Dominican Housewife Chronicles - Remember to focus on the blessings

Hello All:

Well I'm headed back to PA for the holidays without my hubby.  Yes I'm a little sad about it but I'm remaining prayerful and positive, that he will join me shortly after the first of the year.  Last year we were able to spend the holidays together and it was nice.  I have always wanted to be on the beach for Christmas and last year I got my wish.  It was nice because I love the beach but honestly I missed being home with my children and grand babies. This year I have a new grand baby so I must be home this year to witness his reaction to his first Christmas (Picture enclosed).  He's only 6 months old now so it probably won't be much of a reaction LOL.  So yes I am flying back to the cold for the holidays when so many are seeking warm I'm purposely headed towards the cold. 

Although I won't get to be with my husband for the holidays this year I remain thankful for the fact that he's in my life period.  When I think of all the past holidays that I spent alone, without a mate or partner it's nice to know that even though he's not by my side, he's still in my life.  I recently posted this message on Facebook and I thought it deserved a re post here.

Life presents us with so many challenges on a daily basis.  It's easy to get caught up with those and focus on the one thing that went wrong.  While doing so we forget to be thankful for all of the other things that went right.

Things did not go as planned for me this month but there were so many unexpected blessings I received this year, heck in my life so I'm not going to pout about this one thing.  My husband is wonderful and he knows when I'm sad and he does everything he can to bring a smile back to my face.  Yesterday we spent the day together at the beach.  It was a wonderful day.  

So anyway my friends I wish you all Happy Holidays and if you haven't purchased or downloaded your copy of my book Passport Wife yet.  What are you waiting for?  Get yours today.  Here's the link. Passport Wife

If you would like a signed copy please visit my website here www.authorterrid.com and click on the contact me tab and send  your request.

Dominican Housewife Chronicles - To be continued

Hello my friends.  First I want to say Thank You to you all who sent messages of encouragement and for all of those who silently prayed for us.  This picture is from the night before our interview.  While we were in the capital we went to a baseball game.  My husbands team won and we had a great time. It was a great distraction for me because I was very nervous.

Unfortunately we still do not have a Visa for my husband.  We were not denied but there are additional documents required before they will issue a Visa for him.   I have to be honest I was devastated.  I did everything I thought possible to make sure we were prepared and had everything in order.  At was very disheartening to sit there at the embassy for over an hour and watch so many other couples leave smiling, kissing and holding hands.  Then when it was our turn for us not to have the positive outcome we desired.  I sank into a very deep dark place for a few days.  I mean I was in a very bad state.  I didn't leave the house for three days after we got back from the embassy.  Again I must say that my inner circle or my camp as I like to refer to them now is strong.  My family and friends would not allow me to stay in that  place.  The text messages,phone calls, Facebook posts etc that I received helped to bring me out of the low place.  I was reminded to think about all of my blessings and to not give up this fight because it's been a long journey and we are at the finish line. 

As I was slowly coming out of the funk I was in I realized that I had lost sight of what was truly important.  For the past couple of months I have been so focused on getting the interview date and then once we got the date I was so focused on making sure everything was prepared.  I missed enjoying my time here on this beautiful island with my husband.  I was reminded that when I took my marriage vows I didn't promise to love him only if he came to the United States.  I agreed to (in Spanish of course) some version of for better or worse.  So at the first sign of worse I was ready to crawl up in a ball and just give up.  Well my friends once I realized these things about myself and my attitude I was able to pull myself together and out of the deep hole I was in. Again it really helped to have so many people calling and checking on me.

While scrolling through Facebook yesterday I found this meme and it said everything I needed it to say.
I wasn't able to save the picture but it said: 

Sometimes the best thing that you can do is not think, not wonder, not imagine, not obsess.  Just breathe and have faith that everything will work out for the best.

So my friends I may not return with my husband for Christmas as I hoped this year but all will be well and eventually he will join me in the United States.  Until then please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  

Dominican Housewife Chronicles - Prayer Warriors report for duty

Hello everyone - I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your families.  I was in PA for the holiday and it was nice to be with my family eating good food and spending time with my grand babies.  We were missing a few, my son Steven is now in California and my sister and her crew went to visit her husband's family in Alabama this year.  So we had a smaller crowd but we still had a great time even though my Redskins lost.

