FM2 Renewal 2010

After having my blog come up first when I googled FM2 renewal IM feeling a little more pressure to get this post done well. The last renewal post I read didnt have a lot of the formalities about the process that I normally put in. So I plan to give you the details first of what you need then Ill go into my personal story of how it went for me.

For the Renewal you go online to
http://www.inm.gob.mx/index.php/page/Solicitud_de_Estancia
and fill out the form, be sure to save it and copy it. You need to be able to read in Spanish to get this done. If you can not be sure to have someone help you.
We filled out two letters of intent that were given to us by the Immigration office
They also gave us a form to fill out with instructions on getting another photo for the new ID. They will be giving a card ID now instead of a booklet.
Full copy of passport
Copy of info pages from my FM2 book
Pictures for the ID
Issacs ID (this is because my FM2 is familial under him)
We had to pay 2,800p at a Banamex and bring a copy of the receipt. (You have to get the form for the payment from the Immigration office)
we also had to have check stubs or a letter from Issacs Employer, we got the letter. Again this is because my FM2 is familial.


We also had to do an address change. We needed much less this time around.
We had to fill out and print off a form from the same website I posted above.
Full coyp of passport
proof of address
and a letter of intent, they actually gave Issac an example so he was sure to put everything on there.

It took us three days to be sure we had all the documents correct due to little errors and details. By the time we got to go to the office to turn everything in I had to go alone. Due to the fact that Im nursing the baby and havnt started bottles yet I had to bring her with me. Wile I waited for my number to be called I finished little angels for Alanas class. When I got to the desk and handed over my form and my passport copy the lady asked me what year I was born. "1980" I say. Your form is wrong she says. My husband put his year of birth instead of mine. The lady told me there was a computer across the hall that I could fix the form and then come back to her. She said I didnt have to wait with another number which was a relief. I did have to wait for one guy to get done with his document and then I was on. I had to change both of my forms and the first went almost without a hich. It was a touch screen and there are a lot of pull down menus so I kept hitting the wrong things because I dont have nails. By the time I got to the second I had people behind me and the baby was waking up and crying wanting to be fed. Needless to say I rushed through it. I then wrote down my numbers and went back to the lady at the counter who printed off my forms. At this point Im feeding the baby so she took my whole stack of papers and put them in order instead of asking for one at at time like the normally do. I was thankfull for this. She stamped everything and had me sign a copy of the print off that tells you how to check the status online. I grabbed my papers and finished feeding the baby as I walked out to the car. After I got home and handed my husband the papers he says, "Oh honey." with a bit of a sad sigh. Im like, "What!!!!"
I had put on the address change that I was from Estonia, which is right below Estados Unidos on the drop down list. I of course had to be calmed down by him and he said he would go in the next day to ask about what we needed to do.
They acted like it was no big deal because it was just the address change. They said they would just deny it and in Jan when they reopen we will have to redo it. This is not a big problem because it was late already and we were already going to have to pay the fine.

Thats it for now until I go top pick it up. I hope this information ends up being useful.

The unmarked path is exciting and scary

First off I want to say that yesterday I was googling FM2 renewal because its that time of the year again and guess whose web site came up top of the list. Oh yeah that would be me, Borders Aside was the first page to come up. I laughed because here I am looking for any updated info and my page came up. Anyway that process is for another post when its all said and done I just wanted to brag about finding myself on google like that. lol

So about that unmarked path. Well when we got this job offer it seemed to good to be true and so we committed it to a lot of prayer and asked others to do the same for us. Issac and I both felt that moving and taking this job were the right thing to do. And we still do. But let me tell you it hasn't been as clean and clear as we had expected. Like most things in life I see this as Gods way of helping me to see where my faith lies. There have been many changes in just the two months since we stared. We are doing more than teaching which is all we expected at first. We are both doing a lot of soliciting, and are both writing a curriculum for different classes. I actually dont mind this Iv always wanted to try my hand at new things. I worked in the healthcare field at 15 1/2 and aside from a pizza job on the side for 6months its all Iv ever done. The other change is that sometimes... well... more than once we have have not gotten paid on time. And we know that the person who is suppose to be financing this program is more than a month late on paying. This is pretty stressful if you can imagine especially with the new move and new baby. On top of that our transmission is going out on our truck and we cant drive more than 40mph most of the time. We need a new vehicle anyway because we need more room and more seatbelts. Anyway I wont go on an on about that I think what Iv said can show you that this can be quite a stresser for us.
Im writing this because I want you all to be witness to the goodness and personal care of God. Christ is not only my Saviour he is my friend and doesnt like to see me stress. Especially when he has gotten me through so much in the past. Im sure it breaks his heart. I tried as much as I could not to stress but it happened anyway. My faith filled and always calm husband prayed over me and helped me through that day. He reminded me of all the tough times that God has pulled us out of. And his peace helped to sooth me. I cant be more thankful for what God has given me in my husband. So the Sunday after Lily was born and during the peak of all these (and a few more) issues we went to church. Yes she was only a week old but I was feeling good enough so we went. We tithed out of our past check even though we had still not received the new check (over a week late), because we had both prayed about it and we knew God would see us through. But let me tell you I didn't do it without a little fear in my heart. The sermon was perfect, he was talking about how we should respond to things that we do not understand. He spoke of Mary the mother of Jesus, and how imperfect she was. He had to go into this of course because living in Mexico even if you are not Catholic you may have been raised putting Mary into a higher place than she should be. Anyway I cant even imagine what her life must have been like raising him and knowing all that she knew. Anyway there is a verse that says that "she put all these things away in her heart." So even a women who had been spoken to by an angel and raised the Christ child didn't understand why God had her where she was. And when she didn't understand something she just tucked it away knowing that some day God would shine his light of understanding on it. so after church I told Issac that I am going to work on filling up my box and tucking it away to give to the Lord. God always knows the words we need to hear and gives them to us. Not always through a sermon, sometimes through the rustling of the trees or the words of a child, husband or friend. Later in the week here is a devotional I read (thanks Rebbecca Im reading Streams in the Desert and its perfect timing for it although you gave it to me like a year ago)
I know, O Lord, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. (Jeremiah 10:23)
Lead me in a straight path. (Psalm 27:11)
Many people want to direct God instead of surrendering themselves to be directed by Him. They want to show Him the way instead of submissively following where He leads. Madame Guyon.


