Dear Embassy,

...please give me a visa.
Sincerely,
Christine

Well, the application has been in process for a couple weeks now, and I received a call last week informing me that I needed to send in a little more information. I complied on Friday, and I hope to hear from the visa agency sometime by the end of this week whether or not that was acceptable. The woman I spoke with told me that if I was able to prove that I had enough money to buy the plane ticket (which I do, thankfully) and could provide them with a letter from Gwen, with whom I will be staying, proving that she does in fact exist and did "invite" me to stay with her, I will have the visa. I'm trusting that what I mailed will be sufficient to do that. I'm really not sure.

Please continue to keep this in your prayers. It has really been a rollercoaster of hoping and praying and I am constantly trying to give up what I want for what the Lord wants. He has shown me time and time again that He wants me in Brazil. The only thing is that I don't know when or how. His timing is often different than ours, and it could turn out that I'll finally make it back when I'm 74. Maybe then I'll be ready.
I'm praying that I'll be 22, 1 month, and 1 day.
But...I'm leaving that up to Him, of course.