Thoughts.com Blogs - Money.....the Root of All Evil

I was never one to think that money or wealth was a bad thing, but boy has that opinion changed over the last few months for me. I take a look at this government, and this supposed 'great' country we call America, and it turns my stomach to think about how much money truly runs our lives and our government.

Did you know that if you marry a foreigner you need to be able to fork out a couple thousand dollars to fill out a collection of forms to allow them to stay here, and eventually work here? If you don't have the monetary assets available to you, you are going to have a long drawn out, grueling wait game before you're 'allowed' to be back together.

Each form that is required is anywhere from $375 up to $1100 for one form! They say the money is used to process the form, but my question is how can it take that much money to process one form? They claim to give you the option of a fee waiver, if you can prove that paying the expensive fees would cause you hardship, but there are only a few forms which are available to this option.

When Jim and I first got married, we submitted the spousal visa like we were instructed to do, and we did it with the fee waiver. Over 5 months later, we got a letter back saying it was rejected because this form was not available under fee waiver. Why it took them 5 months to get back to us to tell us that is beyond me, but it is what it is I guess. So now, we need to go through this all over again, but only this time with the money (surprise surprise).

This time around, we are going to send in a series of 6 forms, which they say will allow Jim to be able to stay here, but he won't be able to work until things are processed. God only knows how long that will take, considering it took over 5 months before for one single form.

So yet again, the government is forcing us to remain apart. He is working over there to try to save up the insane amount of money required to send in all of these forms. It is frustrating, because at this point in time money is the root of all of our problems. It is keeping us apart, and him apart from being a part of my prenatal appointments and all of that exciting stuff that expectant parents should be able to do together.

It is so frustrating and stressful. It causes grief between the two of us, because after awhile distance begins to force its ugly head between us. When we're together we're good, when we're apart we're pretty bad.

Of course it's not easy dealing with all of these issues being pregnant, and dealing with a roller coaster ride of emotions all on my own. I mean my family is here to help me and try to keep my spirits up, but they can only do so much. At some point you begin to yearn for the one you love, just to have that hug or that cuddle to know that they are still there with you.

I guess in this 'great' country of America, the greatness is only measured on the amount of money you make, not on the amount of love you have in your heart. If you're on the wrong side of that wealth line, it is nothing but frustration!

Please pray for us and keep us in your thoughts. I hope God has a miracle up his sleeve for the two of us.