good, good day

I am finally a (temporary) permanent resident of Australia!!  Insert (giant) sigh of relief here! I have been impatiently checking my email every 10 minutes all week, praying and hoping for a response from immigration but surprise, surprise rather than communicating by email they actually sent me a large envelope with a letter granting my visa and they even sent back all the pictures, invitations, cards we had to include in our visa application-aka proof of a genuine relationship. The temporary, permanent resident thing probably confuses most people. When you apply for a partner visa it is done in 2 parts, but you apply for them both at the same time. I am considered a (temporary) permanent resident for the first 2 years we are married. After 2 years are up they check up on you, and basically make sure you are still married and then you are considered permanent. Although now being a (temporary) permanent resident I am able to come and go from the country, work without restrictions (yay!), receive Medicare....basically everything of a citizen but I can't vote, which citizens are required to do in Australia.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited and blessed we are! We first started this immigration journey over 9 months ago and even though we will always have to "deal" with immigration issues in our relationship, we are so excited that this huge step is behind us! Personally, I feel like its a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. We've kind of been in limbo the last several months, but now knowing that I can go back to work and having this visa behind us we can finally start to move on an make plans.

Thank you to our many friends and family that have been praying for us. We are so thankful to have such an incredible support system all over the world! Not many people can say they have that, but we can. Know that we have had so much love, support, and prayers during the last 9 months is overwhelming in the best possible way.

I'm so thankful for my incredibly supportive husband throughout all of this. He's had to put up with a lot of stressed out moments from me and a whole lot of tears, but he's been amazing through it all constantly reminding me of God's plan and timing. I'm so thankful God's plan and timing are better than ours. God has taught me so many lessons throughout this experience and probably one of the biggest is to let go! I'm terrible at that, I love to be in control but i'm so thankful he is still patient with me. God has been with us every step of the way from the beginning of our visa journey to now and I can't wait to see what big adventure he has for us next!