guess what i got?!
today my PERMANENT residence card came in the mail… the swedish immigration offices have given me permission to stay! i am officially a resident of sweden!
so, tonight, my love and i went out for very short celebration at a cozy restaurant in our neighborhood…
it really is a big day for us. and it feels amazing to know that i am settled, accepted, and have the rights to be here… permanently. i am so thankful that sweden allows me to stay, to live, to be with my love here. too bad my home country (USA, i mean you.) doesn’t have the same kind of laws, where everyone is treated equally. here, it didn’t matter at all what gender lina & i are. what mattered is that we are committed to loving each other, and have built a life here together.
it’s crazy to get to stay! or, at least until lina & i dream up another adventure… mouwahahaha. in the meantime, i feel so blessed,thankful, and overwhelmed at the fact that i truly have 2 homes. and to share life with my love, to know without a doubt that we can be together, that mean everything to me.
so, tonight, i lay my head on my pillow as one who is not a tourist, not a person with limited permission to be here; but as a wife as one who has the right to sleep here every night. though i have permission to be in this physical place now, no restrictions at all, i am reminded tonight in the midst of feeling so excited and proud, that, wherever my love is, is my home. and now i’m officially, truly, really, legally home.
goodnight, world. peace.
Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!
WOO HOO!!
Grattis!
Tack tack!! 🙂
Congratulations, wife who has the right to be there with your love! What a nice feeling to know you can’t be kicked out and that any trips to the US will not be to fulfill some requirements for limited length of stay, but because you WANT to travel there.
You are so right, Barb. It feels really, really good to have everything settled and set now.
Woohoo!
Fantastic news Liz! I remember getting my letter from immigration in 2009- and immediately planned to go to Perth the next day just to get the actual label placed into our passports. Fast-forward to 2012 and, against all odds, my children & I attended our AU citizenship ceremony. Yep- actual citizens now- and we are simply stoked about it. 🙂
Congrats to you & Lina~
Tracy
Thank you, Tracy! It is such an exciting time! Congrats to you & yours on your citizenship!
Congrats! That’s great 🙂
thank you so much! it feels great!
Woohoo! That’s awesome! Congratulations!
Makes me want to go travel and just live overseas for a while. I could use it 🙂
DO IT! or visit! you’re welcome in sweden! 🙂
Congratulations!!! Is it hard to become a resident of Sweden? I know Germany gives foreigners a crazy hard time… 🙁
thanks! it’s not that hard when you’re married to a swede. 😉 just some forms and an interview. i had a 2 year residence, but this was for my permanent one, as you read. it feels really great to be settled! (not that a move to the states is out of the question in the future).
That must have been a very sweet sleep. Congratulations 🙂
you are so right. i slept like a baby, and life feels much differently now, as a matter of fact. thank you!