Our Story: After meeting in graduate school at UGA, we were married in 2011 in Marietta, Georgia. A year later, we joined the Peace Corps as environmental conservation volunteers and embarked on our adventure in Paraguay!
Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are ours personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps.
Today, we received our Peace Corps medical packets in the mail! They include all the paperwork we will need to complete the medical review process. The review consists of three main parts: a physical exam, a dental exam, and an optometry exam. Special evaluation forms may be included based on your responses to the health status review section of your application (be careful of how you answer those questions; they request tons of additional paperwork for each item you list; it may save you a lot of headache later on).
Luckily, the Peace Corps is willing to provide partial payment for these exams and certain doctors offer them for free. Physical exams: $125 (males), $165 (females); Optometry: $12; Dental: $60. Dentists who are members of the International College of Dentists (ICD) will provide free exams and x-rays. You can search the list by city and state to find a dentist near you. Ben and I called the office at the top of the list and have already booked our free dental appointments. Federal medical facilities offer free physical exams, but they can be frustrating to work with because Peace Corps applicants are considered a very low priority.
Next Steps: Complete all of our exams, Fill out the paperwork, and Return the medical review packet to the Peace Corps
A little over 3 weeks after our interview we received our nomination email from our recruiter. We have been nominated to the Forestry Program with a potential departure of November/December 2012. Because we are Masters International applicants, this assignment is not set in stone and may be changed later in the application process.
We just completed our Peace Corps interviews today! For couples, you must be interviewed individually, and then together. The entire process took about 3.5 hours (but we had lots of questions to ask our recruiter).
We received our packets about a week ago in the mail. They were stuffed with information and additional paper work we needed to submit.
Here are a few of the things they requested:
Fingerprint charts (We went to the Sanibel Island Police Department for these)
National Agency Check Form (a waiver for a background check)
Reference Label Sheet (indicates our three references and includes contact information)
Marriage License
Couple Questionnaire
College Transcripts (can be unofficial)
Additionally, an email from our recruiter requested:
Skill Addenda (Sarah's was environmental education; Ben's were environmental education, business development, and education)
Financial Obligations Form (Ben)
Masters International Acceptance Letter (Sarah)
We also included copies of our relevant certifications
To keep things organized, we topped it off with a table of contents sheet. Hopefully, that will help our recruiter sort through all the paperwork. Soon we will schedule an interview!
Tonight we went to a Peace Corps Information Session at the Atlanta Library. We were able to talk to a recruiter who served in Malawi.
Here are some things we found out:
90% of volunteers carry cell phones.
Volunteers typically work Monday-Friday and have the weekends off.
Currently, applicants are nominated to go to a specific region 8-10 months into the application process. This process will change in January 2012, but this change will not effect our applications.
Your placement officer (not recruiter) determines where you will be placed.
It is very rare for married couples to have a choice of where they will serve.
Tonight, both Ben and I both submitted our Peace Corps applications! We had to fill out numerous pages of paper work including eligibility, marital status, drug/alcohol/legal information, financial obligations, education, language skills, employment, volunteer activities, practical experience, regional interests, two essay questions, and medical history. We also had to submit three references: a work supervisor, a volunteer/academic supervisor, and a close friend. The moment we submitted, we received emails from the Peace Corps with a couples questionnaire. We are to discuss and answer the questions then turn them into the recruitment office during the next two weeks. Typically, the application process takes about 12-14 months for couples, so this is just the beginning for us. We are so excited!
Update: It took us only 8 months to get our invitation!
Soon after our engagement, Ben and I decided we wanted to join the Peace Corps together. A few days later, we drove to the Peace Corps office in Atlanta to meet with a recruiter and discuss our options. Our recruiter told us that applicants need to married for one year before they can serve in the Peace Corps. Since the application process can take about one year, she recommended that we get married before submitting our applications.
This left us with a very serious decision to consider. We had planned to get married a year after our engagement, but that would mean waiting two years to join the Peace Corps. Having finished my master's degree a few months earlier, I was ready to embark on a new journey. And Ben, only needed one year to finish his internship with UPS, and his master's thesis. What would our family think about us getting married after only one month of engagement? and what was engagement, if not a promise to get married? What was the difference in waiting one year or one month to get married? Some couples are engaged for years before getting married... if you know, you know, then why wait? It seemed like we were only focusing on what other people would think, because of our preconceived notions about how long a couple should date. We'd known for months that we perfect for each other. So then we made up our minds... let's get married!!
