There's not much going on that's blogworthy in the Appiah household. We're adjusting well to life as a couple again; a few of the expected bumps, but nothing alarming. David's been happier now that spring seems to be on the way. The majority of the snow has melted and the temperature rises above zero just about every day now. It'll be a couple weeks yet before things start sprouting, but the sunshine and warmth definitely make things better. Not only for David, but for this slightly uncomfortable mama as well.
David's been working on a temporary job for the last three weeks. We have yet to hear anything about a permanent full-time job, but he was out yesterday applying for a few other positions, so hopefully something will come up soon. I'm starting to count down the days until I'm on maternity leave - and hoping that Baby doesn't make an early arrival before I finish work (as is my boss!) on the 16th of April.
The baby is sitting lower, which seems to have relieved some of the pain/immobility I was having in my hips, so I'm feeling pretty good. Other than not sleeping at night, the occasional round of nausea in the mornings, and feeling HUGE, I don't have much I can complain about. I know lots of people are anticipating this baby's arrival, so we'll do our best to have updates out as soon after the birth as we can. I do still have three weeks until my due date, and intend to stay pregnant that long, so don't expect anything before then!
Tuesday 6 April 2010
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Pregnancy brain...
I don't like to use that excuse, but how else can I explain that I forgot to write about the best and most important part of this whole process we've been through?
David has safely arrived in Canada and has now been here for two weeks. In some ways, it's hard to believe it isn't longer than that. We're still adjusting and getting used to being together and being in each other's space, but the loneliness and desperation we felt while apart has already seemed to fade into a vague memory. I knew that would happen eventually, but didn't really expect it this soon. We are still definitely not in a position to be taking each other for granted and I'm not sure if we ever will. The little things like bumping into each other on the stairs, trying to both stretch out on the couch, being able to look into each other's eyes, sharing a meal, brushing our teeth together before bed... those are all so precious and wonderful, and I hope that because of our experience we never lose sight of what a privilege they are.
David left Ghana late in the evening on February 21, after having to deal with an overweight bag that got ripped apart by airport officials, and a delayed flight due to an airline strike. Once he got to Frankfurt, Germany, he was told there was no room for him on his flight that was supposed to go to Toronto, Canada (airline strike again), but was fortunate to be rescheduled on a flight straight to Calgary, which was where he was supposed to fly to originally anyway. After that lovely bit of stress and a longer layover than expected in Frankfurt, the rest of his flight was uneventful. Passing through Immigration in Calgary was a breeze, and he arrived in Grande Prairie, where I was waiting, just a few minutes behind schedule. The temperature when he left Accra was between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius; in Grande Prairie at landing, it was -11 degrees. He wasn't overly impressed. I had brought a jacket, hat, gloves, and scarf to the airport though, so we managed to get him home without him freezing solid. Fortunately, the weather since then has been unseasonably balmy, except for the one day we decided to take David sledding. That morning it was -10 degrees, with a rather nasty north wind blowing that chilled all of us. Once we were done sledding? Yeah, it warmed up into a rather lovely afternoon.
David and I spent the first week hanging out at home, meeting a few friends/family members, and exploring Fort St. John. The first weekend he was here, my whole family got together and spent the day eating, playing games, and talking. During his second week, I was back at work and he spent more time exploring his new home and beginning his job search. He's very anxious to start working, which is understandable considering that I will be on maternity leave in less that 6 weeks (as long as Baby doesn't come early!). We're just hoping for the right job to come at the right time, and trying not to be too impatient until he finds something.
We're just really enjoying being together and not having our time marred by knowing one or the other will be leaving again. There's a lot of new stuff to figure out and get used to, but we're enjoying that part too, knowing that soon enough we'll settle into a routine that works. At least until Baby shows up and our life explodes with new things again.
David has safely arrived in Canada and has now been here for two weeks. In some ways, it's hard to believe it isn't longer than that. We're still adjusting and getting used to being together and being in each other's space, but the loneliness and desperation we felt while apart has already seemed to fade into a vague memory. I knew that would happen eventually, but didn't really expect it this soon. We are still definitely not in a position to be taking each other for granted and I'm not sure if we ever will. The little things like bumping into each other on the stairs, trying to both stretch out on the couch, being able to look into each other's eyes, sharing a meal, brushing our teeth together before bed... those are all so precious and wonderful, and I hope that because of our experience we never lose sight of what a privilege they are.
