Australia Day and her brand new status as a citizen are bittersweet for Abuk Atem, who carries unimaginably heavy burdens for a woman of only 25.
Her beautiful little family were best dressed at the state's biggest citizenship ceremony in Sunshine, deep in the patchwork of cultures that make up Melbourne's western suburbs. 
Abuk wore bright red and her daughters, Akual and Achol, had matching white dresses and gold shoes. Abuk's two-year-old son, Mon, rocked a blue vest, matching pants and his best shirt.
Abuk accepted her citizenship certificate and her river bottlebrush seedling with grace and style.
The full name on her certificate is Abuk Karbino Aru Aru Atem. She was one of 220 new Australians inducted in a park behind the Sunshine RSL, where grand speeches were made by former premier John Brumby and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, who made a plea to the new voters about a republic, egalitarianism, Aboriginal rights and his belief in "fairness, not ideology".
Abuk likes him. She will vote for him. But when we begin to talk about her life, Abuk cries. Not at first. She is too proud for that. Only after we had talked a while. She is happy, she has a new life, but she is also very sad.
Her family back in South Sudan are either dead or missing. She has six brothers and sisters, all of whom vanished in the civil war there between 2013 and last year.
The country gained independence from Sudan in 2011, a move that was supposed to end the war but didn't. Her parents are dead. More than 2 million people have been displaced and 10,000 killed.
Abuk's tears are for Nyabol, her little sister. Abuk is the oldest of the seven, Nyabol the youngest. She knows Nyabol is in Cairo, having fled there among a massive wave of refugees. She spoke to her by phone last year and had begun arrangements with the Australian embassy in Cairo to get her a visa and get her to Melbourne.
But since then, last   March, communications have ceased. She can't find her sister now and the embassy won't return her calls or emails, she says.
"I can't even sleep when I think about it and think about where she is and what has happened. I think she is in danger."
Nyabol told Abuk last year she had been raped by Egyptian men who promised to look after her.
Abuk is a single mother here. She lives in Delahey, between St Albans and Tullamarine. She has split up with her children's father - she came to Australia in 2008 to marry him - but has set herself up as a family day care provider for Sudanese families, from her home.
She loves it here and will stay. "I am free to do a lot of things," she says. "It is a good country."
She hopes by becoming a citizen she might have more power and be able to find her sister through the embassy, and bring her out. Rescue her, essentially. But she doesn't know. It is just her and her children for now, and that is why she cried on Australia Day.