all you need is love...

The past few weeks have been what Kate and I have started referring to as "Family-palooza" around La Casa. I have had visits from my brother, mom, sister, & uncle & lunch with a pledge sister, & Kate's sister is visiting this weekend during her fall break. At the same time, we have both started to make plans to visit our families for the holidays. I know we have both be grateful for the visits & it has caused me to start thinking a lot lately about family. I heard a saying once that went, "Be kind to your siblings. They're the best link to your past, and the ones most likely to stick with you in the future." It always made me smile because of its truth for me, siblings, and family in general provide a constant link to your past & the promise of constant presence in your future.

My job also centers around family. At our office we assist people with family visas. As far as visas go, you have two options, basically, family or employment visas. Family visas aim to keep families together. Basically, a family member that is either a resident or citizen can petition for another close relative to receive a visa. It sounds pretty easy, but the reality is that the wait can be long (Right now, under one category, the government reviewing petitions from 1992...that's 15 years if you need a little help) & the fees high (The first form to simply begin the process requires a $355 fee) until families are together again. There are clients who go years and years without seeing their families or, on the other hand, risk their lives to see their families because of a man-made line along a dried up river in South Texas.

So why is it that I am lucky or blessed enough that this is not an issue in my family? Why is it that just because the Rio Grande doesn't cut through the over 1000 miles that separate myself from the rest of my family in Pennsylvania & Florida that we can all be together for holidays, graduations, weddings and other important events? Why is it that just because the Rio Grande does cut through the 150 miles between San Antonio & Coahuila, Mexico are families forced to go years without seeing one another or risk their lives to do so? It doesn't make sense to me.

I hope that as the holidays approach & you make plans to be with your family & friends, that you think of those families separated by war, hunger, poverty and little man-made lines in the earth...

One of my favorite Beatles' songs has kept reminding me that when it comes to physical locations, there is...

"No where you can be that isn't where you're meant to be,

It's easy,

All you need is love".

Peace,

jenna

Oh the places you'll go...

"Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."
-Dr. Seuss

I was reminded of a book that my mom often read to the Carl kids when we were little while I was at Ghost Ranch last week. She used to read Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess a lot & went through a phase where it was her favorite gift to give for graduations, job promotions, etc. I can remember getting a little tired of it, but now I see the important message she was trying to teach us.

It was refreshing to spend the better part of a week at Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico, and not just because we got to escape the Texas heat. All of the YAVs from around the country got together so we could prepare for our year of service. I think the most refreshing thing was creating another community of young adults who are all focused on the same thing no matter where they stand politically or spiritually. It was great to have conversations about the work we were doing, the things we were experiencing, the places we had been & the places we were going.

One of the discussions that really hit me was about vocations & how this is not just a year off between college & grad school or jobs, but truly is our life. The things that I am learning & experiencing this year have already begun to change me & the life I live. This is part of the journey to the places I am going, to the places that we are all going.

While out on a hike on our last afternoon at Ghost Ranch, we stopped for a time of reflection & while I was looking around, I noticed stickers with parts of Oh, The Places You'll Go on the water bottle of the girl sitting next to me & it made me remember the book that had been read to me so many times before. For me it was encouraging because of the questions that have been on my mind lately about what I am doing & where I am going & how this year fits into my life & is my life. It's all a part of a journey, one that doesn't end. A journey that includes ups, downs, waiting, doing, the brains in my head & the gifts God gave me.

Last Saturday, the book was still fresh on my mind as I took the LSAT, whether I did well or not. If law school is supposed to be the next step in my life, it will be, if not, there another path my life is supposed to take. My prayer for everyone with whom I cross paths for now is...

"You'll get mixed up, of course, as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)
KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!"

Peace,
jenna

Name one of the authors of The Federalist Papers

The USCIS has released a new Naturalization Test for Legal Permanent Residents wishing to become Citizens...do you think you could pass?

Check out the test at www.uscis.gov & under "What's New" click on "See the questions and answers for the New Naturalization Test".

A hypothetical situation...

A question was brought up to me today at work by two of my co-workers that has been gnawing at me since & I'm looking for an answer. So, if you know the answer or someone who may, please let me know. This is a question, not meant to incite any debate over the drain of the welfare system or anything like that. It's also a purely hypothetical situation and for the purposes of this hypothetical situation, it will revolve around a woman who is a widowed Mexican citizen, but whose child was born in the U.S. and therefore has U.S. citizenship just like every other baby born on U.S. soil.

