You may be asking yourself why I moved to Queretaro and why Alberto didn't move to the States to be with me. It is a long complicated story, but here is the "short" version.

From April to July 1999, Alberto lived in California near LA with some close friends of the family in order to work on his English. However after staying there a while, he had spent the savings he brought with him and needed to find a way to earn money. So for three weeks, he worked at a McDonalds as a cook, but the worry of getting caught by immigration made us decide it was not worth it. Little did we know...

In July-August 1999, Alberto visited me in Peoria for almost a month as we hadn't seen each other since December 98!! We had a wonderful visit and celebrated our year anniversary together on August 1. After visiting me, he was going to go back to Mexico to visit his parents and then back to LA for another 3 months to study English in a foreign language school. While visiting me, he was able to see my hometown, meet my friends both in Peoria and my hometown, and most importantly meet my family for the first time. They hit it off quickly, even though the language barrier was difficult. My sister-in-law helped a lot because she speaks Spanish very well too, and Alberto knew some English as well.

A few days before Alberto flew back to Mexico, we had a serious talk about our relationship. He had told me this conversation was going to happen a week before he left, and I begged and begged him to tell me if it was good or bad. He wouldn't say anything. I worried and worried for the entire week and by the time we had our talk, I had convinced myself that he wanted to break up with me. Actually though he was afraid what I was going to say when, in not so many words, he asked me if I would marry him. Quite the turnaround from what I had expected. As I began to process what he had asked me, a wave of relief spread over me and I began to realize my dream was finally coming true! I still can remember the happiness I felt that night. Sadly enough, that night and the weekend that followed is the last time I remember being able to talk about our wedding in complete hapiness without a shadow of sadness and worry. Why you ask? Keep reading - here it comes.

After a wonderful four days of planning our wedding, where it would be (US or Mexico), when it would be (6 months later, or in other words the beginnings of the year 2000), and dreaming about our future together, Alberto flew home to Mexico. It was so hard to say goodbye but with the future plans we had just made, I knew soon we would be together forever as husband and wife. Or so we thought...

On August 30, 1999, Alberto flew from Mexico City to L.A. and when passing through immigration in LA (with a legal tourist visa), they stopped him. They thought he looked suspicious - i.e. fit their mold of a typical young Mexican guy coming into the US to work. They took him to an interrogation room, emptied his pockets and when they found he had only $50 cash on him, they spent the next 6 hours interrogating him. (About the $50- Actually we had planned on me sending him some money later on, plus the son of the family he was living with owed him $600 borrowed previously.) When they saw he had been in the US only 2 weeks previous, they told him they knew he had worked before (even though they truly had no proof) and that he was coming back to work again. When he told them he was coming back to stay with the family friends, they said no one lets someone stay with them for free (my comment to that is whatever!!) and they knew he was going to work. He showed them letters from me that I had bought his plane tickets from LA to Peoria, Chicago to Mexico, and from Mexico to LA (all true) and that I would send him money while he was in LA again. They said these were lies - I don't know if they didn't believe that I would do this, or if they thought the letters were fakes. They told him if he lied to them, he was going to go to jail for 6 months and after that, they would send him back to Mexico and he would never be able to come back into the US. All of which are lies by the INS by the way. He asked them to be able to call me and they wouldn't allow it. To me this seems illegal since if he had called me, I could have found him an immigration lawyer quickly and maybe have avoided the problems we had later. The INS agents told him if he just admitted that he had worked, he could go back to Mexico, I could request a fiance visa for him and he could come right back. RIIIIIGHT. Poor Alberto was so scared by this point. (Remember, at this point, he had been in 6 hours of interrogation without being able to talk to any family or friends - or lawyers) He finally agreed to sign the papers if they would just send him back to his country. Thus sealed our fate for the next 5 years.

The papers he signed were a removal order from the US for the next five years (until August 30, 2004). This means he could not enter the US for this entire time. Talk about life-changing.

Now, for those of you who think I am promoting illegal immigration - you couldn't be more wrong. I do not say that Alberto was right to have worked illegally in the US. But... I know so many Mexicans from Querétaro who are or have worked illegally in the US, get caught, INS does nothing to them except bus them back over the border, and the next week or month, they are right back over the border working illegally again. I also know others who have been caught by the INS and given a ONE-year removal order. There is no consistency in their application of these orders.

I believe that the laws that created the removal order given to my husband are completely ineffective against the people they are trying to stop. These kind of laws only hurt people like Alberto (and me- a US Citizen!)

