Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

This is just to wish anyone that reads my blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love, Dustin and Kirsty

The Troop Update and Other news...

Our group of Visa Journey group on Facebook has increased to 18 lovely ladies. I personally am loving having this “support group”. Since this process started, the distance has been a whole lot harder for us to deal with and both of our moods and patience have been tested on numerous occasions… BUT like always we pull through it and move along, which just shows how strong our relationship and love for each other is. So it has been great to be able to chat to others going through the same thing as us and for the encouragement we all give each other.

We all knew that when saying “YES” to our sweethearts when we were proposed to and choosing to start this Visa Journey wasn’t going to be an easy ride or very cheap for that matter. But if that is what it’s going to take to get to be with our loved ones forever, it is a small price to pay!

Our little support group of ladies on Facebook have had a few exciting “moments” the last few weeks with a few ladies receiving their NOA2’s (the approval of the petition, which then gets sent to their local embassy, where they then end up getting their interview dates) and two receiving their interview dates, being interviewed and then their visa approved.

Dex got his Visa approved on the 1^st December, and will be arriving in South San Fransisco on the 22nd December, - wonderful Christmas present for them both. :)

Spela received a phone call from her embassy on Monday (13^th December) and was given her interview date – the 14^th December. She let us know this morning that her interview went smoothly and her visa was approved! She is leaving for California in the morning of the 24th December and will arrive with her man in the evening of the same day! So excited and happy for you girl!! :)

* * *

Onto other news, Dustin arrives here on the 20^th January, 2011. His second visit to S.A. I’m so excited AGAIN (obviously, LOL), but extra excited this time because he gets to meet Hayley! The only person in my immediate family that he hasn’t met yet, I can’t wait to see how he is around us, being identical twins and all! LOL (that could be quite funny… well I’m hoping it will be :))

We plan on going to the Drakensburg for a week – I love the mountains and thought that it would be a great place to show him, although there is not much to do / see there, it will be nice and relaxing! Its summer now so it is going to be a scorcher, but my man will be here and that’s all that counts :) 38 Days left today until he arrives :)

SURPRISE!!

On Friday (12th November, 2010), the family received a HUGE surprise! HAYLEY arrived home a week earlier than she told us she would be returning!!

She organized with her friend Sam's Mom (Vicky) to pick her up from the airport in Durban and bring her back to PMB. She also organized for my Mom's friend (Mrs Linvingston) from work to have my Mom go to her house to "help" her with something, so that Mom was in one place and couldn’t go out. A few minutes later Hayley was in Mrs Livingstons house, surprising my Mom and Melissa!! A very well planned and kept surprise by the three of them.

Like always I go home on a weekend, so on Friday I went home. Traffic was really bad so I only got home after 5:00pm. To be honest on Friday morning from the minute I woke up I had Hayley in my head and a feeling (I can't explain) that she was somewhere here, I’ve never had this feeling before so it was kind of weird. Anyways I went to work and the feeling soon faded away because I got busy at work etc. then Sam put on her Facebook status "happy happy my best friend / sister is back in South Africa! I've missed you like I can't explain!!!!!!" (or something close to that), which made me think "huh? who she talking bout, if it's Hayley she must have thought wrong because she is only back next week Friday, maybe she got the Fridays mixed up", that did however, put the thought back in my head that Hayley was in actual fact somewhere here, and because I had surprised her by needing to be picked up a day earlier when I got back from USA that she was doing the same. But that soon got brushed off again with work etc. When I was on my way home driving along College Road (those that live in PMB will know where this is), the feeling that Hayley just might be back became stronger. When I got home Hayleys room was still the same – no bags etc (much to my disappointment). So I went to my Moms room and said hello to her like usual, then started reading a magazine on her bed, looking for a gift for our company Secret Santa. Then I suddenly heard a very familiar "hello" and looked up and was in COMPLETE shock!! It was Hayley standing in front of me smiling! I was speechless (literally) for a while and just stared at her, I wasn't sure if I was seeing things, or if I was dreaming or what but GOSH it felt weird to see her standing there. LOL. Then she laughed and said “are you going to say anything?” then I jumped up and hugged her!! :)

So ya she kept it a secret for a while, and so did everyone involved! A very well kept secret that is!!

