Our preliminary reply from the Immigration Department was that we had not supplied enough "evidence of cohabitation" to cover the whole 2 years since the initial application was first approved, so we have printed all of the newsletters covering the whole period. Reading back over these, it's amazing how much we have managed to pack in! And how much I've put myself through in the 3 years since Doris's departure. So I've decided to put together a summary of the main character of each of those periods:

0 - about 6 months, crying daily, getting drunk almost every night, heavy on the sleeping pills, really don't care what happens, lucky to survive.
6 - about 12 months - inability to concentrate, working through the "first" of everything.
1st anniversary - lots of very hard emotional work leading up to the date, followed by a really calm & "in control" day, because all of the "pre-grieving" has been done.
2nd anniversary - has the ability to really take you by surprise, because you think you've worked through it all.
1 - 3 years - all sorts of "little things" can trigger a sadness episode.
3rd anniversary - still has an emotional impact, but it's getting better.

A further reply from Immigration indicated that the mountain of "stuff" that we had sent them, including (amazingly) a photo of both of us, either together or holding the same baby wearing the same clothes, on average of one every 1 to 2 months, should suffice. Now just waiting for a copy of the Police Check, after the first one got lost in the mail, and the Criminal Records Check results from the FBI, & then we can get the application in the processing queue. After that, time to hear the final decision is 6 to 8 weeks. So I might get rid of her after all by the end of September!  Heh heh.

Meanwhile, Julie is just loving her job. They've just gone through a Product Review process between the Canadian parent company & the Australian Defence Force - 4 days of 10 hours a day, & it appears that she has proved her worth, as the local managers are working on ways to keep her on permanently, including working around the need for her to be an Aussie citizen (another 2 years down the track) before she can apply for a Defence security clearance.