Radical Lover

thanks so much for your help everyone.

boaz, i normally get home first, but i leave way before he does. so i have fallen into the routine of doing most of the cooking. he can cook, but is never satisfied with his own food and always says he doesnt expect me to be an expert on cooking african dishes, but his actions prove otherwise. sigh. we had a mini chat in which i said we need to compromise more on helping each other cook. i told him that we cannot let cooking tear us apart, he said that cooking is a huge part of marriage in ghanaian culture. we have been together for 5 years, he knows that i cook caribbean food because i am caribbean. i think he is homesick and frustrated.

tdf1942, yes i think we can overcome cooking and will remind him of how long it took for us to finally be together under one roof! good point.

dina-rich, yes we have goat here and i do make it often. my husband loves goat! lol

i am attempting to make some jollof rice again today. i have made it well once. wish me luck! thankfully, we don't have kids yet, so still learning about each other, etc.

hello everyone. it has been a while for me. i have a question for you guys. for those of you who are married, does your husband expect you to cook everyday? this is presenting itself as a problem in my marriage. we have been together for 5 years, married for 3. i am a teacher and i work at least 10 hours a day. my husband works too, on average 6-8 hours a day. he cooks sometimes but not all the time. we are getting into huge arguments now because if i don't cook african meals, he gets angry and ignores me. i don't know how to cook many african meals at all. i am american with a caribbean background so i make mostly caribbean food and occasionally african food. my husband told me that he is unhappy because he wants to eat african food every day. i feel this is an unrealistic expectation. any thoughts? i'm at the point where i don't know what to do...

hey everyone!

i haven't been here in so long, but i always think about how everyone is doing!

good news: my husband got his 10-year green card in the mail yesterday! The interview was last week on July 15th 2009. It was fine, although the woman who interviewed us asked for more pics! we looked at her like honey we have been together for 5 years now. please! lol. anyhow the interview lasted about 10 minutes and then we were told to wait outside. about 10 minutes later, she told my husband, welcome to the united states.

i am so happy there will be NO MORE PAPER! this has been a long journey but one well worth it. we are doing well and really enjoying being married. i cannot believe that nana has been here for almost 2 years now and that november will be our 3rd wedding anniversary! madness.

i hope everyone is well

thanks everyone. i am happy to know that the AOS process is smoother...YAY! i will keep you all updated.

Hello everyone! I know it has been a long time. I have been well and Nana and I are great. So many blessings. We just celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on November 20th. So now we are about to start the AOS process, since it has been 2 years that we have been married. Ålso, Nana's visa will expire in a year. I waited until our anniversary so that Nana could get a 10-year greencard. How is the AOS process? Any advice? I cannot wait until we don't have to worry about this any further!

Thanks so much and I hope everyone is doing well.

CONGRATS!!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

I know it has been a long time! I have been catching up with Nana anyhow, things have been good, and Nana is still adjusting. It has been about 5 months since he arrived and we are really enjoying each other. It's still a cultural adjustment for Nana in soooo many ways, but he is coming along well. It has been rough for him because he wasn't authorized to work since we took the k-3 route. FINALLY TODAY, we got the Employment authorization card in the mail today! whew! So my husband can officially get a job! The hunt is officially on! He is very traditional and had a very hard time not being able to work, and sometimes he would get so sad because of it, but today he seems like a new man! I wanted to share the good news. I have been off an on every now and then and I see that there have been a lot of approvals lately! I hope there will continue to be many more!

Anyhow, keep us in your prayers, especially now that the job hunt is on with this dwindling economy

PEACE AND LOVE

p.s. here is a new pic of us

that is AMAZING news! you had faith, persistance, and perserverance.....the main ingredients for love...ENJOY, ENJOY, ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOD LUCK TO ZEENUSAH! LET'S GO GHANA :-)

i am sooo happy for you! i must say that you have managed to remain calm and cool during such a stressful time! your patience and persistance is a true testament of your love.

stay strong and may the Creator continue to bless you both!!!

i am really happy for you

CONGRATS!

ours took exactly one week...

I am soo happy for you! congrats on the baby! i am very excited for you two. our anniversary is also coming up on the 20th of november! wow, a year flies by so quickly! it is so nice to have another k-3 person in this forum, because there are few! we just sent out the ead application last week...so yeah, nana is also adjusting well, but of course, he is a man and wants to take care of me...it will happen soon :-) i am soo excited about the baby! that is sooooo soon!!!!!

take care and i will keep you in my prayers and pleaes keep us in yours...

