Once I receive my paperwork, I’ll drive back to Toronto (to return the rental car) and then fly home. As I cross the border, I’ll use my paperwork to register as a Permanent Resident; I’ll then receive my greencard and Social Security Number by mail within a few weeks.

As with any bureaucratic process, I spent most of the time waiting; I passed the time chatting with two couples going through the same application and sharing similar personal circumstances – sadly, I forgot to exchange contact info with them before we all went our separate ways. I even exchanged a few jokes with my interviewer – the interview started well when I congratulated him for correctly pronouncing my name over the intercom and it turned out he’s Polish/Ukranian and has a son named Luka.

Anyway, at the end of the day I’m just relieved that everything is approved and anxious to receive my documents and return home to my family!

To kick off 2010, we’ve given our blog a major facelift, as you’ve probably noticed. Not only do we have a new layout, but we’ve got a whole new domain as well. The old gallery system has been replaced by a slick Flickr account integration; you can see the most recent uploads in a photostream off to the right there, and clicking the “gallery” link above will take you to all of our photos (most recent sets at the top) and photo collections. Everything from the old Look At Us Go gallery has been moved over and old links on Look At Us Go will now redirect here to thekarpiuks.com. (While we feel like we’ve caught them all, if you find any faulty links just let us know!) Our email addresses have also changed accordingly. You can email us both by using us [at] thekarpiuks.com or individually with our name [at] thekarpiuks.com. With all of the immigration dust nearly settled, family is hopefully on the horizon; a fresh start with our family blog in a fresh new year seemed to be the way to go!

Speaking of immigration, we took a quick road trip to Toronto earlier this week for Lucas’ medical appointment. All went well and he flies back in to pick up the results for his final interview appointment in Montreal on January 5 to get his green card.  We’re really excited about the final piece falling into place so that we can move on. While in Toronto we enjoyed good sushi and good company and were sure to get our fill of Tim Hortons and other Canadian goodies that we’ve been missing. Special thanks to Ronald and family for their amazing hospitality!

2009 went out with a bang.  We treated my parents to dinner and their first live hockey game: the Indiana Ice vs. the Chicago Steel at Conseco Fieldhouse. It was a great time and afterwards we went back to their place and played Wii Fit until the ball dropped. Pictures can be found in a set on our gallery page. Lucas was of course my first kiss of the new year, with Oliver and Winston a close second and third ;) I sure am lucky to have such a great family. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in 2010.

May 2010 bring you a fresh start, new excitement, and good health! Cheers.

Firstly, our Christmas cards went out last week and most have been received. They feature our 2009 Karpiuk family photo, and they turned out really cute, if I do say so myself.

I updated our Family Life 2009 Scrapbook to feature a few new pages to cover September – early December. Ten pages have been added all total, with some featuring (of course) our new nephew, William, Thanksgiving photos, new family photos, and the boys with our Christmas tree. There will be a few more after Christmas to add before I close that scrapbook and begin work on the 2010 album.

2010 already looks promising in the way of immigration; Lucas received his immigration interview letter recently (FINALLY!) and his appointment is in Montreal on January 5. We’re taking a quickie road trip (9 hours) up to Toronto to complete his medical so that he has the results to take with him for the interview. If all goes well, which it should, he may very well have his green card within a few business days of the interview. Happy day! That’ll be a great start to a new year.

Here’s to 2010 and exciting new promises on the horizon. Merry Christmas from our family to yours, and Happy New Year!

1. We spent a fantastic belated honeymoon/anniversary trip in Nova Scotia in June. (See our last post.) It was wonderful!
2. We moved back to the states (Indiana) at the end of July/first of August.
3. I started teaching Computer Applications at the middle school, and love it.
4. We moved into our own place at the end of October.
5. My brother and sister-in-law had their first child — we’re now an aunt and uncle to one adorable William Herman.
6. We had our first (U.S.) Thanksgiving with Indiana family in three years.

That pretty much sums up the last few months! It’s been an exciting adjustment period getting all settled in back in Indiana. This weekend we put up our Christmas tree and today we got our first central Indiana snow… about a quarter inch in fact, which helped get me into the Christmas-y mood. (After living in Canada for three years, I’m not used to NOT having snow by now so I was having a hard time believing the holiday season was actually here.) It was hilarious driving to work this morning because it felt like everyone was driving SO SLOW over such a minuscule amount of snow. Dare I say I adjusted to driving in Calgary snow?

