Overcoming obstacles...

I feel like I’ve been talking about this plan forever. It’s been 3 years in the making. Ever since our last trip to Europe in 2013 we always knew we wanted to go back – for much longer. 

We decided 2018 was going to be the year. Cat would have finished Year 12 so this could be her gap year before Uni, Bee would be in Year 9 – not a critical high school year, Mig would be in Year 4. If we didn’t do it in 2018 as a family, it was unlikely we’d ever be able to do it once the kids started going their own way.

To kick start that plan many things were put in place. For starters, I sold my business and went back to permanent part-time work so we could start saving. So you could say that this plan (although sometimes it felt like a pipe dream) has been bubbling under the surface for quite some time.

We’re now in July, 5 months before our planned departure of December 2017 and I’m starting to freak out. Just typing that sentence puts butterflies in my stomach. The last 12 months has been nothing short of an emotional roller coaster with us finding out Hubby's mum was sick, then losing her a few months later to cancer. I’ve never had any experience dealing with someone so sick, let alone a parent, so this is something that I felt pulled the rug from under our feet a bit. So much so we were suddenly uncertain if we could still go ahead as planned. As it turns out, going away has now become a need rather than a want.

By the time we returned to our routines after Hubby’s mum’s passing, it was already May. And to help Hubby heal from the loss, I felt like we needed to focus on what was ahead of us. It was time to get things into gear for our year away. So while we’ve technically been planning this for 3 years, I feel like we’re behind the 8-ball a bit when it comes to logistically pulling it off.

And as with all great plans, there are always a few good curve balls that test your resilience. And as if we needed another one thrown our way, we got one anyway - when just over a week ago we found out that Hubby had lost his Spanish citizenship in 2006. Yup! In 2006! Heaven knows what we were even doing or thinking in 2006! So 6 months out from a trip we have been planning for the past 3 years and we find out that the very foundation that would enable our entire trip does not exist.

How could we not have known this before, I hear you ask. Don’t worry. I asked myself the same thing. You see, Hubby renewed his Spanish passport in 2010. Then in 2011, our marriage was registered with the Spanish Consulate in Sydney and a Libro de Familia was issued – an official document that registers the marriage and births of children to a Spanish citizen. In 2012, all 3 kids were issued their Spanish passports. To us, everything looked normal. We knew the kids’ passports needed to be renewed so I started the process a few weeks ago with the Spanish Consulate in Sydney. Plenty of time I thought. It was only June, we are planning to leave in December.

I’ll never forget the moment I read the email from the Consulate advising us that Hubby was no longer a Spanish citizen – and neither was Mig. I was in Melbourne for work and was shaking. I couldn’t concentrate for the rest of the day. How could this happen?? They both had Spanish passports. J’s was still valid. M’s had expired so they wouldn’t renew it. Luckily Cat and Bee have managed to retain their citizenship so renewal will be allowed.

This is still an open dilemma with no clear solution. In what is almost a comical twist of events (if I don’t laugh I could cry), the Spanish Consulate in Sydney went on an indefinite strike 2 days after delivering us the blow leaving us in limbo. They are still closed and the Spanish Embassy in Canberra has advised they’re unable to assist with citizenship enquiries as Sydney is outside their jurisdiction. Watch this space!