Worldly Chatter

It started Saturday morning when Dutchie got the mail. There it was! The Hilversum seal on a white envelope with my name on it! Dutchie ran upstairs screaming it’s here, it’s here! Are you kidding me? Don’t play with me was the first thing out of my mouth. I grabbed the envelope and read the contents. I was picking up my permit on Monday! We jumped around our kitchen like a bunch of school girls! The wait was finally coming to an end! My Dutch residence permit just two days away from my finger tips! Well, two days can be a really long time! Dutchie is sick so we didn’t do much this weekend which made the weekend go by just a tad slower. Not an issue mind you, tending to Dutchie is never something I mind doing. We raced the weekend away with Burnout Revenge and watched movies while Dutchie attempted to get better.
Now Monday morning and Dutchie is getting ready for work while I tend to a few things around the house. My nerves are killing me! The suspense was so much; like an intense movie that has you on the edge of your seat the entire time! Dutchie leaves and it is only 20 minutes to 8. The office doesn’t open until 8:30. I get in the shower and get dressed. Soak the dishes, take out the trash and start a load of laundry. It’s now 8:35. Time to go!
The walk there was filled with Evanescence screaming in my ear and a cigarette I had steamed at some point. Just a ten minute walk and I was there. That’s when you take a number and wait your turn. They ding a number and direct you to a booth, ding after ding. You wait, and wait, listening for the ding that means you are up. It seems like an hour but really it has only been minutes. Then while looking at the screen that reads off numbers and tells you what you can do in Hilversum my number pops up! Booth four, it’s the moment Dutchie and I have been waiting for months now. I walk up and hand her the letter I received on Saturday. She looks my name up, checks my passport and tells me to sign here. I sign and she hands me my permit. Have a good day ma’am. That was it! The suspense, the waiting, the dings and that was it!
I now sit here looking at my permit. The permit I applied for in October, the permit Dutchie have been wanting since my first trip to Holland and the decision was made that I would live here. The entire walk home I kept thinking ‘Oh my God’ with not much else getting in my brain. Oh my God was all I could come up with. Once I hit my street I thought about making a cup of coffee and turning on the scanner but the ‘Oh my God’ kept running in my head like a broken record.
What does this mean to me, to Dutchie? This means I have a resume (CV) to write, applications to fill out and wait for them to send me information on my integration courses. I can finally work! I can finally contribute to the house and our family! I will now be a contributing member of society once again! The feeling is overwhelming and surreal. It has finally happened and I sit here excited, a little scared and silent as I process all this in my brain and try to push out the ‘Oh my God’.
I know it will be a different process than when I was in the US. I am a little scared and nerved at the process before me but also I am excited, I feel liberated somehow. I have so much ahead of me now and I look forward to all of it, even if I am a little scared, it is worth it all. The wait has been worth it. I have my permit finally! Holland here I come!

Dutch Residence Permits, living abroad, Netherlands, Expats, Immigration, Integration, Nederland