Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Countdown ....

Can't believe it, one month and then we're flying to Perth!

Last week was hectic, Biddulphs packed our stuff and the container on Tuesday and Wednesday, luckily they were able to fit more into the container than we thought. It should be on the ship by Friday 5 December and might arrive as soon as 5 January in Brisbane! We're only arriving on 13 January in Brisbane, so we must find a house as soon as possible.

At the moment we're staying in a guest house, nice little self catering place with 2 bedrooms. Minah comes in every day to look after Jessica, we must enjoy her while we can! Soon we'll have to do our own laundry! This weekend we're going to visit Jaco and Naudine on the farm and on Sunday we can move into a friend's house where we'll stay until the 3rd of January.

The kids seem okay, Ryan is fine with everything and very happy that the guest house have got a swimming pool! Jessica just struggles a bit to fall asleep, but other than that she's also fine.

Brett and I are both working until 12 December. After that we can spend time with friends and family to say the goodbyes ...

Friday, October 3, 2008

Jessica

We went to the cardiologist about a month ago and finally got some good news with regards to Jessica's heart defect. There was a slight improvement! She will still need a heart operation to correct the ASD, but it's not urgent. Initially the cardiologist said that we should operate between 12 and 18 months, but we can now wait until she's about 4 years old. At that time it might be possible to do the operation with a catheter and not open heart surgery!!! Excellent news!

She is really doing fine, walking now ... full of energy. Thankfully no symptoms of the hole in her heart.

We'll see a pediatric cardiologist when we get to Aus ... they're building a brand new children's hospital in Brisbane!!!

Big plans

We've booked our plain tickets ... we're leaving on 3 January 2009, going to Perth. There we'll spend some time with our friend Collin. On 13 January we're flying to Brisbane. That's when the work will start ... finding a house, a car and jobs. Schools for the kids, so many things to do!

Our container will probably be packed end of November so that we won't be without furniture for too long in Australia. In December we'll be staying in someone's house who will be on holiday for the whole month. So that should work out fine.

We're really stressing about the whole decision and the big move at the moment, I think because everything is happening so slowly we've got too much time to thing about the big move. That makes it more difficult ... it's like pulling a plaster of painfully slow!

We are going to miss our friends and family so much, and the kids their grandparents. Sometimes I really wonder if we're doing the right thing. It was so much easier to talk about it before it became a reality.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Visa granted!!!

On Tuesday, 18 March 2008, I received an e-mail from Australia to notify us that our visa has been granted on 17 March 2008!!! I couldn't believe it ... the wait is over! Now we have to plan our first entry holiday!!!!!

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Things happen for a reason

So, up to now I've been a little bit upset because I've been looking forward to the move to Australia ... and then Brett got a nice work opportunity and we decided to stay for another year.

My daughter, Jessica, was born in August 2007 with a large ASD (hole in the heart). According to the cardiologist this would increase her risk of getting pneumonia if she gets the RS Virus (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) - a major cause of respiratory illness in young children. The cardiologist motivated for the synagis injections, used to prevent serious lower respiratory tract (lung) disease caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children at high risk of RSV disease. These injections will be given once a month for 5 months at a cost of approximately R17 000 per injection! Today I got the good news that the medical aid decided to pay for these injections!

So, looks like we're staying here a bit longer for another reason ... and not just Brett's new job opportunity. We can also then have Jessica's heart operation done here in South Africa, maybe the best option.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Waiting for our visa

We are in the final stages of our Skills independent visa (subclass 136) for Australia

Here's our timeline so far:

ACS Skills Assessment: 6 November 2006
IELTS: 13 January 2007

PR Visa 136 (Non MODL):
Posted: 2 July 2007 Via Postnet
Received: 10 July 2007
Receipted: 15 August 2007
Acknowledged: 18 October 2007
Apply for baby passport: 7 November 2007
CO Assigned: 6 December 2007
Applied for PCC: 11 December 2007
PCC Ready: 16 January 2008
Collect baby passport: 16 January 2008
Collect PCC: 24 January 2008
Medicals: 28 January 2008 (R2840, 2 adults, 2 kids - Hatmed)
E-mail baby passport, medicals receipt and PCCs: 28 January 2008
Baby Cardiologist Report Faxed: 4 February 2008
Medicals Couriered: 6 February 2008
Medicals Delivered: 11 February 2008 (Signed for by James)

At the moment we're just waiting to hear whether or not they are going to grant our visa, but it might still be a while because the LCU (Local Clearance Unit) have got a backlog of 10 weeks, and they are the ones who have to approve the medicals.

Hopefully we'll hear soon!