What it's like becoming legal....

As most of you know, I married a Canadian man. And in doing so, we had to worry about how we were going to get him to be legal for fear of him getting kicked out and banned from the United States of America for up to 5 years. (We both actually know 2 people that this happened to. Scary, I know). So we decided to be as careful as possible. We spoke with a Lawyer who stated that the best and most correct way to do this carefully and along government policy would be to get married and then immediately John would have had to go back to Canada to wait for his Green Card. That would have been months... HELLO! How crazy. We were NOT going to do that. So we tried the next best thing, which is stay under the radar so that John could stay here but not do anything like work or anything until he got his green card. In this process we were counseled by a Lawyer to wait 90 days after we had gotten married to apply. So we did.

We applied in October 2011. It was a tedious process in the beginning. We had to make sure we had all the correct documentation and that we filled EVERYTHING out in the proper format and manner. It is a little insane what they make you go through. Once we got everything in, we had to wait. and wait. and wait. Finally, John got approved for his "employment card"! We were ecstatic! But they did not issue him a SSN. We were a little confused, if the US wants him to work, wouldn't they want him to pay taxes?? hmmmmm... anyway... so that was an issue. Then the paper came telling us that we had an interview with the government in Boise, Idaho and we had to be there at 8:30 am on a thursday morning.

On our list of things to bring were pictures proving that we were legit and loved each other, all the serious documentation like birth certificates, marriage certificate, passports... etc. One of the things they wanted was correspondence between John and I. I thought that was interesting. So I prepared and gathered as many things as I could think of that would show that we were serious. Utility bills, rental agreement, insurance, phone bill, bank statements... everything.

 I also called a friend who had been through this same thing and spoke with her and her husband about what it would be like. They did this process in Salt Lake City, Utah and the advice that they gave us was- Do NOT joke, Tell the truth, Answer honestly, Do not laugh... etc. You bet we got a little more nervous! What if it didn't work out!?? We had heard awful things about people being denied etc. We had to start talking about a back up plan. Would we need to move to Canada? If we did what would the plan be? Where would we live? How would I get a job? All these issues began to make me very minutely vexed, but vexed none the less. The requests that the government were demanding were just obsurd to me. John isn't someone they should be worried about. He isn't just trying to get into the US. He really does love me and we can prove it just by walking in the room. BUT the government has a protocol, I know. And they do not know him and have no idea if we are faking it or what.

So Wednesday comes and we drive to Boise. It is a 4 1/2 hour drive from Rexburg, we had a lot of time to practice our stories so that they were identical so that the government couldn't trick us. How we met, where we met, how long we date, whats my tooth brush color, whats his, whats his favorite color, whats mine....

The morning came and I was so nervous, I was sweating. It was one of those cold sweats, You are hot but your finger tips are cold and your feet. It was bad. We walked into a building right about 8:30 AM and we said what we were there for and the guy was like, you are in the wrong building... we were like CRAP!!!

We took off running, I think it would have been funny to see the fear on our faces and then we took off running! haha John ran to the car and I ran towards the building. He picked me up and boom! We were there. We go in and its like going through airport security. Then we sat and waited. Again. haha

Finally we were called in by a woman who seemed nice. We got into the room and she started cracking jokes with us, laughing, giving John a hard time cause he is a man and didn't remember the exact day of my birthday. (Punk!) Then she asked how we met and basically sat there and ooohed and and ahhhhed over our story. Then I showed her our proof of pictures from our wedding, etc and she kept saying, "These are gorgeous! Oh my gosh, these are GORGEOUS!" She gave them back to me and said that the pictures were too beautiful for an immigration file and they didnt belong. We laughed. The interview lasted a total of 17 minutes. 17 minutes.. seriously? She hadn't him a document and said, You're green card will take 7-10 business days. WHAT???!?!?! That fast!!!!!

She was the nicest, most sweet woman ever. We were so lucky we had her for the interview. She loved us and we were grateful. As we were leaving she said, "Man! This is the easiest thing I have done all day!" haha

6 days later John got his green card. WAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! We can travel now!! Looks like we are probably going to Canada and Turkey this summer!

Can't Wait!!!!!!

PS If you ever need advice about Green Card stuff, come to us. Not a Lawyer.

Updates, updates, UPDATESSSSSSSS!!!!!

