A Week's Recap In Mexico....

I can't believe I've been here one week already. I'm far from being moved in. Tomorrow and Tuesday are big move days for the Bohorquez house. I'll try to be brief! The day I arrived I accidentally drove straight into downtown Tijuana. Honestly after being used to the sights, sounds and smells of Ciudad Juarez and Mexico City .... Tijuana is pretty nice! They definitely cater to the American tourist a nice plus in my book.

So instead of veering off to the "right" as my husband suggested, my TomTom GPS drove me downtown. With a nearly dead cell phone and no signal I decided it was a good time to hyperventilate. Having my parents and son with me was also another good reason to add to my anxiety. As we drove down the street I saw a SUV with California plates and decided to follow him. I managed to drove over a double speed bump ... and the car decides to turn off on me. I managed to turn it on and drove to a church (empty I guess service was over). I finally got a single and managed to call my husband and yell "I got lost!" We find each other and after hugs and kisses we had a good laugh about the whole thing. Now I see that church every time we drive back to TJ..."Look Aaron that's the church mommy was lost at!" :-|

So we enjoyed some great tacos and my parents returned with my brother and sister to my brother house in Grand Terrace, CA (an hour and 1/2 away). So Eduardo, Aaron and I drove to our new home in Playas de Tijuana. It is really nice and clean! Everyone is respectful and gracious. The house is really nice. Eduardo did a great job finding it.

Things I managed to forget about Mexico:

1. Around 7 or 8 in the morning the gas truck blows the horn and people run out to get a new gas tank. By now I've managed not jerk out of bed yelling "what the heck is going on!"
   
2. There's no hot water in the house. If we want hot water for the shower Eduardo has to go outside in the back and jimmy the water heater.
3. You should not throw toilet paper in the toilet... I will not elaborate on that.
4. Everyone drives like lunatics!
   

Things I managed to forget about my husband:

1. He's extremely attentive and affectionate
   
2. He's always cleaning
3. He's always cooking
4. He's impatient :)
5. He's a health nut :/
   

Last night during dinner he asked me if he's changed. Was he the same or different? I said he was still the same person I fell in love with it and its wonderful remembering his great qualities. As I write this... he washed the car and now cleaning the patio area.

Aaron returned to Chicago today with my parents and sister. We did this for a few reasons. One Eduardo and I haven't lived together in 5 and 1/2 years. We needed to get used to each other and get rid of our independence of living solo. Eduardo is not a Mexican Macho, but he tends to give "orders" which doesn't fly with me. So we need to work on asking each other to do things versus telling each other what they should be doing. One example... I was on the computer when my beloved said "I'm only giving you a little bit of time on that computer"... to which I replied "It sounded like you're telling me what to do and that doesn't fly with me. you wanna try that again?" He laughed and said "your right."

Back to Aaron. He's needs to have some stability and familiarity. We are far from being moved in and I still need to learn the ropes of driving and eventually the bus and trolley systems. This way when Aaron does return I'll know what I'm doing hahaha.

So much to post and so little time...

Some of you know what's the story with Eduardo immigration case. For those of you that don't here's what happened. My husband arrived in Chicago (illegally) sometime in the early 90's. During which time he didn't live a good moral life. Others have said he was being young and stupid. So in the end he has a criminal past and associated with the wrong crowd which has haunted him until this very day.

When I met Eduardo back in August 1998 we met at a church sponsored youth camp. He was an aspiring minister and on the path to becoming a pastor. We married the following year and I, like so many others, thought that by marrying a US citizen getting his papers would be a cinch! It was not so. We consulted with an immigration attorney here in Chicago and she found out that Eduardo had an order of deportation on him. When he first arrived in Chicago his mother started the paperwork for him to get legalized but again being young and stupid he never followed through with his appointments.

During one of his arrests he was told he had to appear in immigration court and he would receive the notice in the mail. Eduardo moved around a lot during that time and never got the notice. By failing to appear in court he received the deportation order. So we tried to appeal. Our argument was that he never received the noticed. We fought for almost 3 years and in the end we lost.

He had to comply with the deportation order and he leave the country on January 10, 2004. So we filed new paperwork and we waited for him to receive his interview appointment in Cuidad Juarez. After three denials from the US Consulate in Mexico, 5 1/2 years of living separately and close to $20,000 in immigration and attorney fees, we've chosen to be a family.

Aaron and I will be moving to Mexico in two weeks.