I was able to pull together my first blessing basket assembly event while I was in PA. Thanks to my daughter Jasmine and many others who assisted and came out to support me. We were able to collect supplies to enable us to fill more baskets. During the event we gave out three baskets and assembled baskets for our October expectant mom's. We've partnered with Systems of Care and we plan to collaborate on how to connect the recipients of the blessing baskets with other community resources to provide additional assistance as needed. We have many more basket requests to fill and are still in need of supplies and/or donations to assist us with filling them. Here is a link to our current campaign.
https://www.gofundme.com/manage/blessing-baskets-for-new-moms
I stayed in Harrisburg for a week before leaving the country again. My youngest daughter and I went on a nice 5 day vacation with some other wonderful ladies to Mexico. We had a great time enjoying the nice weather by the pool and the spa was amazing. I'm looking forward to girls trip 2019. Here is a picture which was the view from our balcony. While I was there I sent my husband a picture of the view and he sent me a picture of his view which I won't share with you all at this time LOL. I will share a cute picture of my grand dog wearing a little sombrero that my daughter bought in Mexico. 
After Mexico I was back in town for 9 days and those days are a blur. I titled this post transitions because that's truly where I am right now. As I prepared to return to my husband in the Dominican Republic it was very different. I mentioned in my previous post that we received approval from the Department of Immigration for my petition to allow my husband to come to the US. As of this time all paperwork has been submitted to the National Visa Center and we are awaiting an interview date. We are close to the finish line. As I prepared to return it was a different mindset for me because I'm starting to transition back to PA and not thinking about extended time in the Dominican Republic. While I was home I began to purge and make room for my husbands things. Mentally making a list of all the things I should take care of before he comes. Since his arrival date is still up in the air I might be able to get some of them done. My mind is so focused on being back in PA that I actually forgot to pack some necessary items.
I was away for exactly three weeks. When I left I tried to leave things in order for my husband and the days leading up to my return as we talked he assured me that he was preparing the house for my return. Well let's talk about that for a minute LOL. He met me at the airport, was on time which was awesome. There's been some issues with that in past but I won't get into that now. Ya'll are going to have to read my book to get those details. Anyway we get to the house and when he opens the door at first glance things appear to be in pretty good shape considering the amount of time I was gone. The day before my return he mentioned to me that he was washing clothes. Well he did wash the clothes. As I opened the bedroom door I was met by a mound of clothes on the bed. So he washed the clothes and hung them to dry but the putting them away part didn't happen. That's cool though putting them away is the easy part. Well it is if you aren't met with even more clothes which happen to be dirty in the spaces where you are trying to put the clean clothes. Again no big deal, he made an effort so I didn't fuss.
My kitchen was bare, like everything visible that could be eaten was gone. I say visible because I did have surplus supplies, snacks etc hidden and he didn't find them LOL. He did attempt to clean up and I say attempt because I've found several dishes that needed a redo since I've been back. Everything needed to be put back in it's proper (according to me) place LOL. If you've been following my blogs you may recall that I have this inside/outside thing with the mops and brooms. Well when I returned both mops were inside and both brooms were outside. I truly give up on trying to keep this straight at this point. I know that I'm anal about this stuff so I laugh at myself and try to not take it so seriously but sometimes it's hard to do.
So for now I'm back here waiting with my husband for his paperwork to be processed and his interview to be scheduled. We have no idea how long this phase of the process will take. I could be weeks or months. All we can do is wait. Meanwhile I will attempt to soak up as much of this warm weather as I can as it seems we will be heading back to PA during the cold winter months. Stay tuned for more on our Visa watch or shall I say wait process and maybe an update on a release date for my book, Passport Wife in my next blog entry. Thanks for reading.