The family is VERY happy to have her back! Once again the family is complete with all the members, but also not for long again with me leaving next year! However, I will be back to visit as often as possible and a new member (Dustin) is being added to our family in the process :D so there is a positive!

WELCOME BACK HAYLEY!!

Hayley and Milo...

VisaJourney - The Troop :)

From the beginning of our process for my K-1 visa I have been using a great site (Carla told me about it, Jake (her husband) used it for when they went through their K-3 visa). It has been such a help, helping us with how to start the petition and what we have to send in etc. Also if you have a question regarding the petition you start a new post and it’s answered SO quickly and the answers SO helpful! It’s really great! I was invited on Facebook by one of the ladies and then she added me to the Facebook group where I have met a bunch of lovely ladies! They are really wonderful when you are feeling down about something or have a question about the petition – all the ladies are further in the process than Dust and I are so it does help a lot :) We are all forming great “online” friendships, and hope to stay in contact with each other for a long time to come. I think it will be so awesome to see how each others lives have turned out with our loved ones and hopefully we can have a reunion once in a while to have girl time catch up :) These ladies are from all over the world, some are moving from their home countries to America and some already live in America. They are all really lovely, and I wish them all the best with their processes, and hope that NVC and CSC move their butts and give us our NOA2’s ASAP!! :)

Lisa and Matt.

Lisa is from the UK and Matt is from New York.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 17th July, 2010.

They are waiting for their NOA2.

Lisa and Matt met while they were both on holiday in Cancun, Mexico in 2008.
They received their NOA2 on the 30th December, 2010 - FINALLY!
LIS ARRIVED IN NEW YORK, TO BE WITH MATT PERMANENTLY ON THE 24TH MARCH, 2011!! :D

Kayla and Andy.

Kayla is from Ontario, Canada and Andy is from North Carolina.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 17th September, 2010.

They are waiting for their NOA2.

Kayla and Andy met online in February / March 2009 and then in person on the 30th October 2009.

Elena and Octav.

Elena and Octav are both from Romania. Octav lives in Philadelphia, PA though.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 7th September, 2010.

They received their NOA2 on the 6th Mar, 2011. (On a Sunday!!!!) :)

Elena and Octav met through Elena's cousin. They started speaking online in August 2006 and met in person in September 2007 in Bucharest, Romania.

Nikki and Tomislav.

Nikki is from Philadelphia, PA and Tomislav is from Zagreb, Croatia.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 21st September, 2010.

They are waiting for their NOA2.

They met in Philly in June 2008, when Tomislav went to the USA on a work/travel program and got a job at the same restuarant Nikki worked at. They met and fell in love at first site :)


Chaz and Dexter.

Chaz and Dexter are both from the Philippines, but Chaz lives in South San Fransisco, CA.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 28th May, 2010.

They received their NOA2 on the 29th October, 2010. YAY!! :D Chaz scheduled an interview for Dex on the 17th November :D Now we wait for the VISA!! :).

Chaz and Dexter have known eachother since they were kids and Dexter proposed last year when she visited Philippines :)
DEX ARRIVED IN SOUTH SAN FRANSISCO, TO BE WITH CHAZ PERMANENTLY ON THE 22ND DECEMBER 2010!! :D
Chaz and Dex got married on the 22nd February, 2011. Congratulations!! :)

Genevieve and Matthew.

Genevieve is from the Philippines and Matthew is from Kittery, Maine.

They filed their K-3 on the 30th August, 2010.
They received their NOA2 on the 8th February, 2011. YAY!!
Genevieve and Matthew met on Skype in January,2009. Matthew visited Genevieve in October 2009, proposed in December 2009, Genevieve said yes in January, 2010, Matthew went back to visit in May 2010 and they got married on the 21st June, 2010 :)

Susanna and Chip (Geoffrey).

Susanna is from Germany and Chip is from Little Rock, Arkansas.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) in August, 2010.

