Saturday, October 10, 2009

More Thanksgiving Thoughts.....

My 89 year old mother arrived safely from Vancouver yesterday and we took the long tortuous drive through fog, rain and long weekend traffic congestion to arrive safely at my brother's home.

Last year in California (in the Olive Capital) I purchased a jar of muffaletta olive and vegetable mix. Yesterday morning, I assembled my first muffaletta. After arriving at my brother's home for dinner, I meant to take a photo, but we all scarfed the muffaletta down before I could act! The mix had lots of olives and pickled vegetables - I thought it was a little too salty and oily, so I drained it very well all morning. I had roasted some red peppers a day before and stored them in balsamic vinegar. I drained the red peppers and added the olive mix and added lots of oregano.....From the farmer's market in Hamilton I purchased sliced meats and provolone cheese and two large round Italian loaves.......and.....presto - a muffaletta.....

But that isn't what I wanted to write about today......I wanted to tell you that Miguel is now a Permanent Canadian Resident. After being together for 12 years, we decided to take action a few months ago....It took us days (weeks) to get all the documents prepared - Miguel had to list everywhere he has lived or worked since he was 18 years old. Considering that Miguel was in the airforce and was stationed in at least 8 or 9 states, that added to paperwork. Once the paperwork was completed, we waited.....waited.....

A month or so again we learned that we had to attend an Immigration Interview - and that made little old worrier me, even more worried-er... On October 2nd, we drove to Detroit (that is where one goes for Immigration Interviews) and both Miguel and I were grilled on why it has taken us this long to apply, why we had never married, what we had been doing sitting idly all these years (and other questions).....and at the end....presto - not a muffaletta, but Permanent Residency in Canada for Miguel!

What does this mean? It means that we never have to worry about what to do if Miguel gets sick again.....it means that we can stay together without worrying.....it means that crossing the border will be easier.... If we had known we would be so elated when this process was completed, we would have done it much earlier.... On this Thanksgiving weekend, it is one huge thing that we are thankful for.......

2 comments:

CherieMek said...

So, what did you tell the authorities when they asked why you had never married?

Anonymous said...

or what you had been doing sitting idly by all these years?