Details

Moving to another country involves a lot of paper work.  Moving to America requires a great deal of red tape as well, but few of us are aware of those details.

Italy has opened our eyes to the little details that are required to live here.  Some of you may know about our Visa application that we went to Houston for back in March.  When we applied for a Visa, we applied as religious workers and were granted a year visa-which enables us to travel back and forth from Italy for a year, but not stay for a year.  

So upon our arrival, we hit the ground running on our permesso di soggiorno application. This will allow us to stay in Italy for a year, and can be renewed annually.  We’re so blessed to be staying with Jesse and Tricia, who are very familiar with this process and willing to help us.  

The first day after we arrived, we walked with Jesse down the street to a photo booth in a parking lot.  The photo booth offers 2 options for purchase, ‘fun pictures’ and passport photos.  So we each took turns, popping into the photo booth to get passport photos for our permesso applications.  Finn even had to have his photo taken, which was mildly difficult for a jet lagged 5 month old.  The process was surprisingly quick and cheap, in comparison to getting a passport photo done at Walgreens.  The US should really embrace pop up photo booths.  We’ve seen many since then:)

The hilarity of a photo booth with Finn.

With our photos in tow, we walked down to the nearby post office to wait in line.  Several people talked and smiled at us (I say ‘at’ since I had no clue what they were saying).  We’re quite the trio with Finn.  He’s adored by all Italians, and we’ve yet to go anywhere without someone wanting to talk to him or to us about him.  While we were waiting in line at the post office, several people walked in and jumped in front of us.  An uproar would’ve likely ensued in the US, but in Italy, because some have banks associated with the post office, they get the benefit of being a priority in the treacherous post office lines.    So we patiently waited, and got our application packets to take home.

From arriving in the country, we have 8 days to fill out these packets.  But there were 2 holidays in the first 8 days we were here, so our process was extended slightly.  (The holidays were Liberation Day and Labor Day- and Italians don’t simp



ly take off work for holidays, the city shuts down for holidays- every holiday, so we’ll learn to plan grocery trips accordingly, and memorize the holiday schedules...)

After we filled out our packets we took them to another post office in hopes that the permesso window would be open. You never know what will be open, or when it will be open...  To our dismay, the window was closed.  But quick observances revealed that a different counter may be accepting applications, so we grabbed a number and waited.  When our number was called we approached the counter, and as soon as the postal worker caught a glance of Finn, he was all smiles.  The process was quick and painless (very unusually so) and we go back in June for our official appointments as the final step to obtaining our permessos.

In addition to our permesso applications, we had to apply for our tax cards.  That process was very quick and painless (naturally, because that process ensures we’re giving Italy monies).

Enjoying the car ride to our staff conference, right before Finn got car sick and puked everywhere...

So in addition to apartment dealings, we’ve been up to our eyeballs in paper work and starting ministry.  Alex and I have both been on campus a few times and are busy planning for the short term trips coming to Bologna this week.  And we just returned from our national staff conference in Donoratico this weekend!

Finn's first time in the sea!  It was too chilly for his liking.

We’ve yet to get intensive language learning-the plan is to work on that during our off months of July and August.  But there is plenty of ongoing learning through immersion.  And overall, I’ve yet to be frustrated with my lack of Italian.  Until the other day on the bus...

I mentioned that elderly Italians love to talk to us when we’re with Finn.  Well due to a holiday bus schedule, I boarded an overcrowded bus with Finn on my back (we wear Finn everywhere here).  Finn was initially asleep, but woke up very frustrated.  I was coincidentally surrounded by several older Italian women.  I had no idea if they were talking to Finn, or to me (which happens on occasion in English as well).  As Finn got more upset, and the need for me to get him off my back increased, they were getting more and more animated in their speech-escalating to them yelling at another woman to give up her seat for me.  They were all trying to jump in frantically to help me get Finn out.  Meanwhile, I had missed my stop (3 stops ago) and had to squish out of the bus and take quite the hike back to where I was heading.  This was my first encounter where I was truly frustrated I couldn’t speak Italian.  

Heading for a beach break at our conference.

This is where realizing that reliance on the Lord has to come first and foremost.  I can’t and won’t learn Italian overnight. I can’t and won’t memorize all the bus stops and side streets.  I can’t possibly thrive or even survive here without the Lord’s guidance and ongoing direction.  Living and serving Christ can never be based on my own abilities, but on Him alone.  Bella Italia is a greeeeeeat place to be learning that.