They received their NOA2 on the 28th January, 2011! :)

Susanna and Chip met on a Christian website in 2009. They met in person in California in March 2010 and on the last day of their trip Chip proposed :)


Spela and Jarred.
Spela is from Slovenia and Jarred is from California.
They filed their I-129F (K-1) in mid June.
They just received their NOA2 on the 3rd November, 2010. YAY!! :D.
Spela and Jarred met online in September 2009 and then met in person in March 2010 in California.
SEPLA ARRIVED SAFELY IN CALIFORNIA WITH HER LOVE ON THE 24TH DECEMBER, 2010 - WHAT AN AMAZING CHRISTMAS PRESENT!! :)
Spela and Jarred got married on the 18th February, 2011. Congratulations!! :)

Jeannie and Kenny.
Jeannie is from Nova Scotia, Canada and Kenny is from Ashland, Virginia.
They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 3rd July, 2010.
They received their NOA2 on the 22nd November, 2010.
Jeannie and Kenny met onine in pogo. They were friends for a long time before they decided to take the net step. They met for the first time in person in VA in August 2009. They both knew when they had that first hug at the airport they had something special. They had a few other trips back and forth. In May 2010 was her last trip to VA and thats when he proposed with a beautiful diamond and she of course said YES!! :) Awwwww...
WAITING FOR JEANNIE'S INTERVIEW DATE!!

Kirsty and Dustin.

Kirsty is from Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and Dustin is from Michigan, USA.

We filed our I-129F (K-1) on the 1st October, 2010.

We are waiting for our NOA2.

We met while I was Au Pairing in America in 2007. Dustin came to visit me in August / September 2010 and just before he left he proposed :)

Fiancée Visa (K1) Process...

I just thought this would be nice to have, so that whoever would like to see how our application for my Fiancée Visa (K-1) is going they can refer back here. We are told that it takes 5 months to get the visa, so we are hoping and praying really hard that I get the visa in February 2011. There could be times where there isn't an update for a few weeks or months. But I will update with as much information as possible...






Visa Timeline...
01.10.2010     -     I-129F application mailed off by Dustin
06.10.2010     -     Package delivered at 10:51am (USA time) 16:51pm
                           (SA time)
25.10.2010     -     Date of NOA1
26.10.2010     -     NOA1 Notification Received (email & text notification)
27.10.2010     -     Last updated - "Touched"
29.10.2010     -     NOA1 Hard copy received in the mail

And we wait....


We are eagerly awaiting our second notification now - the NOA2 (Notice of Application 2), which will let us know that they have accepted the application and will be sending the application and documents to the NVC (National Visa Center) then onto the JHB consulate, and then I will be receiving a package from JHB consulate called "Packet 3", which will hopefully take about 1 weeks from the date the application arrives in JHB, I will then have to fill out paperwork to send back to the consulate and collect any other evidence they require. After that is hopefully just a 1 week wait for another package from JHB called "Packet 4" which will contain my interview date :D (I can't wait) The wait for the NOA2 is about 3 - 4 - 5 months (I am holding thumbs it is earlier though!)

Our Special Engagement Surprise Gift from the Brown x2 and Sparg families...

Today Dustin and I received a very unexpected gift in the work mail that came in this morning! It was a lovely goldish envelope and addressed from James and Candace Sparg (my cousin). I excitedly opened it not sure what it was, when I took what was inside out there was a beautiful gold ribbon tied across a photo of a really cute little girl, and on the back it said "Congratulations on your engagement" and it is a voucher for an engagement shoot with a photographer that did Cands and James's wedding - BEAUTIFUL pictures and really wanted to have her as my photographer for our wedding! So we are pretty excited to have been given the opportunity to have photos taken by her for our engagement - more awesome memories to look back on one day :)

It was quite weird though, because I was talking to a lady at work last week and yesterday about wanting to organize an engagement photo shoot with one of her friends, that just recently took photos of her and her two daughters for her husbands 40th birthday, and I brought the whole photo shoot idea up in conversation with Dustin and he thought it a great idea! So I guess great minds think alike (with whose ever idea it was, LOL). So ya I am just so excited now for January to get here, so that Dustin is here and we can get some amazing pics from Kate. Obviously when we have had the shoot I will put some of the pics up!

Here is the gift we received, I photocopied the back and front and stuck them together :
 

Our Engagement - 4th September, 2010

We arrived safely at my Mom's place on the Friday (3rd September, 2010). I was exhausted after travelling 4 hours to Johannesburg airport from Crystal Springs, then flying to Durban and driving again to Pietermaritzburg, what was meant to be a 1hour 30min drive, it took us I think close to 2hours 30mins to get back home - SO many accidents etc on the way and the highway was blocked with cars to km's it seemed!

