Well, we are nearing the end of four years' worth of paperwork! As of October 30, 2012, Mebira is officially a Canadian. We received her Canadian citizenship paper last week and are now in the process of applying for her passport, and then all of her adoption related paperwork is FINALLY complete! Seriously...there has been so much...never ending piles of papers, checklists...from the day we made the decision to adopt until now that it just feels bizarre to finally be done. :-)
(For those of you keeping track, we came home PRV, applied for her citizenship in May/12, and received her citizenship less than 6 months later. The website is estimating current wait times as 22 months so I was THRILLED to get it so soon. Hopefully we will be done with cross border interrogations now. What is it with the power trips those customs officers are on, anyway? OK, I digress...)
I haven't posted much lately as life has been busy. Thankfully, things are looking up a bit...many of the things that our kids were struggling with are starting to stabilize now. I honestly think that anxiety in one and identity/adoption issues in the other will be lifelong issues that will increase in intensity and settle down again in waves. For now, I'm enjoying a bit of a breather and time to get ready for Christmas. I've had Christmas music on steady since October (and I only pulled it out once or twice in August and September) so I'm glad that the rest of the world has finally caught up. :-)
I also haven't posted any pictures because our camera has been missing since September. I have a sneaking suspicion it got thrown out with the wrapping paper after the girls' birthdays since we haven't seen it since. Good news, though - we got a new camera so I'll attach a few pictures.
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| Finally a Canadian Citizen! |
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| We love her little afro. I had her hair in a bunch of box braids and I only had time to take them out so I left it as an afro for a few days. It's adorably cute but man do I pay for it after in the detangling process!! |
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| I LOVE my girls!! |
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| This was on the night of Arvid's Christmas party. We had a wonderful night being wined and dined - it was such a treat to get out and be spoiled! |
These pictures made me tear up! I'm so happy for you all!
ReplyDeleteConrats to your beautiful new Canadian :-) I was wondering how long things were taking for citizenship. We are still in the waiting for referral stage, but always planning ahead. Did you get a USA visa for her to cross the border? Or with prv, were you able to cross without a visa? We have wondered how complicated it would be to bring kids into the US without a canadian passport...
ReplyDeleteAllison
Hi Allison. Thanks for commenting! Yes, we did have to get a visa to get into the US. We had to go to the US consulate in Calgary (we applied online and scheduled an appointment first). The US visa and PRV are valid for 10 years, but we are thinking of going to Europe in the next few years and didn't want to get a visa for each individual country there. Hope to hear good news on a referral for you - do you have a blog?
DeleteHi Anita,
ReplyDeleteNo I don't have a blog. I've thought about it and might once we have a referral. Interesting that the US Visa is valid for 10 years. We are in the process with Belize and thought about trying to get a US Visa while we are there when we finally meet our children/child. Have to see if that would work or not. For Belize you bring them home as guardians, then a year later the adoption is finalized, so I'm not sure if that would influence the way a visa was issued. Thanks for sharing about the visa. If you need a good recommendation for Europe - we know a great place in Germany called Ruhpolding - tons of stuff to do and lots of free things for kids including mountain gondola ride, lift up the mountain and a children's amusement park. As well as a great pool, many hiking trails as well as really reasonable accommodations. It's in southern Germany...
Allison
Such lovely girls... a very happy new year to you and your family!
ReplyDelete