Our Christmas cards will be going out shortly, and I’ll post one up here closer to Christmas to share with the rest of the world. It’s a pretty cute one, if I do say so myself. Not because I made it, (I’ve got too many knitted gifts to finish this year, so we opted for a Walgreens photo Christmas card instead of my usual handmade) but because the new family photo is darling. Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Lately Lucas and I have been talking about our future. We know that one or more children are definitely on the horizon for us; we’re almost ready. But in the midst of talking seriously about starting our own family, it hit us: how can we start a family so far away from family? Let’s face it… in Calgary we’re nowhere near either of our families. Lucas’ family is out in BC and mine is all back in Indiana. In going over our options and the benefits of a move towards family, we ultimately have decided upon moving to the states. Indiana specifically, or possibly Chicago depending on job situations. I’ve always been very close with my family, and I know that my brother and his wife will be starting a family of their own at some point, too. I’ve always wanted our kids to grow up together and be close. I also never imagined having my own children without my parents being involved. I’m betting they never imagined I’d be 1800 miles away when we started having kids, either. And we’ll most definitely still see Lucas’ side of the family just as much as we do currently, regardless of where we live. So the choice seems clear and simple to us. And we’re happy with our decision. In fact, we honestly can’t wait.

So wait, how is this going to work with Lucas being Canadian and all? Well apparently because I am a U.S. citizen AND have Canadian Permanent Residency, Lucas as my spouse can apply for a K3 visa. This will allow him to live and ultimately work in the U.S. until his permanent residency is fully processed. On March 23 we’re going into the U.S. Consulate office here in Calgary to turn in the first part of the application process, which is to establish our relationship in person with the Consulate. They will verify our documents and send everything off to Montreal. This is the part where we wait… as we’re not sure how many months it may take to get this interview. Depending on turnaround time on paperwork it’s entirely possible we could move as early as this summer, but around Christmas seems more likely. Who knows. Once we have an interview date, we’ll fly out to Montreal and attend, and then supposedly 2 business days later… voila! Lucas will be legal to live in the states, and we can head on down. For an additional fee he can get the ability to work tacked onto his visa, which of course he’ll opt for. The downside is that the medical exam part will force him to take a quick day trip to Vancouver and we’ll have to pay for that and a quickie trip out to Montreal together for the interview, but in the grand scheme of things we truly feel it’s worth it. The benefits far outweigh the few bumps in the road we may encounter on the way to this change.

I do have a few issues with moving back home, though. First of all, no Tim Horton’s. Note to our friends in Canada: we want cans of ground Tim Horton’s coffee for Christmas so we can brew our own in the coffee maker at home. Sure it won’t be quite the same, but it’ll be better than none. And while I’ll miss Tim Horton’s dearly, there is an upside to Indy in the form of Chik-Fil-A. MMMMMM. And Bob Evans. And Steak ‘n’ Shake. My second issue with moving back home is that Lucas politely informed me last week that if he’s living in Indy he’ll most likely have to become a Colts fan. I immediately put on the brakes and emailed my parents to tell them that the move was off. I’ve gotten over the shock, but I may have to disown him if he becomes a Colts fan. GO BEARS.

So it’s a bit long-winded and I’m sure it seems like we’re gluttons for punishment turning around and dealing with new immigration stuff to go the other way so soon after I finished all of my Canadian immigration stuff, but there’s our news. We don’t know how long the process will take or when for sure we’ll be loading up a U-Haul and riding off into the sunset, but we hope to have a better idea of the timeline estimate after our U.S. Consulate visit on the 23rd. We’ll keep you posted :)

Hope everyone is having a fabulous long weekend. :)  Only 33 days until the wedding!  Are YOU ready for Vegas?

That’s right, the next big thing we’ve been waiting on… I got my Alberta teaching certification! After 10 months of waiting on Immigration, waiting a month for the Alberta teaching certification office to examine my Indiana credentials and deem me qualified to hold a professional teaching license was a cake walk. This weekend will be busy as I organize my resume and dust off my teaching portfolio that has been waiting ever so patiently to be needed again. The final step of fully immigrating feels so close to being complete now… there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and I anxiously and happily await teaching again next school year.

I know there was no reason to be nervous, but my stomach was doing flip flops all morning. I kept worrying that I would forget some important piece of ID, or the photos I had to have done wouldn’t be perfectly to spec… I was just worrying that SOMETHING silly would go wrong and they’d reject me. It all went off without a hitch, of course, there was just a lot of waiting.

