We arrived in Canada 4 days after our northern journey and stayed at Mossbank, SK for a few days at our friends the Sauers.
It was Matt Sauers 11th Birthday and he was almost jumping out of his skin to see his bestest buddy Caleb had come and brought his whole family too to celebrate his birthday!
Mossbank is a nice little town with an outdoor pool. we bought a week pass for the boys for $10.00 each and they swam every day- almost twice a day. They enjoyed themselves profusely and we did as well, visiting the adult Sauers.
Some of the big differences we notice are the security issues. They can leave the vehicle and the house unlocked, the kids are able to walk around the town without constant supervision, go to the store themselves etc. There are no fences/ gates/ barbed wire / razor wire/ block walls with broken glass on top around any of the houses. well, maybe the occasional fence- but it's usually for privacy more than protection.
It was a good few days to reconnect with friends, rest up from the long trip before a gruelling speaking schedule and reacquaint ourselves with Canada and the culture.
We had a bit of a passport ordeal in the midst of this time.
we were told several times that we could use the short passport form to apply for a passport from Canada. In Regina they made us wait in 2 lines. The first line was to check to see if your passport was filled out correctly. The second line was to see if the corrector corrected your passport correctly- then they plugged it into the computer. The average time we saw people actually processing the passport applications was probably 20 minutes- and that was AFTER their apps had been checked out for errors.
Our was rejected- and we needed a form with a guarantor. So after 1 hour, we left to figure out our next steps.
I was assured that I could use the long Canadian form and not the "living abroad" form- which was going to need a declaration in lieu of guarantor signed by a notary (cost $70.00 each). So we tried it- but in S'toon instead.
In S'toon there was only 1 line. The same person checked for errors and processed the application in usually less than 10 minutes. We were in and out and processed in 15 minutes- despite paying for 1 1/2 hours of parking meter time in the sweetest parking spot around. I almost wanted to wait it out to get what I paid for. I lost the vote though- and off we went to see our friends new baby at the university Hospital!
Irv and Mari have been married for 19 years and have adopted a wonderful girl Leah. Years ago Leah wanted a little brother or sister, but they just weren't able to have kids. Until now. Surprisingly, they got pregnant, and through a difficult pregnancy and 14+ hours of labour- had a baby boy almost 2 weeks ago. And Isaac was born! ( at least that's what I wanted them to call him- but they decided on Jaxson instead!) Everyone is healthy- and tired!
So then we went to Loon Lake to speak at church on the Sunday. we had a great time there and then scooted off to week 1 of 4 of camp!
