To begin with I must apologise for being so silent recently! Combine a busy week along with not sleeping well, makes for a very tired Kathryn.
For those of you who don't know, I now have my green card - Yay! We also applied for my social security card a couple of weeks back, which I have also now received. Ben and I have been amazed and so thankful at how quickly and smoothly the immigration process has gone for me. We're still sorting a couple of things out for my new life here, but the main stressor is off our shoulders because I'm now a legal permanent resident!
In other news, Ben is now officially being deployed. We've spent weeks wondering if he would actually be going or not because he's had severe back pain for months now. He has definitely improved but it still causes him some issues. However, he has now been cleared by the medical group and his section chief so he's green to go! We're starting to prepare mentally and also finishing off tasks we need to do before he leaves. I'm afraid that's all I'm able to tell you right now due to the sensitivity of such information.
I'm doing my best to plan some things to keep me occupied and to break up his time away into chunks in the hope it'll help me cope better. So far I've come up with:
- Household projects. Things like finding a variety of nice cushions for our new (second hand) sofa (find out about that here), printing/displaying our wedding pictures, and generally making the place feel a little bit more like home.
- DIY Projects. I've been keeping back the glass juice bottles that we buy in the hope I can make them into something nice and decorative for our home. I have a couple of ideas for these already - watch this space!
- Put together care packages. This is something I've seen on the blogs of other military wives and I'm looking forward to putting together special parcels for when whilst he's away.
- Taking a trip back to the UK. Now I have my green card, I will be able to leave and return to the USA so it seems like a great time to visit friends/family and tie up some loose ends back in the UK.
- A family visit. All being well I'm hoping some of my family will be able to come and visit me after my trip to the UK. I'm really looking forward to showing them my new life here!
I know that this is going to be hard for the both of us, not to mention all the others who are going and those they're leaving behind. I'm just glad I've had a good length of time to get to grips with how things work here in Georgia before such a time came around. I'm also thankful that Ben and I have experienced long separations before now so we at least have some idea how we are going to feel. Although don't get me wrong, this situation is a bit different!
Thank you for coming by. I hope you've enjoyed this quick update on what's happening in my life at the moment. If you're reading this and haven't subscribed to get updates from me. Then head on back to my home page and scroll down until you see the word 'Subscribe' then click and enter your email address.
Take care folks!
Kathryn.