Back to the beginning.

September 19th 2006, the day of our marriage - after months of form filling, planning and separation we were finally going to be together for the rest of our lives.

It was a beautiful day, 32 degrees, glorious sunshine and a cooling breeze, a decorated gazebo on the white sandy beach along with everyone who was important to us both.

We said our vows during a beach ceremony at the Sirenis Cocotal Resort in the Dominican Republic. The wedding service was performed by Sorivianny Medina Glass and legalised by Judge Eunice Sepulveda Leonardo Huguey. I walked from the room, across the bridge to the beautiful beach location with my father & son at either side of me. Mark was waiting patiently with his brother as his Best Man at his side, both dressed in kilts of the Black Watch tartan. My heart jumped as I caught my first glimpse of them - they looked so handsome stood together in such an amazing and beautiful setting. I knew this was going to be the happiest and most perfect day of my life! My sister, Paula, did a reading from Captain Corellis' Mandolin and we said our own personal vows after repeating the traditional vows.

It was everything I had dreamed of................ and more!

This was the beginning of our uphill struggle to be together. Who said it would be easy!!! Mark had to return to Darwin to apply for his UK visa while I sat in Newcastle, newly married and on my own. Thank god for phones and email, as this was how our first few months of marriage progressed. Again the form filling began, legalised documents, solicitors letters and translations were the order of the day. Life was becoming one long line of bureaucracy. Finally, on the 23rd December 2006 Mark came home. Santa couldn't have given me a more special Christmas present!

For the first couple of months things were great. As the weeks went on, for Mark it was a testing and difficult time, work was slow in coming in for him. So we took the decision to move to Australia ahead of the plans we had originally made. He had the promise of continuous work over there and the lifestyle and standard of living would be better for us both. We decided to move in April 2007, so we psyched ourselves up, ready to press on with the move, but again things didn't go quite as smoothly as we thought they would.

Once again we were back to the endless form filling and bureaucracy. This time we both needed police checks, medicals and had to prove we were together as a genuine couple. Pretty difficult when you have spent the first 2 months of married life thousands of miles apart! However, everything went relatively smoothly until we had to wait for the Australian Federal Police to complete Mark's police check!! Five months later it was returned with no major convictions and we could at last see light at the end of the tunnel.

Finally, when I had almost given up hope of my visa ever coming through, after many phone calls and emails and at great financial expense, on the 11th October 2007 we received an email to tell me my visa had been approved.

So here the story begins............