In Limbo

Unfortunately, this is the extent of the pictures I have from our trip to Canada because we never made it up there! (Caedon is helping me pack for our trip to Nana & Papa's house). These past few days have been a whirl wind of emotions as doors that we thought were opening so quickly for our move have suddenly been slammed shut.... Here's the story...

Caedon & I were up at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, all ready for our trip up to Calgary. We were so excited to see my parents and sisters, tour Cody's school that he was FINALLY accepted into & get him completely enrolled, and even put a deposit down on the perfect rental house we had found. That morning, I found out the owner of the rental had given it to someone else. Then we got to the airport and were told that they could check us through to Calgary but that we might not be able to make it back into the States because Caedon would need a passport. They printed out the boarding passes and everything, but I felt really uneasy about it and decided to call my hubby & parents. My mom & sister drove to the airport in Calgary to find out if we would be allowed back into the U.S. and were told that it would be a bit more paperwork, but that they would let us come back. This was now a few hours later and we had missed our flight, so we drove back to the airport to try again. This time, they were unable to get Caedon a boarding pass. They said that because of the new passport law, that the system wouldn't let them give Caedon a ticket.

SIDENOTE: When we bought the tickets weeks earlier, I had called United TWICE to confirm that Caedon would be fine with just a birth certificate. They said he wouldn't need a passport & I believed them. However, as of June 1st to get in or out of Canada even the little babies need passports now. We were leaving for Canada in May but coming back in June, which is why the passport thing became an issue.

The lady was very nice and told me that we could fly to San Francisco and get a temporary letter of permission from the passport office that they have there in the airport. We had a 4 hour layover there already, so I decided to risk it. We flew to San Fran & Caedon was an angel on the plane. When we got there, I went right to our gate and asked where I could find the passport office and the non-English-speaking man told me he would get his supervisor. I watched him go stare out the window at the planes and chat with a friend for a good 1/2 hour before I approached him again and told him that it was very important that I get this letter of permission for Caedon. He said his supervisor wouldn't be there for another hour and sent us to Customer service, across the airport. Of course there was a good 45 min wait because the line was so long. After the long wait & a baby who was getting very fussy, we got to the front desk and were told that no such passport office existed in the San Fran airport & that there was nothing they could do to help us. I was bawling like a baby by now. Caedon was tired, hungry & fussy. We were supposed to be in Calgary. We had so many important appointments there & I was dying to see my family. But there was nothing more that could be done, so I asked them to get me the next flight back to Redding. We got home around 5 p.m. completely exhausted, physically and emotionally.

My parents went and met with the immigration lawyer on Monday, even though I wasn't able to be there. We had thought that the work visa David's applying for would take 2-3 months to go through, but the immigration lawyer said that it will be 8-10 months minimum. This is a huge set-back and will most likely change our plans for moving in July. We've been discussing our options:
1. the kids and I moving up in July & David staying in Redding to work for 8-10 months until his Canadian work visa is approved
2. all of us staying in Redding for the next year, while waiting for the work visa to be approved (Cody would most likely lose his spot in this school)

Our house will be closing soon and we will have to be out by the beginning of July, so we have to decide soon. I hate being in limbo, not knowing. We had really felt that all the right doors were being opened to make this move happen, but now we honestly don't know where we'll be in the next few weeks.

We'll keep you posted & let you know... when we know!