Got patience?

So, the hubs and I are going to Washington, DC tomorrow for a little vacation to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We're leaving very early in the morning to make it to the Stewart/Colbert rallies in time, a convenient coincidence!

But, this means we'll miss the opportunity to check our emails/application toolkits for 5am updates! Sorry, we don't have smart phones... who needs a contract right before leaving (hopefully!) for Peace Corps, right? Not that the Invitation will come tomorrow, but from what I've been reading, the invitation notice "usually" comes 2-3 days after a completed placement review, and I've been holding my breath since Wednesday... I doubt "usually" should be in one's Peace Corps application process vocabulary :)

Got patience? It's hanging by a thread!

Status Update?!

Well, not THE Application Status Update I was hoping for, but one step closer! I awoke to an email this morning, very quickly went to our PC online toolkit, and found the following: "Complete. Peace Corps has completed your placement review. There are no holds on your account at this time."

Does this mean they found a program for us?! The suspense!

On another note, I had a dream last night (like the 100th one) that we received an invitation... this one was so vivid that when I woke up this morning I still thought it was real! Kind of a downer when I was fully awake, but the status update made me smile.

Almost...

Where in the world will we live in 3-5 months? The answer is... we have absolutely no clue!!!

It's only been 5 days since we had our final interview with our Placement Officer, yet these five days seem to be the worst! I have no nails left, and I think my email account is plotting revenge for the constant refreshing. The entire application process is always longer for couples, and I consider myself a very patient person, but the anticipation is making me nuts. My husband is a whole other animal... His patience is limitless, and frankly it's a bit annoying: "It'll be fine," constant words of reassurance that I'm sure I will appreciate more while in the Peace Corps :)

One hiccup is that I had already donated most of our winter clothes... we were originally nominated for the Pacific Islands leaving this October and parkas and wool just didn't sound optimal for the South Pacific (oops!). Now with a good old NYC winter coming along... hind sight is definitely 20/20.

Our PO said it could be two days or two weeks before a host country gets back to the Placement Office with approval for a couple, and apparently this is normal. The host country must have 2 spots in both applicant fields of service, both needed in the same village... ah! Because we missed our original departure (still not sure why, but c'est la vie) they're looking at ALL regions between January and March. It's a peculiar situation, and I haven't seen many couples in our shoes. At least we've gotten this far... Here's hoping for the final "Application Status Update" very soon.

Placement Office Phone Call

We've completed the final step before receiving our invitation; a 30 minute phone call from our Placement Officer. She was incredibly nice and just wanted to review some topics discussed in the initial interview; make sure we were open to various regions (asking about our initial request to not go to Mexico: friends and family live/travel there... it wouldn't be the PC experience if we had visitors every week!) and the challenges of serving as a married couple (Frankly, I think it will be a bit easier).

We're happy to say that everything looks in order, and our PO will let us know our new program/region in a week or so... At this point we could be going anywhere, but our PO mentioned that they were looking at Spanish speaking regions due to my Spanish skills. Because married couples must be approved by the host country before sending the invite, it may take another few weeks before we receive that lovely blue envelope. But, all is well!

Day 550

It's been 550 days since we turned in our applications... We were deferred from our original programs and have been in limbo since the end of August. Today we received the email we've been hoping and waiting for. Our Placement Officer has requested a 30 minute phone call from each of us next Tuesday/Wednesday. She also confirmed our suspicions that Jacob is now under consideration for business assignments, while I'm still with the Education Desk. Thank you!

Hopefully, we will know more after next Wednesday :) Until then...

Hello Fellow PC Bloggers!

My husband and I have been following many Peace Corps volunteer and applicant blogs over the last year and a half and thought it was about time for us to start our own. We wanted to wait until we received our official invitation, but we just couldn't wait any longer.
Our thought was that if we published our application timeline and started writing, we'd find fellow applicants and volunteers with similar situations and/or nominations.
More to come!