Hello everyone!

My baby arrived last week and it has been WONDERFUL! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when i went to the airport, my heart was beating soooo fast and seeing him come through the doors at JFK was a MIRACLE! he is adjusting well, and has even fallen in love with my cat, Kente! i was hoping he would like her, because nana is not used to cats being in the house....cultural differences...haha! We have been doing well...just shopping for things for him to stay WARM and I have been cooking him lots of caribbean food...(i am of trinidadian descent)...anyhow, things are great, and i am so thankful to god! he is now getting adjusted to the time difference, etc. We are going to apply for the EAD next week! nana keeps saying: " i need a job, now!" well, that is all for now...keep us in your prayers.. as i am keeping you all in mine!

P.S. this has been a hard week at work for me, because all i keep envisioning is seeing nana once work is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yesss! i hope he picks up his visa soon :-)

honestly, i think the K-3 is ok, because from start to finish it took nana and i 9 months, which i think is pretty good....i havent seen anything else from ghana that has been faster than that....even the k-1 processs. you might get a NOA2 faster, but it is the interview date that matters....

i would like to add that pingo.com is a GREAT SITE and you have great reception when you call, which can sometimes be really difficult when calling places like nigeria, ghana, etc. they keep a clear record of your calls too which is easily accesible. also, the rates are great and of course for a land line it is super cheap (7cents a min to ghana)....cell phone is 16 cents per minute.....

NANA PICKED UP HIS VISA FEW HOURS AGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOO HAPPY I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF. to be honest, i was worried because ghana has a history of telling people that the visa is not ready due to "broken machines" etc. well not this time! ahhhh, it feels so good! anyhow, we are trying to figure out what day he will come, which should be the weekend or monday....i mean, why wait any longer?????

interestingly enough, on the bus to accra (nana lives in kumasi which is 5 hours away), the bus broke down, and nana ended up taking a taxi for 3 hours!!!! it was crazy but he made it and he has his visa!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!! i will let you all know when he arrives.

thankssssssss to everyone for the continuous support and kind words.

hey again.

so sorry to hear about admin processing. i didn't realize that happened when i initially read the thread! try to do as much calling as you can and keep the faith! i wish you the best of luck!

i hope everything goes well.

much love

everything will be fine....why worry, when you can pray? praying for you and that everything will be okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SMILE AND KEEP BUSY! it helps!!!!

much love

that is WONDERFUL NEWS!!!!! congrats!!! yeah they didn't ask nana much questions at his interview either.....YAY FOR LOVE!!!

CONGRATS AGAIN

that is GREAT NEWS! CONGRATS :-)

I am so thankful for this post! Of course we all love our partners tremendously, but it is important to acknowledge that love is a battle, a beautiful one. as nana's arrival date approaches, I find myself excited, anxious, and also NERVOUS! he is an African man with a lot of PRIDE and he really likes to be the caretaker. Thus, I know it will not be easy for him to have to adjust to a new country as well as a new culture. I myself, am very strong-minded and naturally a tough ###! haha. so I'm already prepping myself to be as understanding and as considerate as possible. I moved into a larger apartment a few months ago, so that Nana and I would have a lot of space and the opportunity to have some "individual" space whenever needed. Even when decorating the apt, I tried to leave some things undecorated, so that he can have a say when he arrives. I don't want him to feel bombarded by everything being "me, me me!" so yeah, I get scared too. I am sooo happy to have this forum and I think it is important to have these threads! Let us never fail to keep up discussion!

I will definitely keep you all updated with adjustment, etc.

PEACE AND LOVE!!!

im SOOO HAPPY FOR YOU! i cannot wait to be able to say the same thing in a week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

have fun and remember that you made it through the hardest part!!!!!!!!!!!

i know how you feel! trust me, i understand completely. just try to be as calm as possible and keep yourself BUSY! also, i meditated and prayed a lot ( i am not sure of your faith)...that really helped...the day before nana's interview, i heard a song called: "why worry when you can pray" and it made my day...and helped me to calm down....also, work keeps me busy, busy, busy! just take a deep breath, and know that everything is on your side!

peace and love