I got a package...

...I am now officially legal to enter the United States of America and stay as long as I want.... From the day I'll enter the country I will have the same rights as an American citizen with the only exception that I cannot vote. Puh...this longlasting process is over!

I finally got my passport back with a visa printed inside, It is a "temporary" immigration visa that I have to use until I get my so called permanent residency card ( "Green-card"), which is supposed to be sent to me after I enter the country. Since we chose to do the 1-130 visa due to family relations we don't have to worry about any more paperwork! :-)  I also got an alien registration number so I am legal to work and get a social security number ( it's like your "personnummer" that you use at hospitals, for salary, taxpurposes etc..) basically that is the same that Jared got when he got his permanent residency here in Sweden. Included with the mail was also a secret "package" that clearly said DO NOT OPEN. This is a package I have to leave at the port of entry to the immigration and homeland service.  I suppose that is all my documents and my personal file from USCIS. Hehe...it is both funny, a little bit silly and of course somewhat understandable how classified everything is... 

Days fly by...

Upps it's already Sunday again. and I haven't updated here... Well this week has been busy.  To start with I went to the interview on Monday morning. I took the train to Stockholm and had an early appointment time at the embassy. My train arrived already 6 a.m so I had plenty of time to eat a breakfast at the cozy Nordic Sea Hotel. It's right by the train station so I didnt have to starve for a long time..:-)-  The embassy is located in Diplomatstaden and since it was a sunny day, I took a nice 40 min walk down by the ocean along Strandvägen. Stockholm is surrounded by water and it was a beautiful morning before this busy city fully woke up... Well at the embassy everything went really smooth and surprisingly fast. I didn't really know what to expect from this interview, and now afterwards I wouldnt call it an interview...At first I had to show some originals of the documents we send in long time ago and then they had one question about where me and Jared met and if I was the mother of both girls, which of course they already know since we did send in all documents that been reviewed and approved a long time ago. So I guess this interview was more a formal meeting so I could hand in some photos for the visa and my passport in person...Other than that we only have to email another version of a document and after that they said it'll be a couple of weeks before I recieve my passport together with my visa!

It has been a long process! I'll describe it more later but even if we are a "standard"case it has been well over a year since we sent in the first papers. I cannot say it has been so complicated, just time craving. I know that many people hire an attorney to do all the paperwork and maybe have it done a little faster, but that would have been an additional cost ( on top of the regular fees) of around 3-4000 USD... And since I dont mind paperwork we thought we'd had more fun for the money. I still think we made the right decision about doing this alone! Anyway, it feels really good that we are almost done...

Today I got intoxicated by the scent from one of my absolute favourite flowers. Lilacs are now blooming in Mom's garden, and I just can't get enough of them! 

Good news...

 I finally got the date for attending the interview at the American embassy in Stockholm! A day after I came back to Sweden I got the email I've been waiting so long for. It's the last stage in the visa process and means that hopefully I'll have it pretty soon. We didn't expect getting called in so quick after we flew over, but it is such a relief to actually have a time when I'm going!  All I have to do now is to make sure I got all the originals of the copies we sent in and take some pictures I assume they need to issue the visa and put it in my passport.

So sunday evening I will need to catch the night train to Stockholm so I can be at the embassy early in the morning! Jared is suppose to arrive at Copenhagen airport by lunch today, so I really hope there are no delays. I'm the only one allowed to be present at the interview therefore Jared must stay home with the girls. I'm going to fly back in the afternoon, so it'll be a quick visit to Stockholm! I'm excited and also a little nervous because I don't really know what kind of questions they are going to ask... I suppose it's not like an interrogation more future plans and about our family. We'll see, and I promise to keep you updated!

Wind of change...

I am sorry for not being able to write here for quite a while. I hope I haven't lost my "followers".  It seems like everytime I get more readers I take an unwanted break from blogging. I've been without a phone and internet for a while so I appologize for not updating...

Anyway, a lot of things are going on and has happened since last time I wrote. I don't know where to begin but well, here's the story.

A month and a half ago me and Jared started to seriously think about what we were going to do with our future plans, if we were gonna stay at the Swanz ranch here in Montana, find another ranch, move closer to Jared's family in Missouri, stay as permenent residents in Sweden, or do something completely different... It has been a lot of thoughts going on. We feel very lucky and greatful for this last year, when we have been able to experience this big family adventure. But aside of all the fun memories, it has also been a year full of planning, packing, travelling, moving and time apart from eachother... We have discussed different options back and forth, and it's so difficult to make decisions about what we are going to do (at least) for the next year before Natalie is really starting school. We feel that we still have time to try out the options we have, before we have to settle more permanent in one location. The fact that we are a swedish/american family will always be present and something that we have to consider when it comes to making decisions about how we want to live our lives, where and even which country we eventually are going to settle in...

Before we took a decision about either getting really settled in at the Swanz's ranch, or pack our things and leave, we had to consider that my visa for permenent residency wasn't done, so we knew I had to leave the country before my 90 days were over. Which meant, no matter what, I had to fly back to Sweden before Easter. At this point all we knew about the visa process was that all papers were approved, but we still waited for a date to attend to the interview at the embassy in Stockholm so theoretically it could be several months again. We knew that we didn't want to be apart for as long as we were over the winter, and we had really hoped and believed that my visa would be done long time ago....but unfortuantely not, so what was the best thing to do?

