Yesterday after waiting in line for a couple of hours, we received our long-term residency here in Russia! We got this a whole week before our temporary residency runs out... how wonderful! On Thursday we went to the immigration office (also long lines) to pick up Ella's exit visa. It was that day that they told us, "come in tomorrow to get your residency". Hooray!! Pictured above are the girls with their little presents. The chocolates were from a lady (I think she's from Mongolia) who was also standing in line. Anneka really wanted to draw her a picture, so I encouraged her to and to give it to the lady. You could tell it made her day. Later she brought Anneka the chocolates. And then the lady who processed our residency gave Ella these post-it notes... a thrilling thing for a baby.
Our teammate, Renata, also got her residency, just minutes after us. This was her fifth time to the office in the last two weeks. And she got hers on the last day before her temporary residency ran out. Talk about faith building!!
We're so thankful for this. We now have 5-year living status here that is renewable. As you can see, the girls didn't quite understand or share in our joy. They'd just endured the heat and the waiting and the lines. But when I told Anneka that these little booklets mean that we won't have to go get more shots at the doctors and we won't have to stand in more lines, she said, "hooray".
Then we (with Renata) celebrated right outside the immigration office by eating Anneka's chocolates. Thank you, Lord, for opening this door for us!
3 comments:
Praise the Lord! I don't usually comment on your blog, although I read it often. I know how big this is, though, and I'm really excited for you!
I'm also so thankful to our Father, God for all the special blessings of that day-getting to documents and the girls little presents. We have an awsome Lord and I thank Him. Love you all, Grand Mama Irene
So excited for you guys! That is going to be so nice that you won't have to go through the process for five years! I loved the story about Anneka and the picture. She is such a tender hearted girl. They are both so so cute!
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