Giulian's visit to the Consulado-Geral do Brasil em Houston

Yes, Giulian trekked all by himself into the scary iron jungle of Houston by motor vehicle to procure our Visas at the Consulate General of Brazil in Houston. With all of the proper documentation properly bundled up by myself in a folder and the directions written neatly to correspond with his mental picture of the route at hand, Giulian embarked on what turned out to be an hour and a half drive to the Westside of Houston. Of course I thought I had prepared everything perfectly for him but what I didn't realize is that every street over there is "Post Oak" something. "Post Oak Part Drive" "Post Oak Parkway" "Post Oak Blvd" I mean, who does that?!

To get our Brazilian Visas, we must pay a "reciprocity fee" of $130 each because that is how much the U.S. charges for Brazilians to get a Visa to come here. The require you to appear in person at the Consulate, or to send a proxy on your behalf and pay an extra $20 fee. Giulian and I decided it would be wisest for him to go before work by himself for both of us rather than me take off work so that we can go together, but this came with unforeseen driving obstacles. Thankfully, when Giulian hit a wall of traffic due to construction (shocker!) and a little pile-up, I was able to look up a backway for him to take on Google maps at work! Who else has done this? (Who has done it when driving to LAX? Oh yeah.)

Even though he was ten minutes late to our appointment due to traveling down every other Post Oak street before reaching the unmarked Brazilian Consulate, they still met with him and processed our paperwork. So our Visas will be in the mail in a few short days! The excitement is really growing as we're closing in on 4 weeks until we fly out! Please pray with us as we continue to prepare our hearts for this transition.

God really blessed us a few nights ago as we met with a very dear small group only to find out that a member of their group is from Rio only minutes from where we'll be living!!! Our new friend even lent us her husband's Portuguese Rosetta Stone- so cool!

Até logo,
Christy