Tasmanian Devil

I am not sure if Tasmanian is ready for another devil – but one will be arriving there on Tuesday July 3rd. After nearly six years of trying to take Oliver to Australia for a visit – I have finally succeeded.
I have been in Jakarta for a week now. On Monday I submitted Oliver’s passport for a visa to enter Australia. I did this with much trepidation considering all the dealings and incidents I believe I have had with the Australian Embassy since living in Indonesia and trying to obtain a passport and legal status for my son, Oliver. On Tuesday I received a phone call from someone at the embassy asking if I had Oliver’s mother’s permission to take him out of the country, In fact I had a paper from a lawyer in Lombok stating with three witnesses that Oliver’s mother agreed it was OK for me to take him out of the country at any time. So I waited all week. The stated time was five working days. I was given a website that I could check the progress of the passport but tried all week using the wrong number with no result. On Thursday night I tried a different number from the receipt and the response came back that the passport was indeed ready to be collected. No indication of whether the visa had been granted or not. Friday rolled around as slowly as is possible and Oliver and I went to the Australian Visa Centre to collect his passport and see if there was a visa for him. Nestled inside the small brown envelope was his passport and after ripping the container open I discovered the magic sticker inside his passport that has been an elusive gaol for all these years.
Again I cried like a baby, much to Oliver’s horror, but I think this time he had some idea of the momentous occasion it really was. He said, “Daddy, I can go to see Nanny in Australia?” You can only hug a small child so much before you crush them and I think I came close after hearing that. We rode back to the hotel in a taxi and I frantically messaged everybody I had in my mobile phone book to tell them of the great news after I had a blubbery phone call to my mum to tell her we would be coming to see her soon. What a fucking, fabulous, great day. Six years and finally I have what I have dreamed of.