In my last post I was feeling pretty defeated, hence the title in the valley.  A few days after that post we received notice about his interview date.  I didn't post anything about it prior to now  because honestly we've been so busy trying to get everything done in preparation for it and it's been a pretty nerve wracking few weeks..  So this post is titled Prayer Warriors report for duty because his visa interview is tomorrow, Monday December 3rd at 10:00 am.  This is the moment we've been waiting for.  To say that we are both excited and nervous would be putting it very mildly.  Nothing we've encountered up until we received our interview date three weeks ago compares to the challenges we've faced since getting our date.  When the email came through with our interview date we were both elated.  That feeling was quickly replaced with panic, confusion, anger and frustration just to name a few.  I truly believe that this process is built to test your resolve as a couple.  We had so many little hurdles thrown at us and encountered a few speed bumps along the way.  Although it was rough at times to get to this point I am happy to report that we are all ready.  We have about 24 hours to go and I'm optimistic that we're prepared and we will have a favorable outcome tomorrow.  We do need your help though.  Please all of my prayer warriors report for duty.  I need you all to raise your hands up high to the heavens and in your own way ask God to bless us and this interview tomorrow.  Send lots of prayers up so that the blessings will rain down on us tomorrow.

Just so you all know who you're praying for I've included a few pictures of our journey together as a couple.  From our very first picture together to the last one we took a short time ago.

This is the first picture that we took together back in February 2017.

One of our favorite pictures from our wedding day October 21st, 2017

This is the last picture that we took together November 3rd, 2018

Thanks everyone in advance for your positive thoughts and prayers.  I will certainly keep you all posted on the outcome.

Dominican Housewife Chronicles - In the valley

Hello everyone.  This is a hard one for me to write.  I considered not writing but it's been a few weeks and it's not fair to only write about the good stuff all the time.  This post is titled in the valley because that's where I am right now.  I'm feeling a little down.  Good news first always.  The latest update on the immigration process for my husband is that all of our documents have been reviewed and approved by the NVC (National Visa Center) so now we wait to be assigned an interview date.  The bad news is that getting a date can take months.  It's a very confusing process but there are various types of visas and when you apply you are given a priority date and there are expected timelines associated to those visa types and priority dates.  Even though all of our paperwork is in order and approved we must wait until our priority processing date window in order to proceed.  So with that said my hopes of my husband being in the United States for the holidays this year have been crushed.  My lawyer said it shouldn't take more than six months which seems like a long time to wait for an appointment but I know that he really doesn't know and he's not in control of it.  I'm praying that's worse case scenario.  So that's where we are with that.  I'm going to be heading home for the holidays alone this year.  Last year I chose to spend Christmas here in the Dominican Republic with my husband but this year I will be stateside to celebrate with my family and my newest grand baby.  I can't miss his first Christmas.  While I'm here I will continue to enjoy the wonderful weather and time with my hubby of course.  A couple of pics from our most recent beach trip to share with you.

The next blow recently is that since June I've been anticipating starting a new job sometime between October and January.  I just recently found out that the contract didn't go through so I don't have a job waiting for me when I get home.  This is a setback but I'm choosing to believe that since it didn't happen that wasn't the job for me.  Since I took the early retirement in April of 2017 I've been on this journey of discovering my purpose.  I was excited about the job because it was familiar.  It matched perfectly with my skill set from my previous jobs.  Maybe that's why things didn't work out.  I don't believe that I left my corporate job to return to another one.  I believe there's something else way outside of my box that I'm supposed to be doing with my life.  The challenge now is to figure out what that is before my savings runs out LOL.  So my friends I am currently in the valley but I've been here before and I usually don't stay here long.

Good news is that my latest book Passport Wife is currently at the printer and I will have books available within the next few weeks.  It will be available for download also within the next week.

Contact me via email AuthorTerriD@gmail.com to request  your paperback copy.  I am also working on some other writing projects with other authors so stay tuned for more from Tdub Publishing in the future. 

