Day 1008 Thank god for that!

Pete and Kelli’s social distance day 58

14th May 2020

The day finally arrived, the day when my residency had been filed. Both Kelli and I received letters confirming that we were in “the process”.

That was a lot different to what I had expected, dreading the arrival of the mail.

I watched as she went out to the box and retrieved a package and some letters. As she came into the kitchen there was no gloom, which made me relieved. I was in the bathroom when she let out a shout of joy, of course I was not in a good position to rush out and see what she was happy about. I expected it to be a piece of new clothing that had just arrived, or something equally exciting.

But no when I walked into the kitchen she was waving a piece of paper from the USCIS informing me that my application had been accepted.

For both of us it was an emotional moment, I didn’t think a piece of paper could bring such relief to me. After several months of not knowing there must have been inward stress building up that I would get kicked out of the country for overstaying my visa. This would have spelt disaster for our relationship, for me to be locked out, and not being able to live in our American home together.

I could have moved Kelli over to the cottage, but there wouldn’t been enough room for her clothes. She would need a transport plane just for all the different garments.

We have this re-occurring discussion about all the various types of clothing she needs for all the different seasons. In the UK it is winter clothes, and a change for the rest of the year.

Anyway that doesn’t need to happen, now I just have to wait for the next part of the process to happen.

To celebrate, and because it was a shitty wet day we decided to go to a garden centre and get some plants to brighten up the front of the house and the back garden.

We went to Countryside Greenhouse a massive place, like the whole of Wiltshire, but undercover. The masks and social distancing were in evidence, although some had the mask under their noses, which sort of defeats the object, some people eh?

I had a list of plants that my sister Nicola had given me, so I used that as a guide.

The moment we started looking, Kelli was going “cute” this and “cute” that at everything, so within ten feet we had a load of things that were not on the list. Eventually we found some that I recognised, so it wasn’t a total disaster.