We set off around 7:30 AM from Magdalena on Thursday, August 12th. This view is looking down from a lookout just before the Chihuahua state border. You can see the fence between Sonora and New Mexico, USA
The white line is the fence.
We arrived there right around noon.
Here is the pass.
And the welcome to Chihuahua sign.
As we neared Juarez, the landscape flattened out. We even drove through an agricultural area between Janos and Ascension and saw a few lakes.
Friday morning at ten, Miguel had his medical exam. It took three hours. They drew blood and gave him a couple shots besides other examination.
This is the building where he did the majority of the exam. The building on the left is where they gave him an eye exam.
We arrived at an airbnb Thursday night, but it wasn't what we were expecting. The kitchen area was shared with other guests, so we talked with our host and moved into another airbnb on Saturday morning. This one was much more spacious and private.
And it was still in the same area of Juarez just about 5 min. from the Consulate. There was also a supermarket, office supply store, pizza place, and pharmacy within walking distance.
Friday night it rained all night, so there was a lot of flooded areas.
This is in the neighborhood of our second Airbnb.
Just outside the neighborhood there was this flooded intersection. Some cars stalled and got stuck in the water it was so deep. You can just see a minivan behind the black truck that is stuck in the water.
Saturday we settled in and relaxed. Sunday we watched church online and then went to the Juarez Central Park.
It was all free and they had a giraffe, an ostrich, lots of ducks and geese, and some turtles in the lake. Kind of random!
They had a botanical garden and we saw this little squirrel animal. Some people were giving it radishes.
There were lots of sidewalks, benches, picnic tables, and playground equipment.
And even an outdoor auditorium. From the auditorium, we could just barely see a horse race track across the road and could hear the gun shot starting the race. While we were at the auditorium, a group of young people showed up and were practicing break dancing (flips, spinning around on their heads/backs, etc.) It was interesting!
Monday we spent the day relaxing as well and I had a number of phone calls with my mentor and my brother, etc.
Tuesday, Miguel had his interview at noon. I was not allowed in and waited for a couple hours until he came out. They had given him this blue paper and asked him to come back at 7 AM Wednesday morning.
We were kind of confused, but messaged our lawyer and he did some research and found out that they started doing the interviews in two sessions since February. We were relieved to find out that it was normal. We had been expecting to get the approval that afternoon, but would have to wait until Wednesday.
I had a work meeting over video call and then in the evening we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for supper. It was supposed to be our celebration dinner, but yeah, it was delicious anyway.
I had honey bbq and mild buffalo.
We started cleaning up our airbnb. We had been debating whether or not to pay for another night since we didn't know how long the 2nd interview session would take, but we figured we would be done in time to drive home. Wednesday morning I dropped Miguel off at the consulate at 6:30 AM, drove back to the airbnb and packed up and cleaned. I turned in our keys and arrived back at the Consulate around 8:15 AM. At 9 AM, Miguel came out with his approval slip. SO EXCITING!
Now we will wait a week or so until his passport gets mailed to Nogales, MX with a packet of information. Then we will cross and give them the packet at the border. Once they receive the packet, they will start the process of making and mailing his permanent residency card. After two years since we mailed the I-130 form (original petition) and one year since we were documentary approved (just waiting for the interview), it is so exciting to know that he is approved! (Take a peak at my featured post to read my update from August last year about Miguel's immigration process.)
We called family and left Juarez around 9:30 AM.
The mountains above Juarez.
We made it back to the lookout in Sonora around 1 PM
The scenery throughout the whole trip was beautiful and we were thankful to eat some tacos for dinner in Imuris and arrive back in Magdalena around 5 PM.
Thank you all for your prayers and we will hope to see some of you the end of this year in ILLINOIS!
Praise the Lord!
