12 Years in the US

Today we celebrate our 12th year in the US and next month will be our 10th year in Texas!

At 3.35 p.m. today, at the moment when my oldest son comes out of school, it will be exactly 12 years since that KLM flight touched down on the runway of San Francisco international airport!

As usual, these things let you reflect on the past 12 years and all that has happened in that time. I also reflect on the fact that we left our homeland and family ten thousand miles behind for a new life in a different part of the world.

I have bitter-sweet feelings about it all. The "bitter" is that we are far away from our family and we miss them. Luckily we do get to see them from time to time, and going by some of our American friends, we see our family in South Africa quite often.

The "sweet" is obviously the lives we have here in the US. We can always make improvements, but generally, life is good. Our kids are doing well and they are able to pursue great opportunities in a world where performance is the only measure.

Over the past 12 years we have also become very aware of how lucky we were to win our green cards in the lottery. Ours was a trouble-free entry that led to US citizenship six years later. Some of our friends are still struggling to get their green cards after more than ten years and thousands of dollars.

We are lucky indeed!