What do you think this means?

You know those times when you are watching someone react to big news? And they stare at whatever is delivering the news, and they don't understand even though it's painfully obvious to everyone else? The news is so big, it just doesn't seem to permiate their brain. Yea, that was me today.

Early this afternoon, I got an email from Australian Home affairs that was literally called 'Grant Notification'. I read the email and the attachment with the bolded box at the top that said "Application Status: Granted". I was *pretty sure* I knew what it meant. Maybe. So then I called Justin, and chatted with him about it. He was also pretty sure.

So there I am, trying to keep it together at work, when one of the Residents I've been working with drops by my office. As we are chatting, I mention I just heard back about my visa. I open the attachment on my computer screen, with 'Application status: Granted' clearly displayed. And then I turn to the Resident and earnestly ask "What do you think this means?" Because even though its clear as day that this means our visa application was approved, somehow I just still can't grasp it. (The resident, to her credit, very nicely told me she thought it meant the application was approved)

We have been so careful in the past few weeks about managing our expectations about the visa application and timelines. We had both agreed that our original timeline of leaving Mid-Feb was probably not going to happen, and we were going to have to push it by a month or so. And now, suddenly, here we are again. Staring down the barrel of T minus ~6 weeks.

I should note that I am purposefully skipping over the part where Justin & I get home from work and log into the immigration portal to get full details. We then proceed to get more confused and talk ourselves out of believing the visa has been granted before finally circling back around and talking ourselves back into it. Its been a rollercoaster of a day.