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Sunday, August 8, 2010

The price of a cute accent

We are moving to Australia. Back to Australia, in my case.

Organizing this momentous event has been a time-consuming and sometimes stressful production. Put house on the market, clear out clutter, hold garage sale, keep house spotless for viewings by potential buyers, vacate house for three hours every other weekend during open house. Fill out numerous and repetitive forms for MCP's visa, get additional paperwork such as fingerprints, certified copies of everything, and notorized statements from friends as evidence that we have a "genuine and continuing relationship". Get baby Sophie's US passport and Australian citizenship, and book a day-trip to the embassy in LA for her Australian passport. Get shipping quotes. Hold BBQ/pool parties for the friends we're leaving behind. Entertain another visitor who's come to see baby. Make lists, endless lists, about all the things we still have to do. Over the next five weeks we have ten house guests visiting in five batches staying for a total of 22 days.

And there's more! Somewhere in there I had a baby, so... Recover from c-section, shop for baby, take baby to appointments (first injections on Monday and I'm dreading it), feed and change baby, try to spend at least a bit of time playing with baby.

And finish book 2 rewrites.

You know what the hardest thing was? Getting a photograph of a two-week-old for her US passport. I snapped 200 shots over the course of several days to get one suitable photo. All were adorable, but the US passport office doesn't want adorable. They want subject looking directly at the camera, eyes open, mouth closed. Two-week-old babies don't do that much.

And then... MCP's visa arrives earlier than expected. Everything moves up a month. Scramble!

It will all be worth it because Sophie will grow up with an Aussie accent, which her Daddy thinks will make her even cuter than she already is. He said so on his visa application. Seriously.

5 comments:

Shawnna said...

I'm sorry that it will be so much work, but it must be wonderful for you to move back home. :-)

Tez Miller said...

Yay, coming home! :-) Will you be moving back to VIC, by any chance?

So is MCP an American? How's his attempt at an Aussie accent? ;-) Start training him!

P.S. Though there is a worry that Sophie may end up sounding like a bogan, unfortunately ;-)

Sara Creasy said...

Yes, we'll live in Melbourne. And yes, MCP is American. His blog (linked on the right) explains his side of the story.

Keith Stevenson said...

America's loss is our gain. Cool!
K xxx

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous baby Sara. Congrats!
So exciting you are coming back to Oz. Hope you can make it to the school reunion. Kerrie Beacham (Amoore)

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