My mum's birthday is tomorrow on the 29th. So yesterday my brother and his wife and their beautiful little girl Febe celebrated with my mum seeing as it was the weekend and during the week my mum often works really late. Because my mum lives in South Africa, we could not be there, but we were definitely there in spirit! Very much so. So much so that we made her cry. At her birthday celebration!
In 2010 we started the process to sponsor my mum to move here to New Zealand. Since 2004 we've only ever seen her maybe for a total of 9 weeks. Earlier this year we received a letter from Immigration where we needed to supply more information and more documents and it took me about 65 days just to get everything together. It was incredibly stressful and I spent hours on the phone, email, Facebook tracking people down, asking for info and getting ready. And amazing people came on our way. People I've never met before, but who were absolutely amazing in supplying what we needed.
So finally I submitted this big stack of documents. And then we waited and prayed and waited some more.
And last week I finally received the letter we've been waiting for. That my mum's permanent residency is approved and that we now need to send in her passport and the migrant levy. What a big relief! An absolute answer to our prayers.
And so I sent a copy of the letter which my sister in law carefully inserted in my mum's birthday card as a nice birthday surprise from us. Sorry mum for making you cry!
And next Christmas we'll spend it together! No more sending parcels that never arrive (on the 1st of November 2010 I sent a parcel to my mum and my brother and it has never arrived!).
We were incredibly blessed throughout the process. So many who did so much to help us! And we had the most amazing and most helpful immigration case officer working with us. We'll be eternally grateful!
So mum, time to start planning your big adventure!
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| Happy birthday mum, next year we're spending it together! |
8 comments:
Whoot!! Congratulations to all of you! And happy birthday Lea's Mum!!!
That's great news, Lea! What a relief that all the hard work and preparation has worked out for the best!
Awesome! Happy birthday Leas mum and Kia ora!
Thank you so much for the birthday wishes! Thank you Lea for all the hours you spent getting all the info we needed... and your perseverance! Thank you Terence for taking time off work to drive us to Auckland to hand in the Documents on time before I flew back to SA. Thank you to all who assisted us with the application. Thank you Eric and Jax for your participation and the assistance you are giving me too as we head into the next phase. And I praise our Heavenly Father for His grace.
Thank you for a wonderful b'day pressie.....and Lea you managed to make me cry for 2 days in a row!!
But they are tears of joy and gratitude.
love you all
xx
What a nice post! SO happy for you and your mother and your family to finally be together in the not to distant future. Congratulations to all of you on a job well done.
Wonderful news!
Rosemary
Wow,that's so cool about your mum. She looks really lovely. I can imagine how excited you all are.
Loved the photos of the kittens too... :)
Bridget
Oh I am so excited for you, your Mom and your girls they are going to love having their Grandmother there. Congrats to your Mom, and Happy Birthday. You give great presents:)I bet everyone is crying tears of joy. B
How exciting for the family and a big happy birthday to your mum.
I bet you can't wait! Maa
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