A little setback...but, God is in control, right?

While I was putting together all our travel documents on Tuesday, (passports, e-tickets, my Permanent Resident Card), in horror I realized that my "permanent" resident card had expired last November! Silly me, I thought the "permanent" in Permanent Resident Card meant permanent card! Imagine my panic when I went onto the Canadian Immigration website and discovered that renewal cards could take up to 3 months to process, especially when we were scheduled to fly to Taiwan in a week and a half. They told me I could possibly go to the Canadian embassy in Hong Kong and get a temporary travel visa to get back into Canada or I could go to New York City to get one - wasn't going to happen. Then, they said I could fly into the States from Taiwan and then drive back into Canada, in which case I could use my original landing immigrant paper to enter the country. By this time, I was pretty much in tears. Then, they said to courier all my documents and application to the Canadian Immigration processing centre in Nova Scotia and write "urgent" on the package as well as "travel documents enclosed" and they would try to fast track it through.

My husband has been wonderful through the whole process. He reminded me that everything happens for a reason and that God is in control. I'm usually the one telling other people those very things. I was just feeling so overwhelmed and was so worried we wouldn't be able to go see our little granddaughter. He said even if we had to re-buy our tickets, we would be going, so not to worry! Well, I phoned the Immigration office again once the documents were delivered. They checked the status of my application and said that it was in process and that every effort would be made for me to get my card by September 1st (our original travel date)! In the meantime, I phoned Cathay Pacific and was able to change the date to September 15th. When the agent went to check the fee for changing the dates, she was surprised (and so was I) to discover the fare had decreased since I'd originally booked the tickets in April and that instead of us owing $50 each for the change, the airline owes us a $7 credit each. Incredible!

I'd like to ask you all to pray for my mother. She's having a difficult time with vertigo - even when she's lying down. She went for a CT scan last week and will be going for a chest x-ray tomorrow afternoon to check if there's been any advancement of the cancer in her lung. When I called her the other day, she was down in the basement doing her laundry! I guess the plan to move her washer and dryer upstairs has hit a snag. I hate to think of her managing those stairs - especially when she gets dizzy. Please pray for her and the situation at her house.

Bern and I had a great time yesterday! We were invited to play golf with a couple we met at church - Dave and Christine. We teed off at 5:00 p.m. and played nine holes. I was thrilled with how I was hitting the ball - putting wasn't very good, but we had such a good time! Then, we went our for supper. It was lovely to spend time with these special people.

Remember, I told you about going to Penny's son Martin's 50th birthday party in July? Well, I finally got some pictures from her granddaughter, Shawna - a budding photographer. Here are some of her pictures:

Penny and her boys, Brad and Martin

Howard, Marty, me, Bern, Brad and Pen

Bella - my how she's grown!

Howard, Marty, Shawna (Marty's daughter), Bern, Brad, Pen and me



Nev (Bella's mom/Brad's wife), me and Pen

 

Now, how about some more beautiful baby pictures! We Skyped with Brent and Tammy this morning. We're so excited to get there! Brent said Nikki is getting up in crawling position, but then she's not sure what to do, so she rocks! And, she squeals now, which he says is very cute! They're having to put a clip in her hair to keep it out of her eyes - she's so wiggly, they don't want anyone getting near her with sharp scissors, plus Brent wants to save a lock of her hair once they cut it, so they'll let it get a little longer. Look at that little face!

 

Trying to sit up by herself - not quite there, yet - but, she looks pretty pleased with herself!