Lately, I have been sooooooooooooooooOOOOOOoooooo busy that I have not had a chance to do much other than work, come home and make dinner, and then spend what time I have with my Husband. I have recently been given a chance to serve in my church doing something that does require a lot of my time, energy, and takes up most of my thoughts.  I am honored and humbled to have this calling in my church and I am enjoying every minute of it, however trying to find the balance of life has been quite a bit of a struggle. In the process, I have neglected the opportunity to write on this here blog. So I apologize in advance to Christy Pethel, whom I had promised I would post at least once a month. I failed you in February Christy and I promise, if I can help it, I will not fail you again. Good! Glad I got that off my chest! Next on the updates....


Things are going great here in good 'ole Rexburg. Its freezing, but what else is new. It is always cold here. Well actually, this winter has been very unique. Usually, it snows and that's it for dry ground. It will snow and stick for the rest of winter. Not this winter. Instead, it will hardcore snow for a day and the next day it will be warm enough to melt everything. I love it! Recently though, it snowed for 3 days straight and sadly it isn't melting. Maybe winter has finally arrived.

I have a job where I work for a woman who owns a book business. She buys and sells books online. She has an entire library covering her basement of her house full of books. It is an amazing business. I am lucky to be working with her and for her. She is a great woman and I have learned a lot from working with her and getting to know her. She is one of those people that you feel grateful to have gotten to know. I like her. And I think she likes me. It makes for an enjoyable job. I go buy books in the morning and then I pull the books from the list of the ones that sold that day, then I package and weigh them and label them for ship off. Then I list books online until my brain wants to explode. It's very fun and interesting. It is awesome when we find books that are worth SOOO much more than we purchased them for. For example, she purchased a set of books for $25.00 and recently sold them for $399. I don't know about what you think, but I think that is AWESOME! I was so excited to see her success. She is a pharmacist by day. I just got nervous thinking I have already mentioned my job and this whole scenario in a previous post. If I have, just ignore this. And.... Sorry?

John is doing well in school. He is loving his Real Estate class.... like... LOVING it. Hmmm... I wonder if we are looking at a future career possibly in Real Estate? His major is Business Management with an emphasis in either Marketing or PR. I get excited about the possibilities of what he will decide to do as a career when we officially "grow up" and aren't in school anymore. It will be fun. John is willing to go where ever a job could be for us, whether it is to a different state, maybe even country (most likely Canada). I am excited to see where life will take us one day.

John and I are in the process of getting him his Green Card. We have good news!!! We got all the paper work in (which was a REALLY long process) and we got our interview with the Government on March 22nd! This is quite a big deal because of how quickly we got it after we finally got all the paperwork in. We are anxious about it because we have heard it is a fairly detailed process. We have to show original documentation of everything that connects us as well as a copy of the documentation or they will keep it. They requested wedding photos to show proof that it was not a scam, as well as any bills or renter agreements that connect us. It is kind of insane. One of the craziest things I found out we will have to do is answer questions like "what color is his toothbrush, what color is yours?" and we have to answer them the same. A little dramatic don't you think? I immediately thought of the movie "The Proposal"at the end when they are answering all those ridiculous questions about each other. John and I have joked that we hope that they are LDS so that we could bring our Sealing certificate from our wedding and say, "Look! We aren't scamming anyone, we were sealed for time and ET-ER-NITYYYYY! If anyone is being scammed, it would be us!" .... maybe we just thought that was funny. Please refrain from judgements. Thank you.

Wish us Luck on the 22nd of March... we will need it. I think.

Something super exciting that has been going on is that John's mom Ayse Hitchins wrote a book about her life. It is called, "The Worth of a Soul; From Muslim to Mormon"... You can find it on amazon.com or go find it at Seagull Book. It is an easy read and really very interesting. I wish I could buy everyone a book and give it out like a pass along card. Sorry that I can't afford to give you all one, but go buy it. It is a great book.... and there is a surprise near the end for you... if you know me... haha

One last thing regarding John, his dad sent us the letter that John's birth mother wrote to him when he was born (before he was officially adopted). I read it and wept. It was beautiful to read about what had actually happened and why she felt she had to give him up. She was 19, I believe. She was not very confident in herself and when she received attention from a popular football player from the University she was attending, she let down her morals and values to please him. She began living her life in a way that did not follow the teachings of the Gospel. As a result of her insecurity, this football player treated her badly but she took it because she thought it was so great that he even was "interested in her". After she found out she was pregnant and over the months she was pregnant, she considered keeping John. She started taking care of her body and quit smoking and drinking because she did not want anything to happen to her baby. It was very sweet to read about how much she loves John. I could feel it as I read through the letter. She explained how she had made the decision to give John to two parents who could give him the life she would never be able to give him. She said something to the affect that she was just the way for John to get to this earth but that the parents she was giving him to were the parents she feels John chose. I felt it very unselfish of her to have that attitude. She explained how she spent time in the hospital with him after she had him. She said she just stared at him and could not believe that she had made such a beautiful healthy baby boy. I am grateful to this woman that I have never met. I am grateful that she gave John to such wonderful parents as Ross and Ayse are. If he was not given this opportunity to have them as parents, there is a huge chance that John and I may never have met. I hope one day I can thank her.

