Miami: Trip #1

So Miami was an adventure. We had quite an experience while we were there. So our first nights stay was in Miami Beach in a hotel room that was rather interesting. BTW (side note) THERE IS NO FREE PARKING IN MIAMI! God had told a friend of ours to bless us with money to be able to buy a room for the night and I can't thank God enough for knowing exactly what we needed when we needed it. We were able to (after a four hour drive) to walk along the beautiful beach and relax in our room as much as could before waking up the next day early morning to start our venture towards the Spanish Consulate.
Once we got to the Consulate...let's just say .... AS MUCH AS YOU THINK YOU ARE PREPARED.... YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO BE FULLY PREPARED! .... That was the lesson learned! But in all that, God showed us favor with allowing us to have the resources to finance any unexpected expenses and all the preparations that we needed to have were found very close to the consulate itself. So after a very funny and friendly guard, a woman willing to stay after her work hours, an official translator that helped us while we were in a time crunch to get out translations and copies before the consulate closed, and a FedEx building with $0.10 copies, we were able to turn in the right paperwork and walk away knowing that it was only by the grace of God that we were still able to think. :) It was nice to know that now we didn't have to worry about papers being scattered everywhere to organize them the right way in order to turn them in, or that we couldn't hardly understand anyone speaking because of their thick accent, now all we had to do was thank God for His favor and relax (because by that time we were both physically and mentally exhausted!).
We ran into a very friendly Spanish native at a close by McDonald's. She was so much fun to talk to. She was absolutely astonished by Greg's "light complexion" and bright red head. She even began petting him (which if you know Greg his face was beet red when she started stroking his red locks). It was such a blast though talking to her.
We stayed one more night to be able to fish in Miami. The next day we went out to a pond by a campground we stayed at and I (kita) threw my line in a second time to pull out a 2 1/4 lbs bass :D Yeah... it was a fun catch! The we went to an old bridge they turned into a pier and did lotsa fishin there. Greg caught the most fish but I totally caught a flounder. So then we took the 4 1/2 hour drive back home but not before stopping and throwing our line in at Lake Okeechobee.
It was a great learning experience that I hope we can know more what to expect next time we go. So we are simply waiting for the go ahead that our visas are approved and then we can pick them up. After that we then tell the Assemblies we are ready to go and set our date. It's never a dull moment and I thank God for His favor and grace! We are also very thankful for the prayers for us for this trip to Miami and also throughout this whole process. Thank you!