ENGLAND !

Oliver's permanent residence has been approved. This means we will be in England for Christmas (most likely). The email I got last night says that it can take up to 30 days for him to receive the green card at home, but they said the same thing about the work permit and we got it in under a week.

Our scheduled departure is on Tuesday, December 19, which means we get to England on the 20th. If we don't get the card in time, we'll reschedule for a week or two later.

I was getting pretty excited to spend New Years with everyone here, so don't think we won't be missing you guys, but I think everyone can understand our excitement to go see Lily's grandparents, uncles, aunties, cousins, and Oli's friends and to be in a country that is a lot warmer than Chicago is right now. Brrr.

Humorously, I just sent off a $170 check to Homeland Security yesterday to get an expedited travel document so we could make it to the UK for Christmas. All day yesterday I kept checking my email to see if his perm res would miraculously get approved and I wouldn't have to send this new application. At 4pm I finally gave in and next-day aired it to California. They sent me the approval notice by email at 5:42 pm and I opened it first thing this morning. I almost choked on laughter when I opened my email this morning. My instincts were so right, but I don't mind that I ignored them and now have to clean up the mess of this new application because we'll be in England in just over a week.

England!