One thing she was certain about in her letter was that the Father of John was a man named Marc and he was Black. If you have seen my husband, then your response to this would most likely be.. "What the???" haha.. He is as white as can be. I guess maybe we will really know when I have kids. How insane would that be if I birthed children that did not look like us??? What are your thoughts?

Happy Holidays from the Hitchins... and then some.

Happy Holidays from the Hitchins!

These first 3 photos were taken by the amazing Amelia Lyon! John and I got lucky because she had scheduled a couple to be her models in order to teach someone her ways and that couple cancelled last minute. John and I just happened to be at the right place and the time and she asked if we would come model for her. I was so excited!! Anyway, these are three of the many she took and I would have picked one of them for our holiday card. Too bad I was lame this year because I lost track of time and did not get Christmas cards out! So here they are, and Happy Holidays!

I briefly went over a few things that happened this past year in my last post, but I wanna go over some more things that happened that are worth noting. (If there are repeats, sorry!)

The biggest thing that happened last year was that John and I got married on July 15th! It was a beautiful summer day in Southern California. The weather was 70 degrees with a light wind. It was perfect weather for a Garden Reception. It was such a special time. I am so grateful for such a perfect memory!

After our wedding, John and I were supposed to move to Las Vegas for my job. Well that whole plan flopped when the hospital I was supposed to work for dragged their feet for 7 months too long. John and I had a tough decision to make about what to do. At that moment in our lives, we were living with my Mom and Dad (Ingram) just waiting for a call (any day as they would say) from my company telling us we could officially move to Vegas. The call never came. John and I had decisions to make in regards to his education, his green card information, and where were going to move to because we couldn't live with my parents for forever. Ultimately, the decision made was for me to quit my job, pack up and move to Rexburg, Idaho where John was already enrolled at BYU-Idaho. It was a great decision! We are happy here in Idaho (other than the cold) and look forward to the next few years of our lives here while John finishes school. The bad move that we made was to move all of our belongings ourselves. We probably drove back and forth between Utah, Idaho, and California about 6 or 7 times in 1 month. Bad choice. One good thing that came from it was the discovery of damnyouautocorrect.com. Thank you, Thank you to whomever created this website! It saved us while we suffered hours in the car traveling!... Below is one of our favorites! 

If you have ever been to Rexburg, Idaho, you know that there isn't much here. There is a lot of farming land, which means lots and lots of fields and flatness. Also, there aren't many stores around Rexburg to suffice the average shopper (aka me). The best shopping is 30 minutes away in Idaho Falls (IF) where one is still limited in its variety. However slim the shopping may or may not be, there is always SOMETHING to see along the way, whether it be the junkyards, the house where you know the old man is a horder, the random horses, cows, or llamas in peoples yards... almost anything and everything is entertaining! The best thing John and I experienced was the find of good old Bruce, the Camel. He loved John. He tried to kiss John like 3 times. We only saw him that one time, even though we have attempted to find him a few times. The thing is, there are crazy things in Idaho... but a CAMEL?? So incredibly Random! Bruce was a funny/great/interesting/one for the books find!

Then Christmas came! It was wonderful. I already explained a little taste of our christmas in a previous post, but here is our tree. I was absolutely obsessed with it! The colors, the lights, the location of it in our apartment. It was beautiful. I almost kept it... I considered keeping it all year. I would lay in bed devising plans to keep it... like: its a plant so all it needs is water and light.. therefore I could keep it all year! But, when push came to shove, my better half realized that a Christmas tree is part of what makes Christmas, Christmas. It is a symbol of Christmas and if I had kept the tree all year, it would lose the symbolism (at least for me). Also, let's be real, it wouldn't last longer than maybe another week. Ultimately, the tree came down. Until next year tree! (notice the tinsel... I had never used tinsel before but my mother in law said it would make it look good, and boy was I glad she suggested it! I love the tinsel!)