David left Ghana late in the evening on February 21, after having to deal with an overweight bag that got ripped apart by airport officials, and a delayed flight due to an airline strike. Once he got to Frankfurt, Germany, he was told there was no room for him on his flight that was supposed to go to Toronto, Canada (airline strike again), but was fortunate to be rescheduled on a flight straight to Calgary, which was where he was supposed to fly to originally anyway. After that lovely bit of stress and a longer layover than expected in Frankfurt, the rest of his flight was uneventful. Passing through Immigration in Calgary was a breeze, and he arrived in Grande Prairie, where I was waiting, just a few minutes behind schedule. The temperature when he left Accra was between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius; in Grande Prairie at landing, it was -11 degrees. He wasn't overly impressed. I had brought a jacket, hat, gloves, and scarf to the airport though, so we managed to get him home without him freezing solid. Fortunately, the weather since then has been unseasonably balmy, except for the one day we decided to take David sledding. That morning it was -10 degrees, with a rather nasty north wind blowing that chilled all of us. Once we were done sledding? Yeah, it warmed up into a rather lovely afternoon.
David and I spent the first week hanging out at home, meeting a few friends/family members, and exploring Fort St. John. The first weekend he was here, my whole family got together and spent the day eating, playing games, and talking. During his second week, I was back at work and he spent more time exploring his new home and beginning his job search. He's very anxious to start working, which is understandable considering that I will be on maternity leave in less that 6 weeks (as long as Baby doesn't come early!). We're just hoping for the right job to come at the right time, and trying not to be too impatient until he finds something.
We're just really enjoying being together and not having our time marred by knowing one or the other will be leaving again. There's a lot of new stuff to figure out and get used to, but we're enjoying that part too, knowing that soon enough we'll settle into a routine that works. At least until Baby shows up and our life explodes with new things again.
Wednesday 3 February 2010
All that's left is a bit more waiting!
So, as of this morning, David's flight is booked. We've been over the airport maps together (fortunately, I'm familiar with all the airports he's going through - which is only four, not eight like last summer when I went, thank goodness), I've scheduled time off for the first week he's here, we've gotten forms for medical coverage that can be sent off as soon as he's here and signs them... I'm not sure what else needs to be done! As an obsessive clean-freak, I guess that gives me not-quite three weeks to worry about whether my house is clean enough and yell at the dog every time he leaves dog food crumbs on the carpet.
I'll have to ponder what direction this blog will take now that we no longer have Immigration Canada to contend with...
I'll have to ponder what direction this blog will take now that we no longer have Immigration Canada to contend with...
Monday 1 February 2010
Almost done!
Thursday, January 28, after 22 months apart and 17 1/2 months in process, David got an email saying that his visa was ready to be issued. The visa office in Accra only issues visas on Monday, so we had to wait four days to finish this thing off. Today, he left the Canadian High Commission with his entry visa in his passport, and his Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR). He is now legally allowed into Canada!
It seems a little anticlimatic to have it end this way; after everything we had to put into this process, David simply submitted his passport, waited for a few hours, and then got what he needed. You would think that after all the difficulty and hoops we had to jump through, Immigration Canada could at least throw a bit of a party or print their visa on gold foil or something. Never-the-less, we are not going to complain. David finally has what he needs to join me in Canada, and this whole nightmare will be able to begin to fade into the past.
After shopping around for airfares, we think we've found the best one and are just waiting to confirm with the travel agent and pay for it. I found some crazy routes and prices (last night, I found a round trip for $8500, if you're looking to spend that much on a flight), but we're going to go with the travel agent who's always managed to get me out of travel troubles in the past (putting in another plug for Golden Rule Travel here - awesome agents to work with and they always get me a cheaper flight and better route than anything I can find online). David will have an ideal route, and it should be as comfortable and easy for him as a trip of that length can be. Unless something comes up with that airfare, he will be arriving in Canada (Calgary, AB) in the late morning of February 22 to officially "land," before a short flight further north to where we'll pick him up.
The only thing left in this process is for him to go through the landing interview. When I flew through Calgary in August, I had time to go to the Immigration section in the airport there and talk with an official. They'll be asking David a few questions to confirm the information in his file, have him sign the COPR in their presence, then get his address in order to issue his Permanent Residence Card. The official I talked to said it should take ten or fifteen minutes and then David will be good to go!
I know we won't be at the end of the paperwork (SIN, medical, resumes, applications, bank account, driver's license, etc, etc), but we won't have any more paperwork for Immigration Canada... until we start in on the citizenship process. :D
I'll post updates on his airfare, traveling, and landing as they happen! Thank you so much for everyone who has prayed for and helped us (emotionally and physically) in the last almost two years. A huge thanks to Al Payne at Sukh Dhaliwal's office in Surrey - I honestly think his inquiries had something to do with our application moving along the last several months, plus just having access to information on our file was so wonderful. Having the support of family, friends, and friends of friends that we sometimes didn't even know, has really been what's gotten us through the rough and lonely times. We're looking forward to having a couple months to reforge our bond and refigure out how a marriage where we actually live together works before Baby comes and our world explodes. And I say that with completely joyful expectation.
