Christmas spirit . . .

can now be felt in our home. Finally, we were able to put up our Christmas decors two weeks ago. But I'm still looking for the Santa decor we bought just last year. I can't remember where I stocked up some of our stuffs. Need to do some cleaning during the Christmas break. he he he . . .

I2C update # 8 . . .

Last week, we have already received another letter from the Canadian embassy. I am requested to submit a proof of my English proficiency from an approved organization. This means that I need to take the IELTS ! ! ! With barely a month to accomplish this, I was quite nervous and paranoid at the same time. Too many questions are cropping on my mind. "Will I pass the exams?" "When will be the next testing date?" "When will I get the results?" Will I make it on time on the deadline given by the embassy?"

Last Friday, I went to 9Niners, the leading IELTS review center, to process my application form to the British Council and to enroll at their crash course at the same time. My testing date is on December 12 and the results will be out by the 22nd. I still need to confirm if I can just pick-up the results or this will still be mailed thru the postal office. Our deadline to submit to the embassy is on the 27th so I really need to verify this with the Bristish Council by tomorrow.

I'm really praying that everything turns out fine. I don't need a take two for this very expensive exam. I know that I am proficient with the English language but I hope I get lucky for the speaking and writing exam since this is subject to the evaluation of the examiner.

Wish me luck folks! ! !

Our timeline . . .

What does our status mean at this point? Hopefully, it means we're barely waiting for a few more months before we finally get our visa ! ! !

Client Application Status

Application for Permanent Residence - Federal Skilled Worker submitted to the Centralized Intake Office (CIO) Sydney, Nova Scotia

This diagram explains each step in the application process.
Status of your application
Explanation

APPLICATION RECEIVED
Application Received by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)We have received your application. After checking for completeness, a file has been created and the information from the application form was entered.

Centralized Intake Office Sydney (CIO-S) ELIGIBILITY REVIEW COMPLETE
Centralized Intake Office Sydney (CIO-S) - Eligibility Review CompleteThe review at the CIO-Sydney has been completed. A letter with additional information has been mailed.

RECEIVED BY VISA OFFICE
Received by Visa Office The application and documents have been received by the visa office.

VISA OFFICE ELIGIBILITY REVIEW COMPLETE
Visa Office - Eligibility Review CompleteThe review of the application and supporting documents has been completed at the visa office. A letter with additional information has been mailed.

WITHDRAWN
Application Withdrawn We withdrew your application and your file has been closed.

This is where we are right now . . .

IN PROCESS
In Process Based on review of your complete application package, it has been determined that your application is eligible for processing. Processing has begun.

DECISION MADE (A decision has been made at this point.)

Medical Results Received by CIC We have received your medical results. We will contact you only if additional tests are needed.

Approval Status Determined Your application will be either approved or rejected. We will inform you of the decision in writing.

Permanent Residence Status Determined If your application is approved, we will send you your permanent resident documentation and a letter saying what we need to finalize your permanent residence.

COMPLETE (This is the last step in the processing of your application.)
Applicant Arrives in Canada and is Granted Permanent ResidenceYou will need to meet with an Immigration Officer who will verify your documents and grant you permanent residence if all is in order.

I2C update # 7 . . .

Finally, after three months since we have lodged our full application package to the Manila embassy, our e-cas has changed from "received by visa office"to ïn process". This means we'll be receiving our medical request in a few weeks time. Here's the status of our application:

Client Application Status

Permanent Residence
We received your application for permanent residence on March 31, 2009.

We reviewed your application and sent you a letter on April 21, 2009. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

Your application and supporting documents were received by the Manila office. They are pending review.

We transferred your application to the Manila office on April 29, 2009. The Manila office may contact you.

Your application was reviewed and we started processing on November 12, 2009.

A shocking news . . .

came to us Saturday evening. "Friends and colleagues of my sister - Anne, she is now confined at Manila Doctors. She had an Ischemic attack yesterday afternoon. Please pray for her quick recovery". The text came from Anna, my HS bestfriend. I was quite confused the first time I read the message so I asked hubby to read it for me. He immediately called the number to verify what happened. Indeed, it was Anna who suffered the attack and still confined at the hospital. I immediately called or texted the rest of my HS buddies who are still here in the Philippines. Of course we were all worried about her since we don't really know her condition. They were asking me if she's in ICU and other questions which I can't answer myself as well.

