Thursday, April 16, 2015

Oh Happy Day......our VISAS arrived today!!!

I am really starting to see that we were meant to spend the year in France...

* We found the house in Angers almost immediately on SabbaticalHomes.com.

* We found a fabulous French tutor for Joanie through the Alliance Française.  Céline, tu es magnifique!

* The owners of the house found a school for Joanie to attend.  She will be attending a French catholic school, a nine-minute walk from our house.

*I bumped into my dear friend Elizabeth, whom I know from an Alliance Française class that I took seven years ago,  at Freedom Park.  She invited me to join her conversational French group that meets weekly.  This has been so helpful in preparing me for the coming year....since apparently everyone is going to be relying on me to communicate.

*When we were making our cruise reservation, we found out that the ship only allows a certain number of children.  We were told that there might not be enough space, and we would have to wait until the following business day to see if there would be space.  Joanie got the last space!

*The final "French" piece of the puzzle.....the visas.  We drove to Atlanta on March 23, with our visa applications, cash, and a boatload of documents (Rick, the Eagle Scout...be prepared!)  Not only did we hope and pray that we had all the necessary documents, but also that they would allow us to apply for the visas as a family.  Fortunately, the gentleman who was processing our applications was very kind and allowed us to apply as a family.  We were able to drive down and back in the same day.......and had a wonderful dinner at Georges Brasserie upon our return!

Well guess what.....the visas arrived in the mail today!

Yippee!  Or as they say in France.....Youpi!