Permanent. Temporarily.

They say that they come every year.  That one day, instead of waking up to your alarm, you wake up to the rowdy racket of a hundred parrots perched in the gum tree outside your window.  That on your way to work, if you have to drive under the pine trees, you better roll your windows up to avoid a pine cone being tossed in as it is being discarded by a parrot with what you can only imagine as really good aim.  And if you're walking?  Best to take a different route.  Or wear a helmet.

They are here for the grapes.  Every year, they come for the grapes.

And I don't ever remember them being quite as bad before.  I just don't recall so many of them.  Thousands really.  The noise is deafening, and the damage to your car if you choose to park under a tree where they might perch will take at least two trips through the car wash to get off.

They swarm above our houses, and destroy the trees they perch in as they shred branch after branch, carelessly searching for whatever part of the plant they find the most satisfying.  

And maybe it's because none of us ever spent so much time near home before.  In the past 2 years we have all worked long hours 20 minutes away.  So maybe we just notice them more, because we are here more.   Now, we are within 5 minutes of home 6 out of 7 days.  And so are the parrots.

In the past few days there haven't been quite so many.  Maybe they're starting to go back home, to return to wherever it is they came from.

But this bird?  This bird just found out that she is home. 

Exactly 12 months, one baby and one business opening after I applied, I finally heard from immigration.  They are letting me stay.  

I get to stay.

For the past year I have been waiting.  And they said, "okay, just keep waiting.  You can stay in Australia while you wait.  But you just have to ...wait."  So I waited.  And I didn't change my name after getting married.  And I didn't have my name put on any of the paperwork for our house or our business or our bank account. 

And now, they say, "here is a permanent visa, you can stay!  And you can work and you can change your name, and you can come and go as you please."

For two years at least.  In which point they will contact us to make sure the relationship I am here because of is still "genuine & continuing."  

So I can stay.  Temporarily. 

And the birds?  I'm sure we'll see them next year.  When they return home, temporarily.