Say this woman has crossed the border in order to have her baby. (Right here might lie a common misconception...just because your baby was born on U.S. soil & your baby has U.S. citizenship doesn't make it any easier for you to get it until that baby becomes 21 & may petition for a visa for you). The woman has no other family that can petition for her & she is told her case is virtually hopeless as she is deported back to Juarez before her child turns 21 & can petition for her. Now, the U.S. government can obviously not legally deport a U.S. citizen on any ground, but in an effort to keep the family intact the mother takes her child with her when she returns to Mexico (However, according to ReVista, the Harvard Review of Latin America an article points out that at times these children are detained and/or deported based solely on the grounds of their parents' own illegal status http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu/revista/articles/view/308). From here my question can go in two different directions...

The first is what happens if this child is entitled to welfare benefits? Now, I am by no means an expert in really anything, much less legal issues or welfare issues, but let me also remind you that this was not originally my question, it was someone else's. Is the U.S. going to send a welfare check addressed to the child in Mexico City, Sayulita, or even Juarez?

The second is what happens to that child when the mother can't provide properly for her child? Let's say that she decides it is in the best interest of the child that she forfeit her parental rights and so she ties the child's birth certificate around his neck, pushes him into the U.S. Embassy & disappears. Then what? Does he become a ward of the State?

What happens to the children caught in the middle of our nasty red tape-filled bureaucracies?

Walk a mile in someone else's shoes...

When I was still in Dallas it felt strange to watch everyone getting ready to go back to school & then remembering that for the first time that I could actually remember in my life, I wasn't participating in the ritual. My sisters bought spirals, pencils & any other imaginable supply & all I grabbed was a pack of pre-sharpened No. 2 pencils so I wouldn't forget before taking the LSAT in a few weeks.



I went back to school on Monday whether I had planned to or not. I have found myself waking up at 6:15 am to shower, dress, pack a lunch and catch the bus at the end of the street so I could make it to work by 8 am. My office has turned into a classroom complete with reading assignments & office managers, other paralegals, & attorneys intent on teaching me immigration law. The difference is, for the first time I don't feel like what I am learning is just busy work. There is something that I will actually be doing with the stuff I am learning. Alright, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed school a lot, but I am finding some of the reading that I have been doing is a little easier because it is taking something that I am interested in & using it to help another person in some, if only very little, way.



Monday I spent learning what my job at Catholic Charities Immigration Services entailed. I am an Intern/Consultant in charge of special programs. It sounds pretty official & I have an office which makes me feel pretty grown up. Really what I do is help out with intake consultations (learn about a person's migration history, a little about their personal history, & their current immigration status & then figure out what we can do to help them out in filling out paperwork, getting visas, citizenship, etc.) & then coordinate some of the outside programs that my department does (free legal advice clinics & a citizenship/naturalization workshop) & any other odds and ends. I'm incredibly excited, but also really nervous because of the impacts that all of this has on peoples' lives. On Wednesday I sat in on the interviews during our walk-in day. The four cases I saw ranged from a very elderly woman who was waiting for her daughter to be able to get a visa, to a couple where the husband was already a permanent resident who hopefully will be able to become a citizen soon & his wife who is only a few months away from being able to get her visa, to two different cases of women who had been in abusive relationships. It was a rollercoaster of emotions, to say the least, to see the frustration of the family of the elderly woman in not being able to understand that after waiting since 1995, they would have to continue to wait several more years to even be able to get the visa they needed, the smiles on the face of the couple knowing that soon things might get a little easier, to the fear on the faces of the two women & the amazing bravery & things that humans can survive. After listening to the story of one of the women, a friend accompanying her asked me, "Would you risk your life like that?" in reference to the risk she had taken in crossing the border. I sat speechless only thinking about how I had no clue because I had never been forced to make a decision like that. The idea of myself in her position has stayed with me throughout this week.



I have been able to stop by the Yellow House (the house where Kate works with the teenagers from the neighborhood) & say hi & get to hang out with everyone there after work. It's nice to just be able to hang out there & be away from the adult world of laws, rules & restrictions that I exist in during the day. The kids are trying sometimes, but its only because we're new & that's just the way junior and senior high kids are.



