In exactly one hour I should be sitting on a plane headed for Tampa, FL, but instead I'm sitting in my room writing a journal entry from my bed. Ever since I decided to fly home for vacation, my trip seemed destined for trouble. A week after I got special permission from my school director to leave a day early, I was looking over my calendar and finalizing a few plans for the weeks ahead when it dawned on me. A scheduling conflict made me realize that I had booked my trip one week TOO EARLY than I meant to! A dumb mistake that was eventually resolved $110 later. "Thank you Lord that I saw that NOW and not when I arrived at the airport (a week too late!)," I remember praying.
Fast forward about a month and a half later. It's the night before the day I was to fly home. While catching up with a friend over Skype about her recent trip back to the States, she wished me luck -her's turned out complicated and stressful. The rest of our conversation went something like this:April: "Just make sure you have the little white paper." (Immigration form)
Me: "I don't have that, Mr. Voysest does."
April: "You can't leave the country without it! Call him right now!"
Well how convenient that his wife works at the school. I'll just ask him to pass it along to her, and she can give it to me when I see her at work the following day... Or so I thought. Come to find out, that this little white slip was now in the possession of the Peruvian government officials responsible for issuing my Carnet (foreign resident identification card) - requiring a drawn out and somewhat complicated process, during which I am not allowed to leave the country. Perfect. Now what? My flight was scheduled to leave in T-24 hours and I had to get special permission to leave the country.
I called my parents to give them a heads-up on the situation and asked if they could send any medical documents to help me plead my case to travel home. Since I recently had a major medical issue, with a follow up appointment scheduled for Monday (3 days after I was to arrive), I figured I had a pretty good excuse. We had to get a bit creative though in order to prove that my appointment was indeed real. Because my mom had made the appointment over the phone, we had no written record to show for it. Luckily with an old "appointment reminder" card and some white out, we were back in business.
So along with some recent medical records, a copy of my passport, my actual passport, a copy of my flight itinerary, 2 other signed documents and 25 soles, I was headed to downtown Lima the next morning for an adventure at the Immigration's Office. After standing in 3 lines, paying a fee, and practicing my heart wrenching speech, we walked up to the window where the woman with the power to send me home told us that she would not even consider my case because I was requesting to leave in less than 24 hours. However, I found out that I could still leave that night, but the status of my carnet would be terminated and I would have to restart the entire process from the beginning- notaries, fingerprints, application fee- the whole shebang. But I was still going home, "Thank you, Lord."
5:30 pm rolls around and my taxi would arrive soon to take me to the airport at 7:00. When my roommate asks me what time I will arrive at home, I decide to check my email- just for good measure. An unread email awaited in my inbox, subject line "Spirit Airlines flight cancellation." Opening it only confirmed my disappointment. My hope hadn't completely faded yet because I jumped back and forth between the phone and computer for the next 30 minutes, until it was finally confirmed online. The rest of the story is just a jumble of details, but long story short I was finally able to get another flight home leaving Peru 2 days later. Unfortunately, these plans weren't finalized before the taxi arrived, so I had the pleasure of paying the cancellation fee.
Even with pockets growing empty and expectations of seeing the Sunshine State any time soon running low, I know my God is still in control. And I'm so glad He is! Because I know that frustrating things like this have a purpose and He's teaching me through it- even if I have to learn the hard way. I overheard my roommate playing this song in the other room and I felt like it fit the situation perfectly!
"This is the stuff that drives me crazy
This is the stuff that's getting to me lately
In the middle of my little mess
I forget how big I'm blessed
This is the stuff that gets under my skin
But I gotta trust You know exactly what You're doing
It might not be what I would choose
But this is the stuff You use"
