ourselves to become a tad bitter and certainly don’t let ourselves get excited. Not excited and barely hopeful. The disappointment is just too harsh.

But today . . . today, we dare to dream.

Tomorrow, after a string of appointments and coincidental connections (and we’re pretty sure some extra help from above), we have been granted a personal interview with the Visa Chief at the American Embassy in Guadalajara. We know this is progress . . . I am allowed to enter through the door this time; I’ve never actually been allowed inside the building while Pablo was being searched, sorted, shuffled, and then escorted to a bank-teller type window to be issued a quick and painless (for them), painful (for us) “NO.” Tomorrow morning at 10 am, we are meeting with the big guy, the head hancho, the one who can grant or deny our 2008 wish for a Christmas in Wisconsin.

We have packed our papers – anything and everything that pertains to our life here in Mexico.



Bank statements from three accounts, health insurance, vehicle, land and home ownership, birth certificates, passports, my visa, marriage certificate, taxes, business license, car insurance, paypal statements, client finance reports and receipts, personal photographs, applications forms, deposit slips . . . and much more, hoping and praying that tomorrow is our day. It has to be, because for the first time in years, we have allowed ourselves to become hopeful.

We dare to dream . . . of a White Christmas, church with my family on the 24th, eating mom’s cookie selection (which for some reason is allowed for breakfast, lunch and dinner during the holidays), bundling Sophia in warm winter clothes and seeing (for the first time) her cheeks all red and chilled from the cold, introducing my grandparents to my husband after almost eight years of being together.

We dare to dream . . .