The evening of the 3rd went very quickly for me, I was in bed early while Dustin chatted up a storm with my Mom... like I think every other night after until he left!! :)

THE DAY!!
- how it all happened...

On Saturday (4th September, 2010) morning my Mom and Melissa went shopping, I sat in the lounge waiting for Dustin to get himself ready. He came to sit next to me, he pulled me closer to him, wrapped his arms around me and told me how much he loved me, etc. (etc. because everything up to the question is a blur for me now LOL), got onto one knee, pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him... Yes not VERY romantic, but we were at my Mom's place and I think he knew he had limited time before my Mom and Melissa got back :) it was however, very special to me and I will obviously ALWAYS remember it!!





THE RING....

My Mom had already organized for the family to come over for a braai (BBQ) on the Sunday, and now that we were engaged she asked family friends to come along too... It was such an awesome day and I was so pleased that Dustin got to meet my "crazy" family I love so much!!

Here are a few pics of the people he met...

SUNDAY 5TH SEPTEMBER, 2010 - MEETING THE FAMILY AND FAMILY FRIENDS....

Dustin and I....

Rosanna, Craig, Myself and Dustin

Aunty Sheryl (Mom's Sister) and I....

My Mom and I....

Aunty Sheryl (Mom's Sister), Myself and Mom....

Melissa (my sister) and I....

Myself, Dustin, Uncle Alan and Debbie (family friends)....

Our Family minus Hayley who is in America Au Pairing at the moment, she is due back in November this year, and we are all SO excited to have her back. (I have put an oldish pic of her next to us (to make the family pic whole... haha), she'll kill me but hey, LOL...)

Cands and I....

The family minus Craig (who is taking the pic), Hayley, Scott (Cousin, A. Sheryl & U. Daves son) and Adelle (Scotts girlfriend)....

Back : James (Candy's Husband), Uncle Dave (A. Sheryls Husband), Shaun (Cousin - A. Sheryl & U. Daves Son), Uncle Roy (Mom's Brother)

Middle : A. Rose (U. Roys Wife), Granny Gets (A. Roses Mom), Candy (Cousin - A. Rose & U.Roys daughter), Melissa, Mom, Rosanna (Craigs Wife), Aunty Sheryl.

Front : Myself, Dustin, A. Sheryl

Our family funny pic :D....

Myself and Mrs Lopera....

Mr Lopera, Melissa, Mrs Lopera, Mrs Livingston, Mom, Dustin and Myself (Family Friends)....

On Monday (6th September, 2010), Mom, Melissa, Dustin and myself all went out for dinner. We ended up at RJ's and had a delicous meal....

OUR LAST NIGHT TOGETHER UNTIL JANUARY 2011....

So that sums up the start of what I know is going to be a beautiful life together!! :)

Dustins Visit to South Africa - Kruger National Park

MPUMALANGA


We flew to JHB on the 28th August, 2010, then hired a car and drove to our place we were staying at for a week called Crystal Springs Mountain Lodge near Pilgrams Rest. After a LONG 41/2 hour drive we got to the place at 21:30pm (30 minutes before reception closed for the night - so I was kind of stressing a bit in the car on the way there). Checked in and then had to drive ALL the way to the end of the chalets (we would a chalet that was right at the end). We found our unit, Dustin unpacked the car and we got ready to call it a day.


Our place was beautiful! The view was absolutely amazing from our balcony. Sunday (29th August, 2010) we just lazed around, sorted out our things, relaxed and just enjoyed our surroundings.


SOME OF THE OTHER CHALETS ON THE OTHER SIDE....

THE VIEW FROM THE BALCONY....

NOT A VERY GOOD PIC, BUT THE SUNSET THAT EVENING....

On the Monday (30th August, 2010) we went to Gods Window, Wonder View (both amazing views), Berlin Falls and Bourke's Luck Potholes (this was my favorite place we went to  for the day, it was absolutely amazing!!). We had amazing weather, and although it was quite a drive to each place enjoyed our day thoroughly. Mpumalanga really is an amazing, beautiful province!!

THE VIEW AT GODS WINDOW....

US AT GODS WINDOW....

WONDER VIEW....

US AT WONDER VIEW....

BERLIN FALLS....

US AT BERLIN FALLS....

BOURKES LUCK POTHOLES....

