It’s grey and rainy outside, and our apartment is freezing, but I’m happy. My wonderful husband bought me flowers…just because.
Several years ago, a Lithuanian friend of ours moved to the United States to attend school. When asked once what he liked about America, he replied, “corn on the cob!” Corn is used abundantly in Lithuania for things like cereal, snacks, and flour, but most of our friends tell us that cob corn is “pig food.” It’s an understandable sentiment, really. We’ve seen corn on the cob for sale in the produce section a few times, but it’s usually pretty sad looking, and would probably be more appealing to a hungry pig.
So, when we were walking through a large grocery store the other day and spotted fresh, golden-coloured corn, we couldn’t resist. I’ll admit, we were a bit skeptical; they looked beautiful, but they were covered in cellophane, so we couldn’t feel or smell them like we are used to. And at 3 Litas each, they were hardly a bargain, but we (or our stomachs) decided that it was worth it, so we bought one for each of us.
I have no idea what type of corn this was, but oh…it was tasty! It cooked up wonderfully, stayed nice and crunchy, and had much more flavour than I expected. It wasn’t a very sweet corn, but it tasted fantastic with a little butter, salt and pepper. The only thing that was missing was those little corn shaped holders that go on the ends!
* The title of this post comes from the classic Broadway production, “South Pacific” in a song called “I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy.” Which I am ☺
The two critical documents that make it possible for us to stay in Lithuania are Permission to Work, and Permission to Live in Lithuania. As part of Nathan’s new full-time job at a shipping/ferry company, he has the fantastic advantage of having the company’s lawyer help with the massive amounts of paperwork that go along with applying for these documents. So far, Nathan has received his Permission to Work - which involved a complicated cycle of applying, waiting, office visits, letter writing, and more waiting. All of this would have been mind-numbingly impossible without the help of a knowledgeable and experienced Lithuanian to negotiate the details.
And though today was Nathan’s first day at his new job, we are both still waiting for the very essential Permission to Live in Lithuania. As far as we know, the company lawyer has submitted our applications to the migration office, and is waiting for a reply…although this has been the case now for over two months. I’m actually not even sure what kind of permission I should be expecting; an earlier application for a spousal permit was denied, and applying as a student didn’t work since the Lithuanian language program is only part-time. We are trusting that our clever lawyer has come up with a solution, so now we wait.
Remarkably, we aren’t particularly worried. I’m sure that part of that is because we haven’t had the horrible stress of sitting in the dim hallway of the migration office, nervously waiting to assert our place in line, and also because we have a very capable (not to mention very intimidating) lawyer on our side. Even more, I know that we are OK with whatever the outcome is. I’m not naturally a “go-with-the-flow” kind of person, so I know that this kind of calmness in the midst of uncertainty is not something I mustered on my own. So even if we don’t have tomorrow’s answers today, we know that God does, and I’m sure he’ll let us know when the time is right.