Kate & I don't work on Fridays, instead we have Study Days with Hugo. These began today. I got to sleep in an extra 2 hours this morning since we weren't supposed to be leaving until 9 am. After a quick stop at HEB to pick up some salad essentials, we headed to the catholic worker house. This is a really interesting concept to me because as a soup kitchen/ministry to the homeless, it exists in a house that looks eerily similar at times to some of the houses that my friends lived/live in in Sherman. What I mean is that my idea of this type of ministry is based on my experiences at FPC with the Stewpot in a more industrial, cafeteria setting. The catholic workers (who aren't always Catholic...the name was explained to me more as catholic meaning universal, like in the Apostle's Creed) live in a house nearby (in similar, if not worse, conditions) and cook lunch everyday for the homeless community. However, their meals are based solely on donations. Whole Foods supplies them with bread every day (a very cheesey joke that my mother would enjoy just came to mind, but I will spare you) and they make lunch for about 50 people based on what they have in the house. For me, the idea echoed my Wednesday thoughts of walking in another's shoes by the volunteers here agreeing to live a life of simplicity that, while in no way completely, somewhat like their clientele. For Kate & I, it was great to get to work in a different context than that which we are in during the week. While we chopped lettuce, tomatoes and carrots for the salad, one client kept us laughing all morning with his jokes.



Another joy for me has been realizing that there is this whole volunteer/socially concious community in San Antonio. Whether it is through dinner with the Mennonite volunteers behind us, getting to meet the catholic workers while helping to cook lunch, conversations with the Jesuit volunteer in my office, or meeting a bunch of people who once were volunteers here, it is comforting to know there are many other people walking in my shoes.

I read somewhere a rabbi said something to the effect of walking a mile in someone else's shoes is good advice and that wouldn't our children have so much more respect for the people around them if they were taught this from an early age. I think that has been the most important lesson I have re-learned in my first week back to school...

Peace,
jenna

Plans to give you a hope & a future...

I've always thought I adapted (somewhat) well to change. Tuesday, however, proved me wrong. When it finally came down to it, I was a wreck leaving Dallas. A little shaken as I said goodbye to my mom, I walked through the security line at DFW (yes, I opted out of the 5 hour drive & spent Monday night shoving things into 2 suitcases) a TSA officer took my larger carry on to inspect. He asked about my excess of luggage and as the words "I'm moving" came out I started to cry. My pledge sisters can all attest to the fact that I am a crier when I get nervous or stressed. "Do you want to move?" he asked. "Oh yeah, I'm really excited" I tried to assure him, but I have a feeling that through the tears I wasn't all that convincing because suddenly the TSA officer was trying to reassure me as he was digging through my makeup bag looking for liquids. I repacked my bag & as I left he wished me good luck & tried again to reassure me that San Antonio would be great. I was scared. When I stopped to think about it, I had never moved to a place where I didn't know anyone. I was so nervous about everything.

Needless to say, my nerves have been calmed & I am so excited about this next year. Since Tuesday, my roommate & fellow volunteer, Kate, and I have spent our time getting to know each other as well as the director & assistant director of our program in San Antonio, Hugo & Katy, as well as Hugo's family, and the city, our host congregation for the year, and our specific work sites. I start work on Monday, but before that Kate & I are going to a camp outside of San Antonio with our congregation.

It has been so great to see the excitement of everyone here that we will be working with. Yesterday we had lunch and dinner with different members of the congregation and were shown around a few of San Antonio's missions & even visited "the tracks" (haunted train tracks...feel free to ask, it was quite an experience).

I feel like I should explain my program for a second because it can be confusing. The site in San Antonio is referred to in several ways, DOOR/Dwell/YAV. DOOR and Dwell are programs (short-term and long-term, respectively) that are partnerships between the Mennonite Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and a few others. The YAVs at several of the national sites are also a part of the DOOR/Dwell program. As a result of this, Kate & I live close to where the Mennonite volunteers live & are in community with them as well.

Anyways, all of this has been so reassuring to me. I should know that I should always put my faith in God to take care of me, however, as a human being, I am prone to worry. I have to go for now so I can pack for the weekend, but I ask that you keep all the volunteers in San Antonio and around the world in your prayers & all of us in San Antonio especially as the Mennonite volunteers are arriving this week & we make it back and forth to camp alright & start our work next week.

Through all the excitement this week, Jeremiah 29:11 again keeps running through my head. How silly of me to ignore the reassurances in front of me all along...

Peace,
Jenna

It's almost September...

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I will be leaving for San Antonio on September 4. I will be beginning work at Catholic Charities Immigration Services doing paralegal-type work on September 10. I couldn't be more excited about this job & can't wait to get started!