There must be a reason...

The past five days have been some of the most emotional and confusion-wracked days I have had in a while. I'm supposed to be in Bangkok right now...but I'm not...but thankfully I will be.

Thursday: I got a call from Professor Kay (the lady in charge of all of this) saying that the Thai Consulate in Houston could not process my visa there because I'm a permanent resident. This fault falls considerably on her for not getting these visas started until just a few days before we were supposed to leave, but she has been so helpful that I feel guilty saying that. She then continues to tell me that she is contact with Congressman Chet Edward's office and they are working to find a way to get my visa done in Houston. My whole morning is thrown into a state of turmoil - the road to Thailand had thus far been such a breeze that this situation had me wondering if Thailand is where I was supposed to be after all. During the afternoon, Professor Kay informed me that we would be able to get the Thai Embassy in Washington D.C. to expedite my visa. This now meant that I would have to run around Houston picking up various needed documents and money as well as meet the 7pm final drop off time at FedEx. Somehow, with great thanks to Christi and Tom, we managed to get it done and I sent it off...with a huge sigh of relief.

Friday: When I woke up, I wasn't too worried...we sent off the package and I figured everything was going to be fine. Well, I tried contacting the lady at the Thai Embassy and she never picked up. I called her into the afternoon and she still didn't...well now I'm freaking out because the embassy closes at 3pm our time and I haven't heard from her by 2pm. I call Prf. Kay who also calls the Congressman's office and she is finally able to reach her at 2:30pm. THE PACKAGE HAS NOT BEEN RECEIVED ... words to strike a blow to anyone who has shipped off a package marked overnight delivery that contains her passport and green card. After five minutes of being upset, we look up the tracking number and find out that the lady signed for it at 9:28 am! Aha, the package is under Tom's name because he's the one that paid for it so we take that information back to Prf. Kay who passes it along to the lady in Washington and we are informed that the lady will do my visa in a record 45 minutes. We receive a call an hour later saying that the passport has been put in the FedEx drop box (1 hour before their final pick-up) to be received by myself on Saturday (Happy graduation...) I go back to Waco and to sleep with a rested heart.

Saturday: It is my turn to utter the words "the package has not been received"...even worse, using the tracking number, we find that the package has not even been scanned into the system meaning that it was never picked up from the drop box. This is not good. I was supposed to be on a plane early Monday morning to Bangkok but there is now no way that I will be able to receive this visa by Monday. Many hours are spent talking to various Fed Ex people who try to assure us that the drop box was picked up or that perhaps the tracking number we wrote down was wrong...neither of these are possibly correct. Compounded with the frustration of this situation is the fact that today was graduation, I'm surrounded by friends and family who want to spend time with me and all I want to do is scream.

Sunday: FedEx does not pick up on Saturdays from drop boxes so I was not expecting happy news. Instead, today revolved around moving my flight back. We found out that since I got the ticket at a special rate ($830), the same ticket on the same flight is now $2000. The penalty fee for changing the date was a whopping $800...albeit a fraction of the price change, it was still an impossible fee for me. Upon explaining the situation, I was finally able to talk the lady down to a $400 penalty fee, but I still did not know where I was going to get it from. This is where I am so grateful for the Millays and the way that their family has embraced me over the past four years. Tom's dad offered to pay for it (even though he already paid for the initial $830 ticket), what a blessing. Dr. Mueller was able to talk them down to $370 but that was the absolute lowest they were willing to go. She then offered to put in $100 of her own money, which would alleviate Mr. Tom's financial contribution. The money was settled, I was assured that my package would get here at least by Tuesday...so everything seemed set. However, later that night Dr. Mueller called to inform me that there may no longer be a position at the palace school for me anymore due to me having to miss most of orientation...this was such an emotional blow to me especially having spent the whole day working out details of the flight. Why was this happening? What more was wanted from me? I could not understand. I kept this new twist to mostly myself and a few others because I did not want to further frustrate those who were intimately involved with the situation. I went to bed with a very heavy heart.

Monday: I was supposed to be on a plane leaving DFW at 8am...but there is nothing more to say about that. We spent the day checking the tracking number but to no avail...it had still not been scanned. We called the Fed Ex people numerous times to explain the gravity of the situation and we were told to wait - wait, wait, wait...I did not have the emotional energy to wait. Finally, to get away from the nonsense, I had dinner with Dan and it was there that I received the text message from Tom at 6:55pm, "Thank you God! It was picked up! To be delivered tomorrow!" Such a burden was lifted from my heart because the package would be here and there was no foul play involved. However, the happiness was still tinged with sorrow because I did not know the status of my teacher position. Dr. Mueller sent off a page and a half email to the school detailing how I was not at fault and how we were simply at the mercy of other forces. While hanging out with some friends at Crickets, I received the call from Prf. Kay... I still had a job. They were very sorry for the unfortunate things that had happened and wanted me to forward my itinerary to them so that they were would be someone there to pick me up when I arrived on Friday evening. Only after that conversation could I let out my first real breath of thankful relief since the past five days.

I'm not sure why everything happened like this - I know there is a reason here but maybe it is not one that I am supposed to understand till I finally get to Thailand. I've had the feeling for a long time now that there is something life-changing for me in Thailand and perhaps I had to go through the frustration, anger, sadness, and anxiety of trying to get there that would prepare me for whatever it is I'm supposed to realize while I'm there. I didn't put this blog up earlier because I did not want everyone to be as on edge as I was but I am so happy to report the situation resolved.

Thursday, Thailand or bust.