Exile, or, Excellent question, Sarah May!

I know, I know, posting two days in a row! Amazing. After yesterday's offering let everyone know that we're still alive over here, Sarah May insightfully asked, in essence, 'What's the dillio/deal, yo with John?' Well, like I said, he's in Sarajevo. It's a little complicated, but I can at least try to clear up some of the confusion. For one, he was not arrested for failure to heed lawn signage.


Nor did he and Allison elope - as convincing as this photo may be! He also was not deported. But a little over 3 weeks ago we were informed that the central police authorities had decided to review his case. In order to review his case, they need to have his file on hand. Until they have finished that process, he is unable to begin the necessary procedures to request residency again. If they decide to uphold the rejection issued in March, it's not really a problem because he has been given permission to reapply. If they decide to overturn the rejection and allow him to stay, that's even better! The thing is, since he is not officially 'in process' yet because his file is not available, he cannot be in the country. Early on we had high hopes because there wasn't a lot riding on any decisions being made. But. The last we heard was that no progress had been made. We don't know what that means. We don't know if they've reviewed everything and the right form just hasn't reached the right people to let us know John can come back tomorrow, or if they haven't even touched his file to begin reviewing it yet. There's always the possibility that the hair fashion crimes shown below (known only as The Rony [rat + pony] Tail) have swung the odds against us, but it's hard to say.



Anyway, thanks for your prayers. Nothing too crazy is going on, but we miss him and it's hard having our team leader gone, having no guys on the team, and trying to continue full speed ahead to finish the year well with only 4 of us left.