Dianalorena

I haven't updated this since 2019, and what a whirlwind the past years have been. 

Summer of 2018:

* Finally moved in with my Husband to our house in Hyde Park, in Austin

*We traveled together to a few places, spent time with his family. I thought things were great.

* We started having some issues, part of them dragged from the two years of long distance

January - May 2019 

* He had a meltdown and drunkenly drove us after a new year's party, I thought I was going to die. 

* We tried to work on things.I thought we were heading to therapy, he headed to Tinder instead 

* He felt guilty and told me he cheated, he left and I later found out he moved in with her right away

* He pretended to care but asked for a divorce  got engaged to her within 3 months of moving out. 

* He turned aggressive when I called him out on his lies and pretending. I saw his true colors, finally. 

* His family was left equally dumbfounded, I keep a good relationship with his twin brother to this day. 

*Heartbroken, I moved to my own apartment, kept working hard on my craft, building credit and a life

in a foreign country by myself. The rest of 2019 was a blur and it almost got me. I was so depressed. 

2020

I started to feel like I was almost out of the woods, and bam, global pandemic. But in March of 2020

I met the amazing man of my dreams. We took some COVID-conscious trips around Texas. We

moved in together in the summer, I met his family at Christmas. I finally had a healthy relationship. 

I've worked so hard to get myself where I want to be, and I am so grateful for the lessons learned. 

2021

I opened my first tattoo shop in March! It's so cool to have my own space. 

I made cool friends, I traveled to some U.S cities, adopted a new dog named Bruno. 

2022 

I got engaged in Costa Rica! It could feel like it's too soon, but I truly have never felt this way about anyone.
After I got my heart broken in 2019, I never thought I'd want to be married again, but he makes me

want to have everything I didn't have.  

Now my immigration interview has been assigned, and even though I have all the paperwork,

that I know the relationship was real, I am terrified. I haven't been able to fully grieve or move on,

so I truly cannot wait to have that chapter behind me, so I can focus on myself, my new relationship

and the life we've built together. 

When we started the immigration process, we thought it was going to take us about a year. It's such a long time! we thought, how funny, how naive of us; how far away early 2017 feels now.

Now as we reach the 10-month mark and we haven't yet been approved, (hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks) we've had to rethink and restrategize. We've had to bitterly let go the thought of me being there in March, and hope for the summer instead.  

I've dealt with a vast array of emotions, including: sadness, anger, hopelessness, and resentment. I've thought and done things I regretted, things I'm not proud. I've learned so much about myself and others.

This process has a way of breaking you down, testing your relationship and yourself and taking you to the limit,  I'm actually incredibly grateful for it. 

In 2017:

I got married  

I  boarded a total of 16 planes

Partied with friends in the gorgeous Havana Cuba

Enjoyed the spring with my husband in Vancouver

Achieved my long teenage dream of visiting Tokyo

 Volunteered with lovable elephants in Thailand

Gave my first art therapy seminar against bullying

Visited Oaxaca: food and mezcal with my husband 

Donated more tattoos for breast cancer awareness 

Spent a lot of time at the beach, relaxing and reading

And I'm going to spend the holidays at the beach with my family, including my husband. He is visiting for a full month.

It's easy to fixate on the long, tedious and emotionally taxing immigration journey, but honestly? My year was friggin' amazing overall. 

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone! <3 

Woke up feeling great this morning.

It was like a heavyweight was lifted from me. Not having negative energy around and acknowledging that I was becoming increasingly mean and resentful in this immigration process, humbled me. I hated the person I was turning into. I was becoming a bully, even if passively, I was equally guilty and I am deeply ashamed of it. After apologizing to the people I hurt, it was time to look at my life and my choices. 

Being cut from it was the best thing that could have happened right now. Like shock therapy, it made me realize how great my life actually is, despite feeling stuck. It was time to end the pity party I was throwing for myself. 

I have a loving husband that is literally the best human I know, a great and supportive family,  amazing friends, an artistic and fulfilling job that I love and pays really well, I have my nonprofit that gives me the ability to help others, and I have my health, to name a few.

On that note, this week I've been working on also improving some of my not so healthy habits. I'm cutting bad carbs, processed sugars, and unhealthy fats as much as I can and increasing my vegetable and fruit intake. I'm doing some yoga and pilates, I'm trying to go to bed earlier, drink more water. and it's already paying off. 

I am so grateful for so many things, the good but especially the bad, because the hard and awful things that happen to you shape the person you become, it gives you an opportunity to try to become a better person. I know I have a long way to go, but improving is something you should never stop trying to achieve, especially when you realize how much you still have to learn. 

I recommend you try these 3 things this week: 

* Cut bad energy from your life, care only about those who matter.  

* Try to eat healthier not to lose or gain weight only, but to feel better. 

*  Be grateful for the good things (and the bad) in your life right now. 

I hope everyone has an amazing day!

This process is really rough, and it can make you go crazy. Sometimes I feel like I'm losing my mind, but I won't let it define me, who I am or how I relate to others. 

I know the waiting is brutal, some days we all feel like we can't go on. But even then, we can't let it affect us so much that we end up hurting others. 

It's a darn shame that you meet people that are going through the same and think you have found a support system, just to be completely wrong about them. 