Five Crowns became a holiday game favorite. Luckily, these cards don't symbolize Christmas cause I'm playing them all year long!

And something fun and random that I got for Christmas from John were these fun nail polishes. It is so cute to me thinking about him standing in Sally's Beauty Supply trying to decide which nail polishes I would like the best. 

We had a wonderful year with such new experiences together! It will be the first of many and I look forward to it! 

I hope you all had a great year and holiday season!

Hello World!

Remember that tune when you were little that you would sing from the movie "Little Rascals" when you got a dollar? ("I gotta dollar, I gotta dollar, I gotta dollar, hey hey hey HEY!") Well, that is the song that came to my mind as I was making this blog. However, instead of "I gotta dollar" I changed it to "I gotta blog, I gotta blog, I gotta blog, hey hey hey HEY!" Take that Little Rascals!

Maybe I should introduce myself a little bit. Wait, anyone who is reading this should know who I am. So I think I take back that whole introduction idea and I will just tell you how my Christmas went.

This Christmas was my first Christmas away from home. I spent it with John and his parents. Since John cannot travel out of the country (he is in the green card application process), his parents were kind enough to travel to us in good old Rexburg, Idaho. It has been SO much fun. Since his parents were coming, they asked us to wait to purchase any gifts or Christmas decor because they wanted to come and take part in all the festivities. John and I did our best to hold out for them to come before we did anything to celebrate the Christmas Season. We did however, notice that Gap was having an excellent sale and we went in and picked out some items that we went home and wrapped for each other and put under the undecorated tree ( graciously donated by James and Heather Georgianna), even though we picked them out ourselves. Surely, there is still fun in tearing open the wrapping paper even if you know what's in it!

The night that John's parents arrived, we picked up some brightly colored ornaments and some new LED twinkle lights and headed home to decorate the tree. It was nice to finally have a tree decorated, seeing as it was December 20th and Christmas was nearing its end. John's mom Ayse (pronounced: eye-sha) took over the kitchen with cooking and baking like it was going out of style. She made yummy sweets and delicious meals. Ayse is from turkey and John has been telling me since the beginning of time how great her cooking is and it wasn't until this visit that I was finally able to experience her yummy Turkish food! Seriously, go find some turkish food some where and eat it. Its YUMMY!

After food and tree came christmas shopping. There is only 4 of us so the essence of surprise was an interesting task to tackle. We are 30 min away from any kind of civilization that yields great shopping, so we would travel together and mostly end up at the same stores (since we were in the same car and were limited on where we went). It was fun. There was a lot of "Don't you dare look in the trunk!", and "Don't look at me!" while they held the gift behind them as they walked, and since our apartment is small there was lots of "can I come in there yet??" haha. Needless to say, Christmas was a surprise (for me at least) and a success! And memorable at that!

After Christmas came relaxtion, and TONS of old black and white movies. This is a tradition that John and his parents have. They often watch old movies together. I am coming to LOVE old movies. Especially the slap stick comedies with Bing Cosby and Bob Hope! I definitely recommend these to anyone and everyone. You wont regret them!

I have truly enjoyed spending this holiday season with John and his parents. It is nice to get to know them since they do not live close. After this visit with them, it may not be until June or July of 2012 when we travel to Turkey. That is INSANE!!! I cannot wait!

Another thing on my mind is New Year's. What in the world!!! It is freaking tomorrow. TOM.OR.ROW!... Where has this year gone! It has been such a wonderful year. I married the man of my dreams and it was the best decision of my life.  In fact, what a year to be remembered!!! I am so grateful for what this year brought. Last year at this time, there were so many uncertainties in my life. John and I were on the edge with each other, and I felt I had no direction to what life was going to bring me. I sat in the living room of my Sister in Law (SIL) Whitney and we discussed options and possibilities. She eased my burdens just by guiding me to make lists. (Love me some lists!) And I made a big decision to move to Idaho where John was. It was a scary move, not knowing how he was going to respond, but it all turned out positively. John came home to CA for my brother Chad's wedding, and two days later he proposed. It came as SUCH a surprise, but an extremely desired surprise at that. This year took a turn that I had only hoped it would take. Ultimately I feel at peace. Thank you 2011 for bringing me peace.

What will 2012 bring, I wonder?

What are your list of goals for this year? I am looking for something different to put on my list other than: gym, eat better, run more... etc. I am thinking this blog may be a goal of mine. I would love any suggestions if your willing to share.....

Time for bed... its 2:37 AM. yuck.