Also I'm continuing my work with my non profit A Blessing For You and blessing as many expectant mothers in need as possible.  We have over two dozen basket request to fill before the end of this year and we could really use your support in order to do so.  Please consider being a blessing to someone else and making a donation.  No donation is too small. https://www.gofundme.com/manage/blessing-baskets-for-new-moms#


Last but not least friends prayer is powerful and if  you're a praying person please add me and my husband into your prayers.  This has been a very long tiresome journey.  I think we both could use a break.  I thank you in advance for your kind thoughts and prayers.

Dominican Housewife Chronicles - One year down and a lifetime to go

It's hard for me to believe that it's been a year since I got married again.  It's a day that I won't forget.  The ceremony and the reception were amazing.  It was actually my dream wedding.  Although I had been married before I never had a real wedding where I wore a wedding gown and had a reception.  I should mention that it was all put together by my husband and his family.  It took me totally by surprise.  I expected a small private ceremony at our house.  The only thing I regret about that day now is that all of my special people weren't there to witness it.  That is the only thing I would change.

It has been a year full of learning experiences.  Some good and some have required a lot of patience and prayer on my part.  I have learned so much from my husband, not just about his culture but simple life lessons. We have figured out how to communicate with each other and it's sort of an unwritten rule that we don't leave conflict or thick air between us for too long.  Even when we can't agree and neither one of us wants to back down, one of us finds a way to say I love you even though I don't agree with you.  Trust me I'm not trying to paint a rosy picture because where there are roses there are also thorns.  There have been many days and nights where I've thought to myself What the heck did you do and why?  I've wondered how could this possibly work when we're from different cultures, we aren't fluent in each others native language.  There's a significant age difference.  So many things seemingly working against us but yet as I write this today I feel as though our relationship is much stronger today than it was a year ago when we took our vows.  We've learned how to bridge those gaps with prayer, love and compromise.  Again not perfect by any means but as my grandmother used to say anything worth having takes work. This past year has been work ya'll I mean real work  but I've enjoyed almost every minute of it lol.

I remember one day my husband and I were having a difficult time communicating and I said to him that I wished he could understand everything I said.  He said the most profound thing to me.  He said that God knew what he was doing when he made our relationship so quiet.  He said that if he could understand everything I said to him we probably wouldn't be together.  LOL okay that's funny but oh so true as well.  Another fond memory I have is one time when we were disagreeing and we couldn't seem to compromise I said well I'm not sure how this is going to work.  He looked at me and said I don't know either but I love you.  With that we agreed to disagree on that issue but mutual trust, love and respect always wins.  That mutual respect thing is a big one.  I can honestly say that in my prior relationships that was the biggest missing piece.  I do realize that it's still early and I guess we are still technically in the honeymoon phase and although that's true we've reached this one year milestone in the face of adversity and honestly a bunch of people holding their breath because it seemed too good to be true.  At times I was also holding my breath.  I can't recall when I finally exhaled and decided to embrace it but I did and it's been such a relief.  Taking each moment as it comes and just enjoying it as much as possible.  I'm not saying it's okay to just live in the moment and never have a plan but I'm saying that while we're planning enjoy the moments along the way.

I also realize that one of biggest challenges lies ahead of us, him coming to the United States.  To this point our relationship has been in somewhat of a controlled environment.  I've been doing all the compromising, learning and growing from a cultural standpoint.  When it's his turn to experience a completely different culture will he be able to adapt as well as I have?  That's the wildcard but again based on the foundation we've built over the past two years that we've been together I feel confident that we will be able to navigate our way through the storms that may lie ahead.  He doesn't read my blogs but I'll say it anyway Happy Anniversary Amor.  I'm looking forward to many more years to come.

Dominican Housewife Chronicles - Things just keep getting better

Hey everyone.  It's been two weeks since I got back so it was time for an update.  Right before I came back my husband lost his job.  The reason why is still a little fuzzy to me but it's okay he was going to quit soon anyway once he gets his visa.  I must admit I was a little concerned about how things would be with us both being here at the house all day long.  I have been very pleasantly surprised at how well we've adapted to having so much time together LOL.  Since I've been back my husband has been doing the majority of the cooking which is awesome because I love his cooking.  Let me tell ya'll something.  He makes the best potato salad.  It's just so good and I don't understand why LOL.  He's also been doing most of the cleaning and washing the clothes.  Okay so when he cooks I usually end up cleaning up the kitchen and it's a real chore.  I do not know how he gets food everywhere while he cooks but I'm not going to worry about it.  The food is always good and I don't mind cleaning up the kitchen.  Here are a couple of pictures from Snap chat I took of his cooking.

