South of the border

Jay, May and the girls left early this morning to drive to Osoyoos, BC and then cross the border into the USA so that they can come back through the Canadian border and thus receive the entry stamp that will complete their acceptance as immigrants to Canada. It was either that or drive to Surry, BC, which is farther away. I hope all goes well. Jay had what I hope will be the final heart-stopping moment of doubt this week when he realized that both the girls and May were classified under "spouse". He made a joke of it at first by telling the girls that they were now his wives. Their expressions of shock and disgust when they finally understood what he had said gave us a good laugh. But Jay himself was a bit worried about what might be an error on the forms. For the first time since he began the whole procedure he had been given a phone number with the final papers. He tried calling twice with no answer. Finally someone answered the phone but couldn't answer his question.  After much careful rereading of the obfuscating language on the CIC form and consulting with my Korean friend Lusia he decided that because the girls are minors they are being accepted along with their mom, who is the official immigrant and his spouse.  I can only hope this was the case.  It's 3:20pm, already getting dark, and they're still not home. I think that's good news. They're celebrating. 

I had four days of excellent cross country skiing this week, so winter is well underway. There's still no snow in Vernon, but the hills are white. 

My latest Immigrant Services ESL student is inspiring. She is Russian. She has plan. She has dream. I don't think the Russian language has articles. Her enthusiasm to learn English has inspired me to offer her classes of 2 hours each, two nights a week. She also takes 3 hours of ESL a day at Okanagan College in Kelowna; she gets there by bus, which takes 2 hours each way. They've been in Canada four years, but as the mother of three teenagers she was the last in line to learn English and get back to work. Now she's making up for lost time. 

Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre

Miriam celebrating the snow.