flights are booked!

Well, it is official! I'm leaving on a jet plane in just 17 short days!
I will fly out of Vancouver on August 31st, overnight in Montreal and then fly straight to Port-au-Prince from Montreal with Air Canada. This will be the first time flying Air Canada into Haiti and I'm kind of excited about having only one stop from Vancouver to Haiti! When I fly through Florida it is often 2 stops and occasionally 3 stops which just lengthens the trip! And this will be my first time flying this far east in Canada! (not that I'm going to see a whole lot other than the airport!)

And then on Sept 8th (Just one short week later) I head back to Montreal with my husband!!!!! We have a 17 hour overnight layover in Montreal before heading home to BC, so I'm hoping we can connect with Ronel's cousins who moved to the Montreal area last summer. We land at the Vancouver Airport at 5pm on the 9th -- my brother has informed me that there will be a welcoming committee so you are all more than welcome to stop by and welcome Ronel to BC!

As you can see at the top of the blog - I've added a countdown to Ronel's arrival I can't believe that in just over 3 weeks, I will have my husband home with me! It has been such a long wait and I can't believe the end is so close!

drumroll please......

I am very happy to let you all know that as of today - Friday August 7th, Ronel has his permanent resident visa in his hands!!!
I will be looking into flights over the weekend to fly down to Haiti the end of August and help his pack up and say goodbye and then we will leave Haiti TOGETHER and come HOME to BC!!!(probably the 7th of Sept)

I know many of you have been praying for us over the past 3 years and we appreciate ALL your prayers! This has been a long process and it finally has an end in sight!

I'll try to make sure I keep the blog up to date with all the news and such and will definitely post photos of our trip home and Ronel landing on Canadian soil!

Have a fantastic weekend - I know I'm going to!

THERE HAS BEEN A DECISION!!!

This is what I saw when I logged into the CIC Canada website this evening at 10:42pm...
A decision has been made on RONEL CLEDOMIN's application. The office will contact RONEL CLEDOMIN concerning this decision.

I'm quite speechless! I ran upstairs to tell Terri (one of my roommates), called my mom & called Ronel. My heart is racing a thousand beats per minute and Friday afternoon is SO VERY FAR AWAY! Ronel goes to the embassy on Friday morning to pick up his passport and I am now very much praying that it has his permanent resident visa inside of it! I can't believe that the day has finally arrived where the status page actually reads that a decision has been made! At this moment we don't actually know what the decision is, just that one has been made but I can think of why they would have wanted his passport if the decision was no!?! I now have to start looking at airline tickets and figuring out how I'm going to swing getting me down there and also Ronel back up here (we have to fly Air Canada from PAP to Montreal otherwise we have to apply for a transit visa for Ronel to travel through the US) I know that Air Canada is more expensive and only flies out of Haiti once a week. Please be praying that I can afford to fly down to Haiti to help Ronel pack up all his belongings (and some of mine that I'd left behind) and say good bye to family and friends. I don't know when we will be back in Haiti so it is important to me to be there to say goodbye and I don't want to miss Ronel's first plane ride and his entry into Canada!

Your prayers over the next three days as I wait to hear about Ronel's trip to the embassy would be much appreciated! They are doing to be very long days!!

Hope to be posting soon!!!

actually something to update about!!!

So I just got off the phone with Ronel and he told me (in English no less!) that he had good news!
He received a letter last Friday from the embassy asking him to bring in his passport to the embassy. He went in on Monday to drop it off and he gets to pick it up next Friday, the 7th of August!!!! We don't entirely know what it means but we're both taking it as a good step! I also checked the CIC website tonight and our status has been updated! (This hasn't happened since June 2008) It now says Medical Results received. Doesn't seem like a big deal but it is!

Status of your application	Explanation
IN PROCESS (A decision has not been made yet.)	Application Received by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) We have received your application and will review it in order of receipt. We will send you an acknowledgement letter. Documentation Verified by CIC We are reviewing your application to make sure it is complete and that no documents are missing. We will return incomplete applications for resubmission. An Interview May be Required We will review the application and decide if an interview is necessary. If so, we will inform you in writing of the date, time and location of the interview.
WITHDRAWN (An application can only be withdrawn when it is IN PROCESS.)	Application Withdrawn You may only withdraw your application before the Visa has been issued. There are no refunds after processing has started.
DECISION MADE (A decision has been made at this point.)	Medical Results Received by CIC We have received your medical results. We will contact you only if additional tests are needed. Approval Status Determined Your application will be either approved or rejected. We will inform you of the decision in writing. Permanent Residence Status Determined If your application is approved, we will send you your permanent resident documentation and a letter saying what we need to finalize your permanent residence.
COMPLETE (This is the last step in the processing of your application.)	Applicant Arrives in Canada and is Granted Permanent Residence You will need to meet with an Immigration Officer who will verify your documents and grant you permanent residence if all is in order.

 Now our status still says In Process but the fact that it says our medical results have been received, by this chart means to me that they must be in the final steps of the decision (and asking for Ronel's passport seems like it will be a yes!)