It seems a little anticlimatic to have it end this way; after everything we had to put into this process, David simply submitted his passport, waited for a few hours, and then got what he needed. You would think that after all the difficulty and hoops we had to jump through, Immigration Canada could at least throw a bit of a party or print their visa on gold foil or something. Never-the-less, we are not going to complain. David finally has what he needs to join me in Canada, and this whole nightmare will be able to begin to fade into the past.
After shopping around for airfares, we think we've found the best one and are just waiting to confirm with the travel agent and pay for it. I found some crazy routes and prices (last night, I found a round trip for $8500, if you're looking to spend that much on a flight), but we're going to go with the travel agent who's always managed to get me out of travel troubles in the past (putting in another plug for Golden Rule Travel here - awesome agents to work with and they always get me a cheaper flight and better route than anything I can find online). David will have an ideal route, and it should be as comfortable and easy for him as a trip of that length can be. Unless something comes up with that airfare, he will be arriving in Canada (Calgary, AB) in the late morning of February 22 to officially "land," before a short flight further north to where we'll pick him up.
The only thing left in this process is for him to go through the landing interview. When I flew through Calgary in August, I had time to go to the Immigration section in the airport there and talk with an official. They'll be asking David a few questions to confirm the information in his file, have him sign the COPR in their presence, then get his address in order to issue his Permanent Residence Card. The official I talked to said it should take ten or fifteen minutes and then David will be good to go!
I know we won't be at the end of the paperwork (SIN, medical, resumes, applications, bank account, driver's license, etc, etc), but we won't have any more paperwork for Immigration Canada... until we start in on the citizenship process. :D
I'll post updates on his airfare, traveling, and landing as they happen! Thank you so much for everyone who has prayed for and helped us (emotionally and physically) in the last almost two years. A huge thanks to Al Payne at Sukh Dhaliwal's office in Surrey - I honestly think his inquiries had something to do with our application moving along the last several months, plus just having access to information on our file was so wonderful. Having the support of family, friends, and friends of friends that we sometimes didn't even know, has really been what's gotten us through the rough and lonely times. We're looking forward to having a couple months to reforge our bond and refigure out how a marriage where we actually live together works before Baby comes and our world explodes. And I say that with completely joyful expectation.
Tuesday 19 January 2010
More good news...
Little baby steps... slowly, but surely things are moving forward. Which is SO much better than those eight months when nothing happened.
I just got off the phone with Al at Sukh Dhaliwal's office again. What a blessing to have found someone who genuinely cares about our file and is willing to go through so much trouble to get information for us! It keeps me believing that there are some people involved in politics who still have a heart.
The documents David dropped off at the visa office on December 21 have been received and a positive decision was made on December 31 in regard to those. Now, Accra is just waiting on the medical results in order to make a final decision. David has already been told, unofficially, by the staff who did his and the kids' medicals that everything looks good, so we're really not expecting any issues on that point. It looks like it's just a matter of the visa office receiving the results and officially processing whatever needs to processed so they can send out a letter with the decision. We're holding our breath that the medicals will be received within the next week - that seems to be a realistic expectation. Hopefully my next post, within a couple weeks, will be that David has finally been invited to come get his visa and traveling documents!
A funny: when David was at the High Commission to drop off his documents in December, it also happened to be a day they were handing out visas. David talked to a guy who had just received his. He looked at the simple little stamp in his passport and said, "This is it?!" Yes, all the expense, waiting, anxiety, rushing to get documents in order, and more painful waiting is all for a stamp. I'm thinking we might have to get David's laminated and framed....
I just got off the phone with Al at Sukh Dhaliwal's office again. What a blessing to have found someone who genuinely cares about our file and is willing to go through so much trouble to get information for us! It keeps me believing that there are some people involved in politics who still have a heart.
The documents David dropped off at the visa office on December 21 have been received and a positive decision was made on December 31 in regard to those. Now, Accra is just waiting on the medical results in order to make a final decision. David has already been told, unofficially, by the staff who did his and the kids' medicals that everything looks good, so we're really not expecting any issues on that point. It looks like it's just a matter of the visa office receiving the results and officially processing whatever needs to processed so they can send out a letter with the decision. We're holding our breath that the medicals will be received within the next week - that seems to be a realistic expectation. Hopefully my next post, within a couple weeks, will be that David has finally been invited to come get his visa and traveling documents!
A funny: when David was at the High Commission to drop off his documents in December, it also happened to be a day they were handing out visas. David talked to a guy who had just received his. He looked at the simple little stamp in his passport and said, "This is it?!" Yes, all the expense, waiting, anxiety, rushing to get documents in order, and more painful waiting is all for a stamp. I'm thinking we might have to get David's laminated and framed....
Monday 21 December 2009
All is well...
Well, as "well" as it can be considering that we're facing yet another Christmas on two separate continents, complete with missing each other through family time and that general, romantic holiday spirit. Not complaining... this should be the last one!