We both really liked staying at the ranch here. The setting and environment around is so beautiful, good salary and benefits, very friendly community, a charming, safe and educational little school for Natalie and the Swanz family are truly intelligent, positive, considerate and loving people that we really appreciate we got the opportunity to get to meet. Few things spoke against staying but for us as a family they were important to consider.  Since the winters are so long and sometimes rough here, we thought (or mostly me), that the ranch is in a little too remote location. It is hard to find different activities within an hour drive when you have two little girls. To get many options you have to go around 1 h 45 min to Billings and that's nothing you all of a sudden do in the weekdays after school. It's like going from Sölvesborg - Malmö roundtrip just to go swim or attend gymnastic class on a tuesday evening or so...  It might sound like a minor problem when you are at a big ranch full of animals and nature, but in the winter there are long time periods when you cant really take advantage of what the ranch has to offer to activate the kids. It might be of bigger concern for me than others because it's a new way of life for me, and that I'm so use to have things closer. I'm sure that's something I'd get use to, but it still doesn't take away the fact that there are quite a few years until Jamie starts school and that both girls need to get activated and socialize with other kids on a regular basis. ( Of course there are other kids in the area and Natalie already started to make friends and had a very good, stimulating time in school, but it is a small community and there are just not so many small kids around...) Another thing was that I felt that it'd be hard for me, even if I wanted within a year or so, to actually get a part time job because there were no daycares around in the area. I think I'd like to be a stay at home mom for a little while longer, but I am of that nature that eventually I need to work and meet collegues on a more daily basis to feel good, so that could have caused problems if I didn't even have a realistic possibility to do so.  After thinking about this day and night for quite a while, we took an emotional decision to pack our things and leave this beautiful ranch. Jared was going to stay and work for few weeks after me and the girls had to leave. Then take a roadtrip down to the family in Missouri and fly to Sweden from there. If things were different with my visa done, I think we'd stayed until shipping in October so we at least could enjoy the most beautiful and green part of the year in Montana. But there were not so much to do about that since we didn't want to split the family for a longer time period again. So after packing, crying and saying goodbye to the Swanz, me and the girls left the ranch and flew back to Sweden the 14:th of April.

Even though we technically left Montana, I really feel that at least I'm not done with this amazing state. I'm sure we will be back in Montana in foreseeable future! (And of course we will go visit the Swanz family and continue what hopefully will be a lifelong friendship!)

So right now our things are packed down and safely stored in Missouri, Jared is flying over the Atlantic very soon and we are going to enjoy the best part of the year in Sweden. After my visa is completely done, we finally have the opportunity to try to fully live in USA without having the stress that me and the girls need to leave, or that I'm not allowed to work...So no matter where the road might lead us after the summer I'm sure we will have an exciting time ahead of us!

(I will write more about Montana, the community and school another day...)

Here we go again...

It's time to pack our bags and cross the big ocean again... I suddenly decided to book tickets and go back to Montana! It's been many weeks without Daddy so next monday we are going to fly over even if my real visa still isn't done...so this time I travel with the normal ESTA visa, which means I must get back and do my interview no later than 90 days after arrival... It feels like a never ending story even if our case is "standard" and nothing complicated!

Of course its been very nice to see beloved friends and family in Sweden and be home again. We have had alot of  quality time together...even if its never enough... but I keep moments we had close to my heart..♡ I'm also very happy that both girls got to spend so much time with the whole family here! For Natalie its been fun and also important to play with her friends and go a few days to her preschool here. I really appreciate that she got to experience the swedish traditional lucia and christmas now when she is old enough to remember and bring the traditions with her no matter where she'll be next year. BUT we missed (and family here missed...) the traditional american celebration the 25:th we've had in Sweden last 3 years...Jared has to cook christmas dinner a little late for us!

I think this time will feel more like we actually fly over to really live a normal everydaylife at the ranch and not just feel like we are travelling around... Because of the visa situation it still doesn't feel like moving "for real", we take that stepbystep..( not saying "for good" because we keep that open...)  Anyway I'm looking forward to experience the different parts of the year at the ranch, that's really exciting and most of it very new for me...

BEFORE we go back to Montana, me and the girls are going to have some very spontaneous and well needed realaxing days in the sunshine state FLORIDA!!

Back in Sweden...

Me and the girls are back in Sweden! I'm going to finish the long process of get a visa issued... For allowance to stay in USA longer then 90 days in a row you must have a valid visa. There are many kinds to apply for but we are going through the very long process of getting a so called immediate family related visa. Its a visa you can apply for if you are a spouse of an american citizen. I'll tell you all about that another day! 

Anyway this time we flew Bozeman- Chicago-Copenhagen with SAS.  It was a challenge to fy alone with Jamie and Natalie, but all (except 15 min while boarding the night flight to Cph...) of the door-to-door 26 h trip went really well. 

The only hard time we had was right before the long flight from Chicago. I booked a late evening flight with hope of the two girls beeing a sleep most of the trip... and they more or less did that. But when we were about to board at 10 I had to wake a deep sleeping 4- year old and make her walk by herself into the plane...unfortunately I couldn't carry a sleeping J and my big girl by myself. It was very hard and scary to wake up in a strange place and forced to do that..I even asked the crew members for help already in advance but when the time came for us as last passengers to board, they were not allowed to hold a child even if I insisted...the situation didnt get better until a female (the others were men and obviously not parents...) helped me carry Jamie so I could calm N down.I felt so helpless right there all alone! And the whole situation could so easily been avoided if someone just would have carried one of the sleeping girls! Anyway we made it home and all in all the trip was not too bad! I dont mind travelling alone with them again... ( still preferable overnight flight.)

This day after we were very sleepy and just relaxed down in Hörvik. Now the challenge to get the girls back to swedish time and sleeping routines starts!