I took a train downtown and met Lucas at his office and we walked to the government building where we waited for about an hour for my name to be called. We spent more time waiting than the actual “interview” took – I basically went into this tiny room to sign papers and that was it. The woman asked me a couple of simple questions, but they were all things that were listed on the document in front of me anyway, lol. I signed everything and she gave me my copy of the paperwork; this piece of paper I will guard with my life, as it is not only a temporary placeholder for the actual Permanent Resident card that I will receive in the mail in a few weeks, but also something I will need to keep for future dealings with the immigration office. This document doesn’t guarantee anything for travel purposes, but I’m still taking my trip to Indiana next week. The teeeeeny tiny slim chance they’ll give me a hard time once I’m back in Canada on the way home since I don’t physically have the card in my hand doesn’t really worry me; after all, I am legally a permanent resident now. Worst case scenario is I’ll have to spend a little longer in Indiana or they’ll scold me and make going through customs once I’m back in Calgary take a little longer than usual, but it’s really a non-issue. Nothing we can’t handle. It’s been nearly a year now since I’ve seen my family (I hit my year mark just before I leave Indiana to come back), and now that I possess official status, I’ve gotta see them. I miss my little brother the most, but don’t tell him that or I’ll totally deny it. You know how it is.

So ya, it’s been an exciting day! We went to a restaurant called Milestones afterwards; fitting, if you ask me. Lucas took that great picture above of me holding up my Permanent Resident document at the restaurant as we celebrated. We came home and celebrated with Oliver, and now we’re going out for ice cream! Oliver seems a little confused because we kept telling him he was now officially a permanent dog resident of Canada, but he didn’t seem to mind not understanding what we were talking about since he was getting lots of attention over it. “Whatever you say, mom, just keep hugging me!”

In the near future our plans include getting me all packed for my trip to Indiana next week; I leave Thursday. Because it’s a big deadline, black-out-date period for Lucas at work, he has to wait a week before he can come down, but he’ll be joining me in Indiana with my family the following Thursday and staying the full second week with me at my parents’ house. Our itinerary is pretty full, and once Lucas arrives, starts off with Tripoly night with my parents and taking Herm out for a belated 21st birthday celebration and college graduation celebration. I can’t wait to see everyone!

Last week we got good news on the Immigration front; my application for Permanent Residency was approved and I’m able to get a work permit now. The last step was waiting for the Calgary office to set up an appointment with me so I could go in and get my PR card. I was worried it would take forever to get my appointment set, but the letter for it with a date arrived a day or two later. I’ll be picking up my PR card on May 17th! Go me! I think we’re going to have a little “party” on either Friday the 18th or Saturday the 19th to celebrate my official status.

Having a set date meant that we could officially plan a trip to Indiana to see my family, and those flights have also been booked as of today. I fly out on May 24th and am staying for a full 2 weeks with my family. Lucas has some black-out dates at work, so he’ll fly out separately on May 31st and spend the second whole week with me there. Then we’ll fly back together on June 7th. We’ll get back just in time to celebrate my one-year-in-Canada anniversary. I can hardly believe it’s been a whole year! Time really flies when you’re happy, huh?

I think I need to make a new purse just in time for the trip. Yes, good excu… erm, I mean reason to make a new purse.

“You may now apply for an open work permit, which will allow you to work in the occupation and location of your choice.”

I got the two letters yesterday and finally got to read the words we’ve been waiting eight and a half months to hear… Canada has decided they like me enough to keep me! Now the bulk of the process is behind us and I just have to wait for the Calgary office to contact me and set up an appointment for me to go in and get my card. Once that card is in my hands I can officially travel again. I can’t wait – we plan to take a nice long vacation to Indiana to visit my family and friends as soon as we can. Yay!

And as if the first week of May wasn’t already exciting enough, my store website is up and running now! It’s completely functional; we plan to make some minor tweaks and adjustments to photos and formalities in the next few weeks to further polish the site’s functionality and make it even more user friendly, but it’s officially open as of today! Check it out here: http://shop.pinktoque.com :)

They say good things come in threes, and that’s definitely true this week. The UK exhibit opened today that I am participating in; my plush food will be on display with a short bio about me and business cards for the entire month of May into the beginning of June at Cafe Kino to celebrate its first birthday. I sent a plush cake and two plush donuts and was told that I’d receive 100% of the price of anything that sells, and my cake sold before the event even opened! That takes care of covering my shipping costs… ;) So I’m starting off the exhibit already ahead and will get even more exposure as the month wears on. How exciting! I sure hope they take some pictures because I’d love to see all of the fun plush food on display.

Congratulations to my little brother who is graduating from college tomorrow. I wish I could be there to see you, Herm. I’m so proud of you! Because it was so unexpected, (he didn’t think he’d be graduating until August and just found out this Monday that he’d be graduating this Saturday, lol) my family is going to wait for me to come home to throw a party.

I guess that makes four good things this week instead of three. Whatever. The more the merrier! :)