green card

Paul’s social security card and green card arrived, finally. When he filled out his paperwork in London, one of the questions was if he wanted them to sort out his social security card. He ticked ‘yes.’. With his immigration packet came a page stating that it would arrive within three weeks of his immigration. When that time came and went, he started making calls. No one seemed to know what he was talking about, so he made an appointment to see someone at the local office. She read this page and said she’d never heard of such a thing, that he had to come to his local office. His card arrived ten days later. While there, he had to give his details. When she tried to enter South Africa, she must have had some kind of character issue on the computer because she asked him if the ‘South’ was important. Later, she said she had to get out of here, meaning the US, because she didn’t know anything about the rest of the world.

Paul has started sending out his resume and has his first interview next Thursday. He has a lunch meeting with a friend of a friend who is in the business. He’s heard back from a place that he found on-line. This is encouraging even if it doesn’t lead to a job. It means that his resume is acceptable and his status hasn’t sent up any red flags.

We learned from our Realtor, a long time family friend, that it’s pretty easy to buy a home in the US, despite the housing crunch news. After meeting with him and a mortgage broker, we decided to make use of our free time now to look at homes. It’s been a great way for Paul to get to know the area. Jenny, Paul's mom, has come with us a couple of times and she enjoys seeing what the US has to offer. Colorado’s low water table means that almost all homes, and all the homes we are viewing, have full basements. Some are finished with bathrooms, a bedroom or office, and often a recreation room, but most of them are unfinished leaving the buyer free to complete them as he/she desires. The storage possibilities are enormous, a huge adjustment from our London flat. We won’t be buying anytime soon, maybe not for another year, but when we are ready, we’ll have most of the leg work done.

Living with Mom and Dad has been great. After being away for five years in Europe and living out of state for twenty years prior to that, it’s good to be with them again. They say they feel the same way. They aren’t pushing us out the door and we aren’t impatient to go, but our desire to make our own nest is ever present.

Paul’s parents arrived on 13 December and will return to South Africa on 11 January. We spent the first week of their visit in Breckenridge and have since been showing them around Fort Collins. Mom and Dad’s next door neighbors, Bob and Sue Pawlak, invited us to their Christmas party and made us dinner on New Year’s day. They know how to feed people, and we ate like kings both nights. I've got to go through pictures from three cameras, so it might be a little while before I post shots of what we've been doing.