Despite various potential obstacles being thrown our way, David and the kids were able to get their medicals done successfully last Thursday. The clinic staff isn't allowed to give them the results, but David was told that everything looks good. We weren't particularily worried, but it's good to have some verbal assurance. Blood and x-ray results are supposed to be back to the clinic for tomorrow, and the doctor said the whole package should be sent to the CIC medical processing centre in France on Wednesday. From there, everything will be analysed and entered into the CIC database, and the reports sent to the Accra visa office. We're not really sure how long that will take, since it's unclear how much of a delay the holidays will cause, but this is the last step (barring something unexpected coming up) and it seems reasonable to expect to hear something from Accra by the end of January - hopefully a request for David to come get his visa and traveling papers.
David was at the visa office today to drop off the updated documents that were requested with his medicals. We were fortunate not to hit any delays with those documents either - the Ghana Police Department first gave David December 31 as the earliest they could get his background check done. A few extra dollars in the hand of a friend bumped it up a couple weeks, hehe. In all, it took six days from the time David received the correspondence from the visa office to get everything done and together. I'm just hoping Immigration responds in kind.
For anybody wondering about baby news: Everything seems to be well. I had my ultrasound a couple weeks ago - Baby has all its parts and is moving around. We're waiting until he/she comes out to find out whether this is a son or a daughter. I'm doing well; tired, but feeling good for the most part. And isn't being 'tired' a permanent state for the next 20 years anways? I have another doctor's appointment in early January; I'll get to hear what the doctor thinks of the ultrasound results then. Baby has been doing somersaults and tap-dancing, getting more and more active for longer periods. I've also been able to feel the occasional kick on the outside. We're just hoping David gets here before he misses too much more.
This will probably be the last update for 2009; I don't forsee anything happening Immigration- or Baby-wise in the next couple weeks. So Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year to all. May 2010 prove to be as bright as it's looking right now!
Despite various potential obstacles being thrown our way, David and the kids were able to get their medicals done successfully last Thursday. The clinic staff isn't allowed to give them the results, but David was told that everything looks good. We weren't particularily worried, but it's good to have some verbal assurance. Blood and x-ray results are supposed to be back to the clinic for tomorrow, and the doctor said the whole package should be sent to the CIC medical processing centre in France on Wednesday. From there, everything will be analysed and entered into the CIC database, and the reports sent to the Accra visa office. We're not really sure how long that will take, since it's unclear how much of a delay the holidays will cause, but this is the last step (barring something unexpected coming up) and it seems reasonable to expect to hear something from Accra by the end of January - hopefully a request for David to come get his visa and traveling papers.
David was at the visa office today to drop off the updated documents that were requested with his medicals. We were fortunate not to hit any delays with those documents either - the Ghana Police Department first gave David December 31 as the earliest they could get his background check done. A few extra dollars in the hand of a friend bumped it up a couple weeks, hehe. In all, it took six days from the time David received the correspondence from the visa office to get everything done and together. I'm just hoping Immigration responds in kind.
For anybody wondering about baby news: Everything seems to be well. I had my ultrasound a couple weeks ago - Baby has all its parts and is moving around. We're waiting until he/she comes out to find out whether this is a son or a daughter. I'm doing well; tired, but feeling good for the most part. And isn't being 'tired' a permanent state for the next 20 years anways? I have another doctor's appointment in early January; I'll get to hear what the doctor thinks of the ultrasound results then. Baby has been doing somersaults and tap-dancing, getting more and more active for longer periods. I've also been able to feel the occasional kick on the outside. We're just hoping David gets here before he misses too much more.
This will probably be the last update for 2009; I don't forsee anything happening Immigration- or Baby-wise in the next couple weeks. So Merry Christmas and a very blessed New Year to all. May 2010 prove to be as bright as it's looking right now!
Tuesday 15 December 2009
Step-by-Step
We're finally moving forward with this thing! And finally having something to do other than sit and wait.
David, at long last, received his medical redo forms today. With those in hand, and the other preliminary inquiring he's done, we're hoping to have everything that the visa office requested submitted to them by Monday, December 21. For a few days, I hadn't thought we would get anything done before Christmas, but it's looking like all our documents should be ready and waiting when the Immigration staff get back from their holidays. Hopefully there won't be too much of a delay and David will be able to get his visa by the end of January.
Not too much of an update, but it's something. I'm excited, anyways!
David, at long last, received his medical redo forms today. With those in hand, and the other preliminary inquiring he's done, we're hoping to have everything that the visa office requested submitted to them by Monday, December 21. For a few days, I hadn't thought we would get anything done before Christmas, but it's looking like all our documents should be ready and waiting when the Immigration staff get back from their holidays. Hopefully there won't be too much of a delay and David will be able to get his visa by the end of January.
Not too much of an update, but it's something. I'm excited, anyways!
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