This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. we had followed the rules. we had said to ourselves, we won’t be like those people who pack up and [go] north without waiting for the proper authorization. we were no less desperate them. we understood, just as they did, how badly a person could want a thing—money, or peace of mind, or a better education for their injured daughter, or just a chance at this thing called life. but we would be different. we would do it the right way. so we filled out the papers and waited nearly a year before they let us come. we waited even though it would have been so much easier not to wait. and for what?