Since I was a little girl, like all little girls, I had dreamed of my wedding day. I yearned for all the bells and whistles. I dreamed of a beautiful beach wedding, with bridesmaids and flower girls, and a fun-filled reception with food and dancing for all my family. How does a courthouse wedding fit into that? And that's why we decided to have not one, but two weddings: one at the courthouse, and one a year later at the beach with all the family. So we called up my parents and told them our plan. We could tell they were surprised, but they supported our decision wholeheartedly.
The night before the wedding, my parents spent the night with us in our little apartment in Calibre Brooke. In the morning, Ben cooked us a delicious breakfast. As my mom helped me get ready, I'm pretty sure the guys were playing Resident Evil 4 in the living room (very appropriate for a wedding day). My mom and I realized that I needed something old, new, borrowed, and blue. My dress was new, I found blue socks in my closet, I traded one of my socks with my mom (borrowed), and my mom lent me one of her diamond rings as something old. When I was all dressed up and ready, Ben played "Here Comes the Bride" as I walked down our tiny hallway. At the end of the hallway, my mom presented us with a bouquet and boutineer of yellow daisies. Without much ado, we piled in the car and headed to the Marietta Courthouse.
Luckily, the courthouse is open for 1 hour on Saturdays just for weddings. We turned in our marriage license and waited for our turn. There were a wide variety of people waiting for their turns as well. A few were dressed up like me and Ben, others wore jeans and t-shirts, one middle-aged couple brought their kids in wearing Halloween costumes, and one girl who looked very pregnant. My brother, Jared, arrived at the courthouse, looking stylish in his suit, just in time for our names to be called. We all entered the private wedding room with our officiant, Judge Jennifer Inmon. The ceremony was brief but still sweet. We said our vows, I got a little teary eyed, and since we didn't have rings, we skipped straight to the kiss.
Our Courthouse Vows:
"I, Sarah, take you, Ben, To be my husband. To have and to hold, From this day forward, For better, for worse, For richer, for poorer, In sickness and in health, To love and to cherish As long as we both shall live."
Hand in hand, we headed out for some fun in the square. First, we went to Marietta Pizza Company and celebrated with pizza and beer. Afterwards, we walked around the square for a post-wedding photo shoot. We stopped in a cute little cupcake shop and enjoyed some impromptu wedding cupcakes. The whole day was absolutely beautiful and we loved getting to share it with my parents and my brother. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful and supportive family. We love you guys!
A month later, we visited our families in Georgia and Florida to announce our marriage. On the car ride there, we decided to write them a song. At first we told them it was a song about joining the Peace Corps, but soon, the lyrics reveal that we are already married. First we sang it in Sanibel to my grandparents, Jojo and Papa Don, and my Aunt Kim and Uncle Merrill. Then we drove up to Tampa and sang to Ben's family there: Debby, Rick, and all of Ben's cousins and their kids. Then, we sang it to my dad's family at my grandmother's 85th birthday party in Georgia. Their reactions were priceless! Everyone was surprised and thrilled! We are so thankful to have such a supportive family! Here are the lyrics and a video of us singing the song to my family in Florida:
"Oh the places we will go, but where nobody knows, The mountains or the seashore darlin'. I don't really care where, as long as you are there. We're going to the Peace Corps darlin'. But, we almost forgot! Before we get our shot, We need to tie the knot. We need to get married darlin'. What will everybody say? Will they love us anyway, If they weren't there the day, the day we got married darlin'? We became husband and wife on October 29th. That's when we got married darlin'. We wish you all were there, in Marietta Square, in the courthouse where we just got married darlin'. Although, we didn't have rings... -But wait! You had a ring! -Only my engagement ring... -You want another ring?? -Of course I want a ring! -But, will I get a ring? -We'll both get wedding rings, To show that we are married darlin'. When, we both said I do, we knew our love was true. There's nothing we can't do, now that we are married darlin'. We want you to know that this was just a formality. We planned all along to get married eventually. We still want to have our wedding by the sea. So please save the date (October 6th) to come to our beach wedding!
In actuality, we ended up having our 2nd wedding on August 18th due to an earlier than expected Peace Corps invitation... but that is a whole other story!