Hubby asked me if I wanted to go and visit her right there and then but luckily we were in our right state of mind and decided to go the following day since it's past the hospital's visiting hours already. So the following day, our whole family visited Anna in Manila Doctors Hospital. Honestly, I was quite nervous and I don't know what to expect. Fortunately, Anna is healthy from the outside. Her speech was not affected so we were all laughing while having our usual tsikahans with hubby. It was the left side of her body which was affected. She's still under medication and is undergoing a therapy. Don't know until when she's staying in the hospital but I'm sure it'll take a while before everything gets back to normal. We are all praying for her quick recovery and I hope she remains to be healthy after this incident.

This is another wake up call for us. We are too young for this kind of illness but what happened? It can happen to anyone and at any age for that matter. We are just 33 y/o. Who would have thought that one of us will be inflicted with this illness. It's really important to live a healthy lifestyle and most importantly have a stress free environment.

SJWMS's Children's Day Celebration . . .

St. John's Wort Montessori School had their "Children's Day Celebration" last Saturday, November 14, 2009 from 2pm to 6pm. This replaced their annual trick or treat celebration so the kids were also in costume but no more scary costumes this time. Most of the kids were in their favorite fairy tale character costumes and super hero costumes. Each level prepared their special dance numbers and even the parents and teachers performed this time.

I was a proud mommy to my two little kids who performed well during their respective presentations. Kaila's performance was getting better and better after each of their presentations. She has really built up her self confidence in performing to a big crowd. Click on the link to see her video. For JM, this is just his second time to perform. It was really better than his first performance during their Linggo ng Wika celebration. I really enjoyed watching him. Click on this link to see his performance. See more of the pictures below and see how the kids enjoyed the party:

Ate Kaila in her fairy costume . . .

JM in his spiderman costume . . .

The kids while waiting for the program to start . . .

The kids lining up for the parade of costumes . . .

Ate Kaila with Marcus . . .

Kaila with her "new friend"

Kaila's having her butterfly face painting . . .

Here's the final outcome . . .

JM's turn this time . . .

Can you guess what it is?

Of course it's a car!

The kids getting theit loots in the different booths . . .

JM likes her facepainting very much that he asked me to take pictures several times . . .

Another shot of JM's car . . .

42 days . . .

to go before Christmas and I haven't started any preparation. The kids were bugging me to have our Christmas decors put up for the past two weekends and up to now no decors were set up yet. Hopefully, all decors will be set this weekend. I also want to have my gift lists to family members, friends, officemates, relatives and friends of the two kids. I'm not yet sure if we'll go to Divi this weekend to buy some stuffs already. If not, hopefully in the next two weekends so that we won't resort to last minute Christmas shopping. Hubby and I are also looking forward to the St. James Bazaar which we have been regularly visiting for the past 3 or 4 years already. Hope we could find cool items there. Now, I'm beginning to feel Christmassy already. . . (is there such a word?) he he he . . . Hope to post more Christmas updates in the next few days . . .

What if . . .

we do get our visa approval in the next 6 months? What would be our next steps? To be honest, we are really hoping and waiting for this. It has been almost 3 months already since we have lodged our full application to the Canadian embassy and it's 7 months already from the time we have initially submitted our application to CIO in Nova Scotia, Canada. I really pray that their timeline of 9 to 12 months processing would be true for us. This means that Q1 of 2010 would be very crucial to us. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that we were able to submit all the necessary documents and the visa officer handling our case wouldn't give us a hard time by requiring additional documents for submission.

When mom was here for a visit last month, we were already talking about our future plans. They are really excited for us to be there with them especially the two kids. I'm sure this will lessen the "homesickness"of my dad. We already have plans for work, our careers, education of the two kids as well as our future home there. I hope we could find a real estate broker like Commercial Real Estate Kentucky who would help us get an apartment or townhouse unit just in time when we get there.

Talking about this topic really gets me excited and I hope plans will all be realized in due time. In the meantime, we're just taking things one day at a time and I try not to consciously wait for the "next letter" so that I wouldn't get disappointed. As they say, things happen when you least expected it. I really hope it does in the next few more weeks . . .

Eyeglasses anyone ? ? ?

I've been having some terrible headaches lately. I'm not sure if this is due to stress or I might need to have my eyes checked. I also wonder if my prolonged exposure to the PC causes this headaches. Because of this, I again browsed $8 Prescription Zenni Glasses to look for their new arrivals especially their Holiday Fun Eyeglasses . These eyeglasses are very economical at the same time they are durable and lightweight. I am really considering buying this if in case I would need to have glasses already. You can check out their site for you to see their various designs and I'm sure you'll have you're choice that would fit in to your budget as well.