“And face unafraid, the plans that we’ve made…”

Happy Festivus! Up here in the northern hemisphere, this song has been running through my head. Though it’s hardly a winter wonderland in Boston (upper 40’s today), we’re apparently in for a big “wintry mix” soon. Meanwhile, it’s almost 80F (26C) degrees and thunderstorming in Belo Horizonte and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t drooling a little. (I love thunderstorms; Duck, not so much.) But mostly it’s been running through my head because we both have lots of fears about these plans that we’ve made, and it’s become a bit of a mantra for me.

After much hand-wringing and many setbacks, I put our bulging envelope of visa application stuff in the mail today! Duck held my hand last night as we went through the assembled documents and the various lists on the consulate’s website to make sure we had everything. Guys, I have never jumped through so many hoops for anything in my life, much less a visa. Birth certificates and marriage certificates, all certified and with apostilles, making them valid abroad; receipt pages from the 6-page online visa applications, signed and with a passport-sized photo glued to each; a document signed by Duck stating he was seeking a “family reunification” visa; my Grant Authorization Document from Fulbright; the name, address, and phone number of my host in Brazil; maybe application fees and FBI background checks? (no – yes – no, we do NOT need these); a Priority Mail SASE; passports; itinerary; proof of current address; the promise of our firstborn; all sent Express Mail, anything else will be rejected.

I remember from my time working and living in Australia that the visa process was the most stressful, but even that just required something comparatively simple in the first place and then to get the travel visa I just had to pop over to the office and it took half an hour. The Brazilian consulate in Boston does not allow phone calls or in-person visits; if our packet is missing something, we won’t know until it gets back to us, by which point we will REALLY be cutting it close. Can you tell I’m just a wee bit stressed out by this?

But the good news is, once we get our documents back, that’s the last really big, out-of-our-hands stumbling block. After that, we are good to go as far as the governments are concerned, and then we can get on with the fun stuff of packing! Did I say packing? I meant planning our pre-orientation honeymoon in Iguacu Falls!