Waiting on the answer...

Yesterday I got in a line and stood waiting for a little slip of paper that would give me the answer to a question that had loomed in my mind for about a month. The entire time I kept thinking to myself, "this is what it would be like if you were waiting for the results of a biopsy." And while we weren't waiting to find out if someone had Cancer, I can totally empathize with what that must be like.

A person you don't really know well, who has already delivered similar answers to others like you just minutes before, is going to tell you your fate. The room feels empty and sterile, or in our case full of people speaking a language I don't yet understand. If the answer is "yes, you do have Cancer" then everything you had been planning must be put on hold and your life is going to have to wait a little while.

Fortunately for us, the answer was yes. But not "yes, you have Cancer." Instead we got the answer we had been hoping for "Yes, you can have your student visas, with multiple entries and beginning on the date you desire." Which means the opposite of putting our lives on hold. In fact our "yes" means we don't have to put anything on hold and that we can live out the plans that had already been put in place.

When we got to counter my heart was beating really fast and afterward we both went back to the car and took a nap. Waiting for an answer can be pretty exhausting.