Flashback to 2025: Hannah's adventures

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Hannah married Moroni Torres, a Brazilian, in Portugal in May of 2023. (For a more complete backstory on the two of them, read my posts here and here.) 

Shortly after their marriage they began the process of applying for a visa for Moroni so that they could come to the States. Unfortunately the wheels of bureaucracy for trying to come to our wonderful country legally grind slowly, even when someone is married to US citizen. It wasn't until March of 2025 that the prerequisite for his visa application was approved... meaning they could move on to submitting more documents and have an interview and eventually actually get the visa.

Meanwhile, Hannah had about a year left of schooling to get her college degree and she realized that if she didn't return to school right away, some of her credits would expire and she would have to retake several of her classes... So, in April she returned to the States, not with her husband, but with her cat, so she could go back to BYU-I and finish her degree in Elementary Education.


She and her cat arrived on April 9th, and spent a little over a week at home. We loved having her here! Her cat, Selena, and our Ishmael (both black cats) took some time to get used to having another cat around, and Selena spent a lot of her first days here hiding, but eventually she started venturing out more.

While Hannah was here we took the family to the Adams Mystery Playhouse, 


and went hiking. 


We also went to the temple and visited some other places around town. Hannah was here to join our Easter celebration and I absolutely loved having my children together! I only wished Moroni could have been there to join us.  

Steven and Hannah drove her car up to BYU-I where she continued her schooling. I understand that living in a married student ward with a cat rather than a husband was a challenge, as many activities were designed for "couples." She had a fright when Selena escaped and disappeared for a few days. Luckily she returned and all was well.

In early September of 2025, Moroni travelled to Paris for his immigration interview, and finally, on October 16th (Incidentally the same day as Steven got the job offer for his new job), he arrived in the United States. After almost 6 months apart they were finally reunited!

I had much to be grateful for on Thanksgiving because I had ALL my children and children-in-law together for the very first time since Hannah was married! This was also the first time that the boys and Moroni got to meet each other in person.
Clockwise from left: Hannah, Moroni, John, Josh, Bekah, Steven, Me, Peter

In December I was able to fly to Idaho to attend Hannah's graduation ceremony. (She still has to complete a semester of student teaching, but that's in Texas and so she was able to participate in the ceremony in December.) 
Steven flew out the following day and then Steven and I drove a moving van while Hannah drove her car with Moroni and Selena back to our house to spend Christmas and then on New Years Day they set off to Texas for Hannah's student teaching and their next chapter in life.

(Incidentally, it would be really nice if the green card allowing an immigrant to work in the US arrived at the same time as the visa allowing him to live here. Moroni has been in the States legally for over three months and still can't get his drivers license or a job because he doesn't have his green card yet... Needing to move to Texas didn't help; we can only pray that his green card doesn't get lost in the mail!)

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