"my very own miracle" timeline

December 19: left Portland on a roadtrip back to Nebraska with hopes to turn in my visa papers in Denver on the 21st.
To get a visa for Italy one needs to hand in the paperwork in person to the consulate in his or her respective area. Since I wanted to use my permanent address and my driver’s license, needed for proof of residency, was still issued in Nebraska, I needed to visit either the consulate in Denver, St. Louis, or Chicago.

December 20: called the Italian Consulate of Denver to check hours and found out some interesting news.
~The Italian Consulate of Denver is run by one woman who runs it out of her home. She sees people by appointment only from 1-3 weekdays, and she informed me that she was booked through Christmas. Who has ever heard of a consulate run out of someone’s home? This was the day I became concerned. This was also the day I started praying.

December 20 & 21: stuck in “the blizzard of 2006” in Wyoming and Northern Colorado.

December 22: called the Denver Consulate 7 or so times to see if I could sneak an appointment in. No dice.
~Since it was only the week before Christmas at that point and I wouldn’t arrive back in Nebraska until the weekend of Christmas, my next opportunity to visit a consulate would be on December 27th, when the offices resumed business. Visa paperwork, once it is handed in, take 4-20 days to process. I was scheduled to fly to NY on January 5.

December 23-26: cried, stressed, prayed, and repeat.
~Can I get a Christmas please?

December 27: flew to Chicago with Mom
~We flew in the morning and took a taxi straight to the consulate. Our goal was to hand the paperwork in and spend some time shopping on Michigan Avenue, knowing that it was all out of our hands. However, we left there with paperwork still in our hands because the consulate asked us for more information, information that was not included in the original list. The man at the consulate had initialed everything so that we could send it in the mail, but I couldn’t take the idea of losing another 2 days.

December 28: Sent the paperwork in the mail, knowing it wouldn’t arrive for another 2 days, the arrival day being a Saturday.
~The consulate is only open Monday through Friday. Considering the New Year holiday, the soonest they would look at it would have been January 2nd, that’s only if the consulate chose not to close for the Gerald Ford Holiday.

January 4: Tried to get word from the consulate to know for when I should re-schedule my flights. No word was received, so I decided to try again the next day.
~I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not fly out as scheduled and would probably be late for school, which started on the 10th. I tried to forget about it and celebrate my birthday by going to Omaha to see my sisters and friends.

January 5: Woke up to my sister saying mom and dad were on the phone. An express mail package has arrived, and they thought it must be my visa.
~There is no reason I should have received my visa on the 5th of January. It was so improbable that I hadn’t packed my bags. I needed to drive 2 hours home, pack for a year in Italy, and drive 2 hours back to Omaha by 7pm. I made it on the plane with two (over)packed bags. My flight was even delayed 20 minutes so I could spend a half hour talking and making toasts with my family before take-off. It was all an absolute miracle.