Ben and I recently became
Permanent Residents of Canada! This means we have most of the same rights and privileges as citizens - the only relevant one we don't have is the right to vote. Of particular note is the fact that we no longer need to pay for work permits each year in order to continue living and working here, and we no longer need to keep getting new I-94 visa waivers every 3 months in order to visit the USA. Hooray!
We started the PR process almost 2 years ago, via sponsorship through Ben's work, and it involved lots of paperwork, thorough medical checks, a fingerprint check for me (apparently I'm more suspicious than Ben), a fair chunk of money, and a long wait. So our eventual approval was cause for celebration!
On Saturday, March 16th, we hosted a "PR Party"! We donned our red and white and shared a delicious potluck with some of our local friends under the Canadian flag.
Parties at our house these days have a few more kids in attendance than they used to! This evening there were 13 adults and 7 kids!
 |
| Aydin and Claire |
 |
| John and Chloe |
 |
| Claire |
 |
| Gemma |
 |
| Joel and Finley |
 |
Ted and Rach with Finley (who gave Rach the privilege of
being the first person other than us that he's smiled at!) |
 |
| Us with Helene and Chloe |
We even managed to catch Finley's smile on camera for the first (and so far only) time - here he is charming Rach...
 |
| Awww :) |
Thanks for helping us celebrate our PR!
