I am the grit in the gears, the missing bolt, I am the poker of sticks into spokes.
I like to know how things work, but sometimes when I take them apart and rebuild them, I have a few pieces left over.
I am a man, so I tend to leave reading the instructions until after it goes wrong.
And like all men I have a comprehensive mental map of the world and never need to ask directions.
I never get lost, only sometimes I'm late, or end up in the wrong place entirely.
It's what we do.
I was NOT up before the sun, today, nor was I dancing around any circles of stones.
But I did stop off this evening, and sit awhile, with my book, in the Alhambra Garden in Roundhay Park. The picture is not mine, for some reason, I neglected to take a view, like this, down the centre line.
The specialty gardens, here, are a little off the beaten track, maybe they're busier at weekends, but I had the place all to myself, lounged on a bench in the sunshine, ate my sandwiches, drank elderflower champagne, and mused.
Yesterday morning, I was on the phone to my beloved, also known as the Red Dirt Girl, who I met through leaving a comment on a blogpost, who, without knowing it, sparked me to start this thing, and we were discussing the lamentably slow process for getting permission for me to move to the U.S. and marry her.
It's not as easy as it looks in the movies, where someone just jumps on a plane and lives happily ever after.
We've been on this journey a long time, the paperwork is slowly, slowly, working its way through the governmental digestive system.............
Suddenly, on the phone, I hear a squeal, and for a while she's incoherent. "We're approved!"
She's doing a Snoopy dance of pure joy.
She's just dialled our tracking number into the USCIS status checking box on their website.
" Post Decision Activity: On June 19, 2013, we mailed you a notice
that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). "
It's not over yet, but the biggest mountain is behind us. Now I wait for an interview date, and another pack of forms for the U.S. embassy in London. I have to have a medical and be inspected, a week or so before the interview date.
Looking at other people's experiences on the very helpful and huge 'Visajourney.com' website, it looks like that interview could be in about two months time.
For so long, we've been in limbo, no idea, for month after month when the paperwork would actually hit the desk and we'd hear what the next stage was... It could have been approval, it could be RFE, which means a request for further evidence, and more months of anxiety, or it could be..... the thing everybody fears most, denial.
Now there's a light at the end of the tunnel. A light that was not there a couple of days ago. I don't think it's a train coming the other way, I think it's sunlight, I think we'll be together soon.
So, that's why I'll be smiling all day today too.
Please feel free to smile all day too, I have so much happiness that you should have some too. Take a basket of light with you, and thank you, my friends, for being patient with me, through this journey!
