It's official. We now have permission to reside in Germany. It always feels a bit strange to be living in a country, getting a home, driving around, having your child in school---without knowing if you will get your residency status. Here, it took us three moths to get our official passport stamp.

A few days ago, we we went down to the offices where you do this and we waited only about 15 minutes before we were called in. The woman who was to give us our approval looked like she really would rather be doing other things. She had a look like "I'm going to approve this one quickly so I can go get a cigarette." There were no questions. She didn't even check all of the forms we have carefully prepared.

I thought it was a good sign when we walked in and saw two posters of Jon Bon Jovi in her office. It was hard to imagine being rejected for German residency by a woman who idolizes Jon Bon Jovi.

So we made it--and at least for 2 years--we have permission to reside in Germany.

PS--I really dislike Bon Jovi