I did skip a couple post that I still want to write and hopefully I ll have time for them this weekend but this one seemed more important.

Much love.

advent calander, tree decorations, messy house.

Well I'm glad that sometimes when I think of something I want to post about I save a title and leave it at that if I dont have time to make the whole post at the time. I love to share about our advent activities. Today I will do it with pictures, here goes. Oh in case you were not around last year we do advent a bit different, I make it my own. We have a calendar that I made last year with pockets for each day. On a piece of paper I write a bible verse and an activity usually pertaining to the story we read. The girls also get a piece of candy with each activity, this usually keeps them quiet long enough to hear the story. We start with creation and move through the bible chronologically for the most part up to the birth of Jesus which we talk about on Christmas eve.

Sorry I had to delete the pics off my blog, I have decided to keep my blog public no matter how many hateful comments I get. If I made my blog private it would defeat the purpose so instead I will just delete the pictures and refrain from using names in attempt to keep things safe for us. 

Getting moms med care

When my mom said she wanted to come but was worried about her medications I began asking around about it. I had many people who live here tell me that it would be no problem. I even went as far as going into a pharm simi to ask a doctor if she would write the scripts if we needed them. Everyone told me it would be no problem and that it would not be difficult to find her medications. Let me tell you they were all so very wrong. Thankfully my mom told us a good two weeks before she was running out of anything and we got started right away. First we had to look up the names of all her medications in Spanish, this turned out to be the easiest part of the process. It was all very confusing and I didn't understand why some pharmacies had what we need and others didn't. In the long run when we asked my OB about the issues we had, he explained that in Mexico the pharmacies are owned by the drug companies. So if a drug you want is from a competitor drug producer that pharmacy will not carry it. Considering my mom was on more than one medication that still had no generic this was a big problem. Also as we were visiting all these different places we found out that three of her medications had to have a written prescription. One that was for anxiety and one that was for sleep we were told by one doctor had to be written by a psych doctor and only a psych doctor. Thankfully this turned out to not be the case. Because I was in my last few weeks of pregnancy and seeing my OB often we brought this whole issue to his attention and he agreed to write the scripts we needed. So we showed him her pill bottles and the names of the drugs in Spanish and he wrote them out. This happened the day he gave me the small dose of pitosin to induce my labor ( he was expecting it to take a while to work). Well I went into labor less than 4 hours later so Issac didn't go to fill moms scripts till the next evening. When he did he found out that all the medications had to be written on their own personal script and not all together the way our doctor wrote them. So my OB was kind enough to rewrite them. And again the next day Issac went to get them filled. This is when they informed us that her pain medication was not to be found here in Mexico. So three days after the baby was born and my first day home Issac brought my mom to a doctor to have them write her something that would help her with her arthritis pain. The doctor at pharm simi was kind enough to write this one and we were able to get it filled and it did end up easing her pain. She ended up needing another script written for her sleeping meds because they didn't give us enough for her entire stay the firs time. But again I was going back for my one week OB appointment and our doctor was kind enough to write it again. In the end we got it all figured out and for sure next time it will be easier but gees what a pain in the butt it was. We spent at least three night going from pharm to pharm, and in the state I was in just before and after the baby it was frustrating to say the least. Really I just wanted to write this post in case any of you have family that will be visiting for a long time you will know what to expect better than I did. It is a better idea for them to explain to their doctor and insurance that they will be on a prolonged stay in Mexico and need extra fill on their meds. If the insurance or doctor will not do this be sure to visit your pharmacies and doctors and be very very clear with them what medications you will be needing and if they will have them. Well that is that... Im trying to get my blogs up to date today so I can spend some time reading others this weekend. :)

Having the baby

Lilian Andrea was born Saturday November 27th, she weighed 3kilos and was 51cm long. I had gone in that morning around 9am and was given a very small dose of patosin and sent home. By noon I was admitted to the hospital and she was born at 245. She came fast and I was so glad and ready for her. To be honest my whole labor and delivery process was so much closer to what I wanted with the other two. Issac was allowed by my side the whole time and every one attended to what I asked for as far as when I was ready for different things. Heres some pics.