Hi gentleladies and gentlemen,

I know I've come and gone a few times lately - I've been busy and travelling and when I'm here I like to be able to spend some time reading and responding.

The reason I'm re-introducing myself is because I've passed one of those life milestones and am feeling a little reborn.

(Cut to the chase, woman! - OK OK! )

The first (and most trying) stage of my divorce is over!!

I'm not actually officially divorced - in France the provisions for the children and any joint assets are set out first and then, assuming both parties are agreeing to the divorce, the divorce is pronounced later. Well, I'm still waiting for that 2nd bit but both of us signed an agreement that we weren't suing for fault so that is just a question of getting the right bits of paper stamped. I'm waiting to hear from my lawyer on the time frame for that.

The important and difficult bit was the first bit. We had already split our assets, 2 years ago actually. He had said he was going to argue about that too but then he knew I had correspondence from him showing that the way we split things was not only his idea, but that he insisted on it at the time. The argument was over custody of our daughter. I was always reasonably confident that I'd get custody - he left France over 2 years ago and rarely comes back to see her, it's always me who brings her to him during her holidays.

Anyway - as some of you might recall my boyfriend lives in the USA and, what with our disparate nationalities, for us to be able to live together requires marriage (well - it does to make it easy). We had long since decided that's what we wanted anyway and that the best place to provide for our family would be the US, at least for the time being. So part of my custody petition was a request that I be free to move to the US despite objections from the father of my daughter. And, I'm delighted to say, we won that right.

So now once both of us get our final divorce papers we can apply for that visa for me and, assuming all goes well, I should be moving west some time in the Fall. My daughter seems quite happy with the notion. I'm delighted and my boyfriend / fiancé is over the moon. We've spent 2 1/2 years not knowing when we were going to be able to be together on a full time basis and not knowing where. Now we know what we're doing and have a reasonable time expectation for when we are doing it. It's such a weight off my shoulders, and his, that the idea of sorting all the stuff in this house and selling what I can't take feels like a breeze. As long as I don't leave it all to the last minute, that is!!

Anyway - that's me.... again.