We've been handling the household chores together.  Like washing clothes he does the heavy duty work, the washing, rinsing, softening etc process  and I hang the clothes on the line and then retrieve them and put everything away.  There are fewer trips to the grocery store and we have been doing the grocery shopping together also which I really enjoy.  More beach time and pool time together.  My husband recently discovered this little restaurant by the beach and he loves their food. I say he recently discovered because I already knew about it and would often go there for lunch while he was at work.  Yesterday we just went there for lunch.  Sat by the water ate and enjoyed each others company.  It was awesome. So you see why I titled this one things just keep getting better? 

You might be wondering what I'm doing ll day long if he's basically doing all the things I used to do during the day.  Well I spent a lot of time stalking the NVC's (National Visa Centers) website and harassing my attorney's paralegal.   I mentioned in a prior post that we got approval from the Department of Immigration so now our case is with the NVC.  We have provided them with all of the requested documentation so now we wait for them to review everything and set a date for his via interview.  I stalk their website daily to check for any updates which is completely unnecessary because they email you whenever there is a change but I just can't help myself.  The other day I received an email that there was an update to our case while we were outside washing clothes.  I ran into the house and logged into their website, well I should say I tried to log into their website because it literally took me two hours to get into their website.  It is the most frustrating process.  Each and every time I try to log into it it takes me multiple attempts and lots of time.  I'm persistent though so I think after trying for like 50 times it just gives up and lets me in LOL.  So anyway the other day there was an issue with the marriage certificate that needed to be handled.  I feel so bad for the paralegal in my attorneys office because I gave her the blues.  I mean once I got into the website and saw what was wrong I sent her like three emails which she didn't respond to within 5 minutes so then I called her LOL.  I was surprised she took my call but she did.  So after she investigates what is needed which was the certified version of the marriage certificate she tells me that I need to have it translated to English.  I became unglued.  I didn't understand why a Spanish document needed to be translated to English for what I thought was a Spanish agency.  Notice how I said what I thought?  Well I was wrong and after giving her the blues about it I was able to get it translated and back to her within 2 hours.  I did include an apology to her in the email because I was a little rude.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who has gotten snippy with her because this process is very nerve racking. 

When I'm not stalking the NVC or harassing paralegals I've been meddling with my two daughters lives.  They are both apartment hunting right now.  One has a hard date of November 1st to be out of her existing place and the other just needs to find her way out of my house as soon as possible :-). So I've been looking for places and sending them leads.  Also been keeping busy with A Blessing For You.  We've received several dozen basket request within the past few weeks and unfortunately very little donations.  We're going to have to stop accepting requests for awhile and work on getting more donations.  If you're reading this and feel so inclined to donate you can do so in two ways.  1) We have a go fund me:
https://www.gofundme.com/blessing-baskets-for-new-moms&rcid=r01-153869132542-049bba7fb0b8457c&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

2) You can also donate supplies from the attached list:

I'm also still working on getting my latest book released this year.  Fingers and toes crossed that it can still happen.

That's all for now.  Until next time everyone be blessed.  Remember to try to be a blessing to someone else everyday in some way. 

Dominican Housewife Chronicles - Transitions

Hello everyone.  It's been a few weeks so it's time to catch you all up on what's been going on.  I returned to PA on September 1st.  It was good to be home.  I missed my people so much.  My family (most of them LOL) ) and my friends (even though I didn't get to see everyone) and my grand babies are all growing like little weeds. They are so precious.  I love their hugs and smiles.  I can't stand to hear them cry.  Ask my daughter she will tell you as soon as I hear crying I want to know what the problem is.  Whatever they want or need you better get it to them quick LOL.  I arrived in Harrisburg just in time for my oldest grandson's birthday.  Here is a picture of him while we sang to him.  

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.