US AT BOURKES LUCK POTHOLES, WE WERE STANIND ON ONE OF THE BRIDGES - AMAZING!!....

On Tuesday (31st August, 2010), we went to see Echo Caves and The Reptile Park. Echo Caves was amazing, we had a great tour guide (named Elvis :)) and we were lucky to be the only ones on the tour. It was amazing at how informative he was and how much information he remembered about the entire place. We took a few pics of the inside - some very interesting formations and some VERY low and small areas to crawl and duk under.

A FEW PICS OF THE INSIDE OF ECHO CAVE....

Looks a bit like an elephants face...

Stalactites...

Looks like the bottom half of an Ostrich...

Elvis making "music" on the stalactites to show how strong they are...

A very low area we had to walk under...

An upside down Table Mountain... :)

US OUTSIDE THE CAVE AFTER THE TOUR - ALL DIRTY AND VERY HOT!....

We had some lunch after the tour at Echo Caves then went on to The Reptile Park. It was quite a drive to get there, but was good to walk around and see the animals...

Dustin seemed to whisper "sweet nothings" into a lizards ears... Hmmm look at the smile?? LOL

A FEW PICTURES OF THE REPTILE PARK....

Dustin seemed to make quick friends with a donkey there, although he tried to call it like a horse, so I'm not sure if he knew it was a donkey... HAHA... Dustin is very into horses and there was a horse there, when he tried calling it to come over to him it didn't budge, just looked at him to say "who are you!"...

We finished at the Reptile Park and headed for home, we got to get there before the sunset - which was as beautiful as ever, and while we were sitting on our balcony we were surprised by the local warthog...

THE SUNSET....

Wednesday (1st September, 2010) was an interesting day, we didn't have much else to see that was close enough to where we were staying so I told Dustin that I had chosen all the other things to do, so it was now his turn to chose. He chose the Birds of Prey place, so we drove there, and boy did we drive... we drove and drove and drove and drove and DROVE, to finally get there and it was the dodgiest place I have EVER seen!! So we had a good laugh and turned around and went home - a total waste of a day....

On Thursday (2nd September, 2010) was our last day in Mpumalanga and we went to Kruger National Park, it was a 1hour 30 min drive from where we were staying, but it was another awesome day so nothing mattered, we were quite excited to go there and I was really hoping to get a glimpse of Lion and Cheetah - to my disappointment we saw neither :( We did however, get to see a lot of other animals. Kruger National Park is amazing, it was dry and dull but still was breathtaking to see live wild animals so close up.

A FEW PICTURES OF THE ANIMALS WE WERE LUCKY ENOUGH TO SEE....

We saw a ton of buck - they were just everywhere!!

One of the waterholes...

Elephant...

Zebra...

Giraffe, these animals are SO amazing up close...

Warthog...

Buck in a "tug of horns"... :)

An Eland, such beautiful animals...

There is a Mommy Hippo and two babies, and there were a few Buffalo together...

Now this is an interesting story - and Dustin will probably KILL me for writing this but I find it hilarious... We were on our way back to the entrance of the Kruger Park, when a whole lot of cars were suddenly stopped and as we came closer to them we saw they were reversing - I then spotted an elephant in the road and so then knew what the "commotion" was all about. We were in our little red Hyundui Atos car and I was trying to reverse fast enough so that the other cars wouldn't reverse into me, as I was reversing obviously the elephant kept walking in our (all the cars) direction, well Dustin was FREAKING out and shouting at the cars behind us that weren't moving fast enough (for him) and sticking his hand out the window and telling them to "MOVE OUT THE WAY" with his hand movements!! The Elephant by the way was NO where near us by then! Oh the "joy" I got from seeing him so nervous... LOL, anyways it took a while to get moving again, with this huge elephant moving off to the side but moving in and out of the bushes as if he was playing "hide and seek" with all of us. Once he had stopped and stayed in the bushes we were all ready to get going when ANOTHER elephant from a little way up came out onto the road from the opposite side! (can you imagine Dustin's reaction? LOL).

We then moved along - had to stop again when a heard of elephants ran across the road (HAHA), then near the entrance we were stopped by about 5/6 Giraffes on either side of the road, they are SO amazingly tall and elegant when they walk... Dustin said that I should just keep driving and I'll fit through their legs our car was so tiny!! LOLOL...