#aussieintegration

Christmas in Australia means posing for a photo with a rudie nudie kid who spent the afternoon playing in a sprinkler with some of his besties. Thankful for summer and for being adopted for Christmas lunch by @gogglesgalore & co. What a feast and sweet afternoon. #aussieintegration https://www.instagram.com/p/CJLaSsOjtQR103wM21JRST4FsNEVUHb-1hEChA0/?igshid=vlbpahpnwgxq

High five, America! You've officially got this adorable compatriot face on your team as of today. 🇺🇸 After all the visas and paperwork and money we've spent over the years to get to applying for JJ and I's Australian citizenship, all Jett had to do was survive birth (ok, and a few bits of paperwork + an embassy appt) and he's a dual citizen. So jealous! #aussieintegration #10weeks (at MLC Centre)

On our 6th anniversary of moving to Australia, I registered our very own gumnut baby's arrival. How's that for #aussieintegration? 😍

#aussieintegration goes big: Last week we submitted our applications for citizenship. Now we wait and see. 🙏 (at Sydney Harbour)

'Straya design treasures found at the #nationallibrarycanberra today 😍 So many good ones, I could spam up your feed. #aussieintegration (at National Library of Australia)

We moved here with a 5 year plan exactly 5 years ago yesterday. Things have gone differently than our projected plan - sometimes much more interesting, sometimes much more difficult - and now we're in uncharted, unplanned territory of expat life/regular life. I used to think day-to-day adulting was fueled by making important decisions and determining your big ideals, but the older I get the more I realize life has a life of its own and you're better off just rolling with it and not focusing on the completing of a life plan or goal as much as you focus on the now. Focus on your "adjacent possible" and pursue a string of achievable micro-changes. Yes, having a direction for those is good, but the "life-plan" isn't my focus right now. I don't know where we'll live "long-term", what cultural identity we'll decide to raise a family in, and how long we'll be able to keep a lifestyle untethered to a "the big plan". Maybe in other seasons we'll want or need to set 5 or 10 year chapters again, but for now, I'm on the road just to be on it. I'll spell in mostly British English but still prefer words with Zs instead of Ss, speak with a muddled accent that strangers guess as Canadian, care deeply about American current affairs, cherish the understanding Australianisms, hate that we can't see our families more and be content with not knowing if these things will permanently or temporarily be part of my identity. Being a identified as a "foreigner" and feeling foreign for years on end (nearly 8 now) is hard, and maybe it's just been long enough now that the feeling has settled in and whatever we are - too American to be accepted as Australian and too interationally invested to feel fully identified with our home country - is our new normal. I actually don't hate it, and recently I've noticed and named this feeling as being settled to not fret over living a collage life without a finish line. I am here; I am now; I am content. --- I took this messing around with settings in our new-ish camera, but I like it, even if it does feel really literal. I am here; I am now; I am content. --- #selfportrait #aussieintegration (at Australia)

The farthest inland we've ever been in Australia with a few days with nothing to do but drink in the big skies and eat peaches and marvel at the novelty of parrots and cows colliding in landscapes like this. #aussieintegration (at Rylstone, New South Wales)