True blue at last

Friends in high places - Lauren with the Mayor of Bendigo

At long last the remaining member of the family has her Australian citizenship. Lauren took the pledge yesterday in Bendigo. Kevin and I went up to celebrate with her along with Damien, Lauren's boyfriend. It had been a bit of a struggle to get to this point. She missed out by a day getting her citizenship the year before last when they changed the rules from having to live in the country for 2 year to 4 years. She had lived here for three years and sent her application off on July 1st only to find the rule changed on 30th June. Then this year when she was finally able to apply it took her many, many months to get a police check from South Africa where she has spend some time in 2007 and 2008. When we applied for ours from England it took just two weeks. However things all came together in the end and she was excited to become an Aussie and can't wait to get her new passport.