, and I personally think they are very extreme. My husband is not a dr

We are renting a house 4 blocks from Alberto's parents house. Our first night in our new home was Monday, February 17, 2003. We spent Saturday and Sunday getting things moved in and began unpacking things, but each night we went back to Beto´s parents' house for the night. Finally on Monday we felt like we had settled in enough to spend the night. It was an odd feeling - like we were finally really a family, yet also surreal, almost like we were just playing house. Like I said in the previous entry, we had waited so long for this day, it took a little while to sink in that it was finally here.

I was rather worried about how our adjustment to married life was going to go, as we had only truly spent 6 months in a row together, and if you add all my visits, maybe a total of 1 year and a month in the 5 years since we began dating. Alberto by nature is a loner which worried me, and I actually had become quite the loner myself after living alone since my second year of college. Nothing like a challenge for us to overcome together :) But God heard all the prayer said by us and our loved ones, and honestly our adjustment has gone extremely well. I think it also helped that this is something we had to wait for so long and it was something we wanted so badly. I came into this knowing I would have to compromise on a lot of things and Alberto thank God also realized this. The key phrase to marriage, I have learned, is definitely COMPROMISE with LOVE.

Another worry of mine was how I would adjust to the differences in lifestyle caused by economics (remember going from earning $56,000 USD a year my salary alone to $16,800 USD/year for two people). God again has helped me with this. Even though right now we are making do with $700 USD a month, I don't feel like we have had to sacrifice a lot. While in 3 months we have had our fair share of days that we literally had just change in our pockets, we always have had money for what we really need. I also mentioned to Alberto the other day that not earning so much money brings some advantages that I hadn't imagined. My birthday is coming up and my parents are sending me a box of goodies for it. The past few years honestly birthdays and Christmas just weren't the same because whatever I wanted I really could buy for myself (within limits of course). That takes away a lot of the fun out of receiving presents (and giving them to me too I am sure). This year I feel like a little kid again. I am so excited about getting my care package - I am just counting the days. What a blessing!!

In order for me to work in Mexico, I have to have a work visa, which sounds easier to get than it is. First you have to find a company to sponsor you in most cases. Luckily I have a friend who works at a foreign language school here in Querétaro, who was eager to hire me. The only part was the visa - seems there are quite a few people working here in Mexico illegally, and that is what the school first wanted me to do. However, anyone who knows me well knows that I can be stubborn, and this case is no exception.

Because of Alberto´s immigration status (or lack of it) for the US, there was absolutely NO way I was going to risk getting kicked out of Mexico. I spent a few weeks convincing my friend I couldn't work without a visa, and finally I think she understood after a few months. I had to wait for a little while until one of the foreign teachers at the school left, so his visa would open up and I could apply for mine. (Schools are only allowed a few work visas each.) The amount of paperwork you have to get together for the work visa is incredible, and even more so, when you make the mistake of telling Immigration that you are married to a Mexican. Finally this week (5/16) we have gotten together almost all the necessary paperwork and next week when Alberto is on vacation, we are taking it to Immigration to apply officially for my work visa. Hopefully by June I will officially be an English as a second language teacher.

Our lives are rather simple but very happy. We spend a lot of time with his family, especially his 9-month old nephew. We have his parents and sister´s family over probably once a week for lunch (lunch here is the big meal of the day and takes place between 3-5pm). We have a lot of fun spending time with them - in fact, a lot more than I thought before I moved here. I was truly worried about living 4 blocks from his parents' house because I was afraid they would drop in on us all the time. They have been extremely good about this - they always call before they come and have treated me very well as always. I have grown a lot closer to them and enjoy spending time with them, although of course I love the fact that we have our own house and can spend time just by ourselves. It makes family relationships so much easier on all sides I am sure.

Other news is that Alberto and I are currently taking a family planning class in his church. It is called the Ovulation Method Billings and it has been very interesting. We are halfway through the course now and have learned a lot. It is nice in the aspect that you both are responsible for the method - not just one person or the other. If you want to check out more about this method, here is the link to the World Organization Ovulation Method Billings. http://www.woomb.org Alberto and I want to wait two years to have kids, since we have spent so little time together as a couple. Plus we really want to wait until we are back in the US, 1.) because we have a lot of changes still waiting for us when it comes time to move back to Illinois, and 2.) we can't imagine doing that drive (2600 miles) with a baby.

That is our life in a nutshell up until now. (Big nutshell verdad?) :)