I didn't create a fake profile and trolled the forums and/or insulted others like them. (it remains unclear to me if this is what I did to deserve the polarizing reaction of being cast out) I was also called a liar.  I never lied, but I did omit the truth: I didn't say that I found their actions to be pointless, childish and downright mean, that not everyone is trying to scam and that we are not under attack from others as they seem to believe. That I don't think anything is gained from fighting or gossip, even when I tried my best to fit in. It's just not me.

We all deal with stress in different ways. To each their own. 

I don't have the time and energy to waste on being mean to others, I was bullied growing up and it devastated me. I've lost friends before because I was honest and tried to help them out or just spoke my mind. It pains me to realize I haven't fully learned how to choose friends yet, or that I don't always follow my instinct when I should. I'm not perfect by any means, but I always try to do the best I can and be the best person possible for those that I care about. 

I will not succumb to peer pressure or the stress of immigration and become a horrible human just because I am under stress. Sorry. I know they're not necessarily bad people, and I wish them the best. I know they're just going through a very rough time, but so are the rest of us. It's not an excuse. 

Good riddance, and another harsh lesson learned. 

My husband left today. I cried a little, so I'm gradually crying less and less. 

Resetting the countdown! 

My husband arrives today! my husband arrives today! Haven't seen him since we got married in January. I am so damn excited and nervous <3 

2 weeks until I see my husband again!

Just for a week, but still. It's going to be a rough year and it is painful in so many levels, but it will be worth it in the end, it has to. 

One of the happiest days of my life to date. 

I miss him so much, sometimes it feels unbearable.

But I have to keep going another day,

and then another day

and another day

until no more waiting will be necessary. 

Almost one month down, 

six more to go, until we hear back from USCIS. 

I'm still figuring out what to do with myself. It's ridiculous, because I had a life and was very independent before my husband. is weird how being away from the person you love changes the way you interact with the world, and how you feel about yourself even. But I know I'm stronger than that, and we will find a way to make it through this year+ process. 

My beautiful husband is marching today against the wall and massive deportations.

I didn't think I could love him even more. This is the sign he made <3

I miss you.

What a chaotic couple of weeks.

i'm still figuring out what to do with my time, missing my husband every day, but staying afloat but keeping myself busy and deciding what to do with this year. 

My husband received the USCIS letter. 

I'm still furious we got Nebraska, but there's nothing else we can do but wait, and be as patient as we can be.

he said:

''I keep imagining the day you come back in that plane, to Austin'' 

Tears. a lot of tears. 

Sometimes it feels like we've been stuck in this for a long time, and it's literally just beginning. We started our long distance relationship in September last year,  and this is the best news ever. I know the tedious 5-8 month wait to hear back from USCIS is ahead of us, but I'm relieved we at least got the ''ball rolling'' 

USCIS received our case! USCIS RECEIVED OUR CASE!

After three months of stressing and getting things ready, we finally got the message. Now it's waiting until we get a NOA1, and more waiting. But I do feel a little better anyway.

I am SO frustrated right now.

This process hasn't even started, and I'm already completely exhausted from having dealt with all the Mexican bureaucracy. Now here comes the American, yay! 

My case is quite particular, as many other cases here. So basically and to make a long story short:

*** I met a guy and after three years, we got married. He was Mexican, but born in the U.S, so he started a CR-1 process. We were both living in Mexico City.  

*** My CR-1 was accepted after around 6 months. 

*** The relationship fell apart during that time.  I knew we couldn't stay married for a green card. I told him I wanted a divorce. We split in November 2015. 

*** Ironically, the day I signed my divorce papers is the day my acceptance letter arrived. I told him we should cancel the process. No papers were sent to the NVC, no payment, no interview or anything.  A year passed.  end of 2015.

*** 2016 starts: I traveled to the US on a tourist VISA, stayed six months and met the love of my life. 

*** After dating for six months, he visited me in Mexico, asked me to marry him and I said yes. 

*** We said goodbye. I tried to visit him and was denied entry to the U.S since I accidentally overstayed 4 days. 

*** I re applied after months, but no luck. The reason: the overstay, and lack of strong ties to my country. 

*** My stupid lawyer didn't file my divorce papers in my city, so I didn't have a divorce certificate for a year. 

*** The vital records office lost my file. They finally tracked it down and after a month, I got a certified copy.

***  I've been legally divorced since november 2015, but the papers show December 2016 as the date. 

*** We got married in Cozumel in January , it rained really hard and it was super windy, Hurricane style. 

*** So yes, what you're thinking. It looks like I got remarried less than a month after my divorce. Super classy.  

I imagine being an agent and reading the application: So this got married to a U.S citizen because she wanted a green card, lost her chance, and is trying AGAIN after less than a month. Mexicans, man. *

* I am not staying all or any agents or immigration officers are racist or mean. It's for the joke, I promise. 

My relationship is absolutely real, I adore this man with all my heart, it sucks that we have to move to the U.S,  but for all practical reasons we have to at least try, since his job doesn't transfer easy, and I don't mind relocating. I just wish it wasn't this damn complicated from the start.  Honestly, it's been such a legal nightmare (and it's just starting) that I feel that the universe is trying to tell me something. Hopefully, that I should appreciate and embrace the process, learn from my mistakes, and never take for granted what we have. Because we're in for one hell of a ride!

Assembling the paperwork for the CR1 *nervous*

We have:

filed all the documents and checked it at least three times

scanned my vital records 

Got the vital records translated from Spanish to English, professionally 

took the passport pictures

started collecting all the evidence

the affidavit of support, thankfully no problem here!

hopefully this next week will be the one. 

Randall and I got married this Saturday