Citizenship Award

After 7 months of waiting, Amon is officially, and finally a citizen of Canada! This is what came in the mail the other day... brutally folded in half to fit in our mailslot.  Nonetheless, as you can see from the photo, there was much rejoicing and gazing in wonderment at this precious, long-awaited document. 

In truth, the process began in Turks and Caicos, when my sister inquired after a birth certificate for him.  The office required that I go down in person to apply for the birth certificate. I was stuck in the hospital, so I couldn't go down to make the application. They were unbending, even given circumstances... the hospital administration assured us it would be no problem to apply from abroad. The day I was released from hospital, all government offices were closed on account of Will and Kate's wedding! 

We had to have the birth certificate from Turks and Caicos before applying for a certificate of citizenship for Amon.  Pursuing the birth certificate from Canada was a byzantine process, and pretty entertaining in retrospect. If you ever want a good laugh over a glass of wine, I will tell you the story. 

We couldn't have navigated the process without the help of the Consular Warden for Canadians in the TCI Johanne... she was so supportive and ended up taking care of everything. We were so blessed to have her help. Though Johanne lived in TCI, it took months for her to finally get the birth certificate in her hands. We might still be chasing it if it weren't for her. It seemed at every step of the process there was some crazy road block, including the local courier company claiming we had the wrong address for Johanne. She knew how to solve all of these problems, and with a lot of determination and devotion, and all without pay, Johanne prevailed. When she finally got the birth certificate, we were loathe to have it sent via courier... who knew what might befall it! It was a stroke of luck and further generosity on Johanne's part that finally delivered the birth certificate to us. Johanne offered to meet us at Pearson airport on a stop over to Montreal where she was travelling to visit family. We are so grateful to her for sticking with us! She is a wonderful spirit and I really hope to meet her one day when we return to the Turks and Caicos.

The TCI birth certificate is a very unique document... it doesn't really look very official. It doesn't even say birth certificate on it.  We were worried it wouldn't be accepted in our application to Canadian Immigration. It was rejected by the Ontario government when we applied for Amon's permanent health card. Another funny story to share over a glass of wine!

These are the passport photos we sent to Canadian Immigration with Amon's citizenship application. He looks like everyone tends to look in id photos... like a baby thug!

Michael's mom helped us to navigate the Canadian bureaucracy, making phone calls for us and helping us with all the paper work. It was a big job, and we are really grateful to her for helping us through all the steps. 

Our babe is finally o-fisch! A Canadian citizen, with all the rights and freedoms. Thanks be, it takes a village!