A sign from God

The entire reason we began looking into moving to Mexicali was because of an amazing family we met in Ciudad Juarez the day after I got my 10 year ban. We had breakfast together and they made Mexicali sound like a beautiful oasis in the middle of the desert. They gave us their phone number and lots of very helpful tips and we each went our way. I clearly remember going back into out hotel room and saying a prayer to thank God for giving us the answer to our problem so quickly and not letting us struggle for long, I mean he gave us the answer to our problems the next day! I tried to stay in touch but after playing phone tag I think we both just gave up and lost touch. Well on Sunday it had marked been exactly one week since my husband moved out here permanently. The original plan was that I would live here with my daughter and he would continue to work until the end of the year and with taxes he would move out here and that would give us a safe net. Well that plan started falling apart after my husband didn't get his highly anticipated promotion and with out that it wasn't really worth being apart anymore. My husband and I talked about it for almost 2 weeks until we made the decision that he would just move out here and we would just hope and pray he found a job really soon.

Now back to Sunday, we were so stressed out after filling out what felt like 100 applications and spending all week looking for jobs we had yet to hear back from anyone. We were even considering that my hubby move back to Salt Lake and ask for his job back until taxes and then try again. Later on that night we went to good old Wal-Mart to buy some groceries and just as we were about to leave there they were, the family that had started this all! We both kind of walked past each other I think in disbelief but we turned around and we hugged and said our hellos and I swear they greeted us like we were family or long lost friends and it was awesome! It was another sign from God to just have a little more faith and patience. We both went to sleep a lot calmer that night and the next day bright and early my husband got a call for an interview, he got hired on the spot and today was his first official day!!!!!

I am so happy and blessed that this has all worked out. God works in mysterious ways but his timing is always perfect and if we just have faith and work hard, it will all work out! We also went to church for the first time this past Saturday and in bible study they talked about how we all sometimes let problems overwhelm us and we need to have more faith and trust in God because after all, no matter what happens God always has the solution to all of our problems. It has just been an amazing few days for my family and I. Maybe soon my hubby can even go back to Salt Lake and finish bringing all of our things because the air mattress we bought just can't compare to our comfy bed lol. Also I want to apologize if I made it sound like he was already here but I didn't want it to be known that I was living alone with my daughter in a border town I don't even know. I'm kind of paranoid like that. I hope everyone has a beautiful day surrounded by your loved ones, I know I will ;)

Time to get in shape

So I know I've lived in Mexico for a while now but I have never looked into getting a gym membership before and dang they are expensive!! Back at home we were paying about $33 for my husband and I at our local rec center. Here in Mexico for a good gym it would cost almost $90 USD for our membership a month. They do have a daycare available but it's not included. You have to pay an extra $20 pesos every visit and it has a 2 hour limit. For some reason my husband and I tend to loose more weight during winter, I know weird right? When I was 9 months pregnant I weighed 239 and I'm only 5'6''! When I began to work out with my hubby my daughter was 4 months old, it was November 2009 and my starting weight was 210. I lost 30 lbs that winter and since I have been in Mexico I have lost a total of 55 lbs but in the last few months I have gained some of it back. For the first time in my life I was feeling in shape and healthy and no one was calling me gorda anymore. All of my clothes were falling off of me and I was feeling great. Now my pants are beginning to feel a little tight and I think it's time for a gym membership. I have the insanity program but that is more to build cardio, I loose very little weight off that. Shortly after I was deported my husband gained a lot of weight from so much stress. He is 6'1'' and was pushing 320! Now he is down to 270 and he is mostly muscle and I don't want to be that fat wife of the buff guy lol. So I think it's time we get back into shape, who am I kidding, it's time I get into shape for the first time ever. Here are three pictures, one I am almost 9 months pregnant and weigh 239. I apologize for the second picture but it's the only body shot I have and I think I weighed about 160 here and it was almost a year ago. The third one is the most recent taken just 2 months ago and I also weighed 160. You can see the difference and I definitely want to keep the weight off. 

Home Sweet Home

I am seriously loving every second of being here in Mexicali. I thank God for sending us here and having everything fall into place so effortlessly. This is my new home sweet home and is awesome! I still need to decorate and put up the finishing touches to make it feel complete but let me tell you its kinda hard to hang up all of my picture frames and wall art when the walls are all cement. I'm use to drywall, where I can just grab a thumb tack and easily press it in and voila, I'm done. Here, since we are renting, I can't make holes in these lovely cement walls. We went to our local Wal-Mart and bought two of those wall things that don't damage the wall ( my bad, I already threw away the packaging and I forgot what it's called). They each hold 3 lbs and they come with a double sided adhesive tape thing and I used both of the to hang up our bathroom mirror and it worked. The only thing I don't like about those sticky wall things are the hooks to actually hold up the mirror are huge and stick out a lot. I got creative and used some string aka an old shoe lace to hang it up and it worked out great. Now I have to think of a way to hang my smaller wall art so that you can't see those giganormous hooks. On to laundry, I have to wash clothes by hand again. I really don't mind and I am proud I even know how. When I lived in Queretaro for a year I had to wash clothes by hand but my lavadero was a nice size and I could easily wash my jeans and towels there. The lavadero I have now looks like my old one pooped this one out. Its ridiculous how small it is. My shirts barley fit but that's okay. Hopefully in a few months we can buy a washer. It's so hot here that I hang my clothes to dry in and 3 hours tops everything is dry. I want to bring all of our big furniture down here but everyone keeps telling us we will pay too much in taxes and it would be cheaper to just buy all new things. I have a king size bed, a dinning room table my dad made me, my washer and dryer and a few more things. Did anyone bring their furniture and larger items with them to Mexico? If so do you feel it was worth it with the taxes you paid? Thanks in advance. Well I think that's enough rambling for today, it's a beautiful day today and I plan to enjoy it! :)