Anyway -- sorry it's been so long since I've updated, it is hard to update when nothing has changed and I have been going through quite a rough patch over the last couple months dealing with a lot and talking about the "nothing" had gotten quite hard. I finally got diagnosed with depression and went on antidepressants and that has helped, but also realizing that there was in fact something wrong with me has also helped (along with a great support group around me of friends and my pastor) I'm still dealing with stuff but I definitely have a better grasp of life and a better outlook on things.

have a great weekend

Ronel's appointment

Well, I've kind of been avoiding talking about it as it was not the good news that we were hoping for
.
All they called him in for was to tell him that he need to go get another copy of his birth certificate from the archive office. This will be the THIRD one he's had to get. The first had his birthdate wrong and the second was fine as far as we knew so we don't know why (and they didn't tell him why) but nonetheless, Tuesday was a tough day for me (and I'm sure for DH as well) I had finally let myself think about him possibly coming home soon (like April) and to hear that the appointment was just for more paperwork they need was more than a little disappointing. This was the first time I'd even let myself think about him coming home and to have it all just crash around my feet was more than I could handle right now

Thank you all for your prayers & thoughts and I know that one day I will get to have Ronel home, but right now, at this point, I'm just having a hard time picturing that day.

Good news! actually GREAT NEWS!

Ronel has an appointment at the embassy on March 24th! I don't totally know what it is for but someone from the embassy called him last week. Asked him to bring in his passport and some other pieces of identification and come to the embassy! I really really hope this means we are one step closer to being done  :D but whatever happens -- it means that SOMEONE is looking at our file!

YAY!!!!

ok - funny story. When I talked to him today I was talking about my day and Ronel said "I've got some good news" and then stopped. I said "What is it?" And he said "I'll tell you later, finish what you were saying." Well, now I just wanted to know what the news was, and my day wasn't really that important!! So, I finally get him to start telling me the good news and he totally told me every event leading up to it and then paused! I was on the edge of my seat before he finally told me that the embassy had called and wanted him to come in!   I could tell that he enjoyed it a little too much --- dragging out the details and making me wait! But I still love him and can't wait till the 24th so I can find out what they wanted!

Keep on praying!

and all paperwork

is now in the hands of the Canadian Embassy in Haiti! Ronel finally got to drop off the paperwork on Monday as last Thursday when he tried to get to the embassy, he got stuck in a "blokis" (road block) and didn't get to the embassy during the ONE HOUR time slot that they have (and only 2 days a week!) for dropping off documents!

Ronel said that the person he saw told him nothing other than they would contact him if they needed anything else.

I'm hoping we won't hear anything of that sort but that hopefully we will get some progress on our file!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Going to the embassy...

Tomorrow morning (EARLY) Ronel will be heading into Port au Prince to get the last piece of paperwork that the embassy asked for and then he will be heading to the embassy to drop it all off. If he can't get the paperwork in time, he will be staying in Port until Thursday when he can again go to the embassy (they have specific days & times for doing certain things)

Please pray that everything will go well and that he can drop off the paperwork Monday and not have to spend the week in Port au Prince. He has not been feeling well for the past couple of weeks (back pains) and is just starting to feel better and I would much rather he be able to spend the week at home resting rather than in Port trying to get into the embassy to drop off our paperwork!! Also please be praying that this will be all the paperwork they require and that the rest of the process will go quickly!! Please be continuing to pray that they won't require Ronel to redo his medical (it should have expired on November 5th, but they didn't mention him having to redo it in the letter they sent us) Not having to redo it would save us a good chunk of money as well as time!!!

I let you know how it went as soon as I hear from Ronel!

clarity...

Okay - so going over my past posts I realized that I never said where I was moving and so I thought I would explain my new living arrangement!

I have moved in with good friends of mine -- they are like family to me. There are 5 of us in the house (soon to be 6!) There are Eli & Terri along with their 8 month old son Willem (and they are expecting their second son in April), Terri's mom, Lynnette and myself. It is great living here (especially since I spent a lot of time here anyways!!) and is a total blessing!

Terri, Eli & I also work together -- (just to keep it clear!)

finally settling in

Whew --- after a long day of work, most of my bedroom is now unpacked! I only have 6 Rubbermaid bins left to go through and sort into however I decide to store the stuff in there that I end up keeping. (These are the boxes I didn't go through and sort & junk before I moved... I just ran out of time) I am really liking my set up and am thinking about painting my room -- I want one accent wall that is a dark chocolate colour and then the rest of the walls would be a light green colour (maybe like a light olive-y green??) with most of the accents in the room being white. I went to Ikea on Friday night and purchased 2 adorable bedside tables which are white, a new opaque glass table lamp for my bedside table and a new light cover for the main light as it is currently just a plain bulb. Last weekend I got my computer set up and then we got the internet cord down from upstairs (through my ceiling!) into my bedroom. Terri & I had already started to organize the craft room the same weekend that I moved in (We knew our priorities!) and still have a little bit to do before that is completely finished.

It is nice to have my room settled into before Christmas!