It's all coming together

I have been in Mexicali for almost a week and I have loved every second of it. Everything has fallen into place with little or no effort! We are renting a beautiful 2 bdrm house in a really nice part of town. I have never lived in such a nice neighborhood or house in my life! And all for just $500 USD! I got internet and my house phone connected yesterday and I think by next week I'll have dish. My daughter is so happy all the time because we are now together and I am too. There are plenty of things to do here which is quite contrary to all of the info I found on the web. This is where we are suppose to be right now. Thanks to God we are all happy, healthy and settling into our new lives very nicely. Now for the fun stuff, I finished unpacking and cleaning the downstairs now I need to tackle upstairs. I'm off to do tons of housework but with a big smile on my face because it is finally my house. For the first time in almost 2 years I can say I'm home and that alone is such a blessing! Life is good and God is great! :)

5 days!!

We are only 5 days away from the move and I am so happy! I can't wait to see my daughter and know that I don't have to say goodbye anymore! God is amazing and his timing is perfect, everything is falling back into place! We also just bought a car today and I could not be more happy. It has been almost a year since we have owned a car and I'm not looking forward to the payments again but I am thrilled that we finally have a secure vehicle that they can drive down in and we can use to discover Mexico. I am just so grateful for everything and I have so much faith that it will all work out. Here is a pic of our new car, well not new but new to us lol. Life is good and God is great!! :)

A New Me

Okay guys so on Friday night I went over to my cousins house and had a late night dinner with the family and stayed up talking til just past 1 am. It was so nice to be with all of my family here and just talk about everything and anything. One of the reasons we got together was that it had been a year to the date that my nephew had gone home from the hospital. My little nephew is an Angel and such a fighter. Just before he was 3 months old he had already endured 6 surgeries, including some on his spine and brain! He has not been diagnosed with an illness per say but he is a very sick little boy. He has a valve in his head to his stomach to drain out some of the excess fluid his body makes, too much makes his head swell up and could even kill him. He can't move his legs and his eyes kind of go all over the place, the list could go on for days. On top of all of his problems he was also 3 months premature. Some doctors told my cousin and his wife to have an abortion when she was still pregnant,, some doctors told them that he didn't have a brain!


When he was released from the hospital they told him that he would live maybe 1 or 2 days and would surely die. And there we were Friday night celebrating 1 year!! He is the sweetest little boy with an amazing smile and so much will to live and that's when it hit me, how dare I complain about anything? My daughter and husband are both very happy and healthy and we are fighting to try to have a better life, we are not actually fighting to try and stay alive. There are so many people praying that they had what I have, health and love. I am so blessed to be able to see my daughter grow up and play and reach all her milestones. After dinner I came home and cried and prayed for just over an hour. I asked God for forgiveness that I complained about my situation. I still have the chance to make my life better if I choose. There are over 100 other countries I could try to move to and I'm crushed because I can't go to 1. I am grateful I even have the opportunity to try to go back in a few years, some people can never return! I am grateful that I have the love and support of all of my family. I have a husband who adores me and always makes me feel beautiful and loved. I have a daughter who is healthy and happy and is the sunshine in my life. I have so much to be thankful for that there is absolutely no reason I stay mopping around about what happened.


In just 2 1/2 weeks I will be reunited with my family and our new life will begin. God has an amazing way of teaching us life lessons and maybe I needed to go through this to appreciate everything. I am 22 years young and I have my entire life ahead of me. Thank you God for letting me see life the way I do now and I am so happy because of it. I was even able to look at my old pictures from when I was in Utah and I still cried but these were happy tears! I am so blessed to have lived that and enjoyed my daughter when she was young and saw her take her first steps and say her first words. I feel like I have been born again. That anger and hurt that I felt is gone!! Life is amazing and I intend to enjoy every second I have instead of being upset about something that was out of my control. I choose faith over worry, because I know that no matter what happens God always has the solution to all of my problems, I just need to be patient sometimes and it all falls into place! <3

I'm Free

So I just received an email from my attorney saying that my appeal was denied. This was my one last hope of things working out and waiting for a miracle to happen. I am glad that we already have a plan in place and I do have a pit in my stomach but I can't say I didn't see this coming. I knew that it was a 1 in a billion chance that it would work and unfortunately it didn't.

I am happy I have an answer and I can now officially put all of this immigration stuff behind me and just look forward. For now we are going to Mexicali to live and who knows maybe next year we will begin to try for Canada. But I have a feeling we are going to like Mexicali and we'll just wait there until the ban is up in December 2020.

I really do feel relieved that I wont have to talk about this anymore. Any time I talk to friends or family the first thing they ask about is my case. They don't understand but every time they bring it up it's like a dagger in my heart. I am happy to tell everyone the final word and ask them to not bring it up again for another 8 years. My mind can now focus on my life right now at this moment. Not worry about the future and what may or may not happen.

God is good and I know he has a plan for me and my family. I have faith that this will all work out. No more immigration talk, I'm free. I am in my home country learning about my culture and experiencing new things everyday and the best part is that I'm free. I can travel here and not have to worry about my "papers". It's an amazing feeling when someone knocks on the door and you don't have that fear to open it wondering if it's immigration. I no longer see cops and worry if they pull me over. I can apply for any job I want and not have to worry about getting fired if they find out and then worry about how we are going to pay the bills. There is an upside to all of this and it is my freedom!!