Our dream, our hope, our wish, our strive is to immigrate to Canada one day. We allready taken our first steps towards that dream. Maybe a bit of a risk, maybe somewhat early and enthusiastic.
We lived in a very nice home in a quiet and peacefull place in the Netherlands. A big house with a big garden (for Dutch standards). We had pets, a cat (Jimmy), a dog (Kyra) and a rabbit. Myself, i’m a stay at home mom of a 3yr old son (Owen),i’m a animal activist and volunteer for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. My husband (Patrick) is a hard working international truckdriver who works from monday till friday/saturday,so you can guess that the weekends are precious to us.
I have the dream to immigrate for almost 10 yrs now, why Canada? I’ve never been there until last summer 2008. So i don’t have a clear reason why Canada.The only thing i’m sure of is that i don’t really feel at home here in the Netherlands,so busy,so crouded,lot of people don’t seem to have time for each other,no real nature left here,to welcoming for my taste. One reason why I got interested in Canada is because my best friend and her parents that i had in my teen years immigrated to Canada almost 20 yrs ago. She was my best friend, her parents were my second parents,that’s how i felt. I spend more time at their home than in my own home. When they immigrated i was heartbroken,and it took me quite some time to get used to tem being gone. At first there is much contact when somebody leaves, then later it got less and finally all contact was lost. Why? I still don’t know. But about 2years ago i searched the internet ad tried to find them,and i did. So contact restored.
I met my husband in 2003 and we got married in 2005.We have a beautiful son. I told him about my dream to immigrate when we first met, but he said he would never leave the Netherlands, because of his mother. But about 2yrs ago he said, why not? He also had the dream to be a truckdriver in another country for years,but only for a period of time, to return to the Netherlands, but now his opinion is the same as mine, there isn’t much left for us here in the Netherlands, except for our family. So we are willing to take a risk, to take the steps. I searched the internet on all kind of information about Canada, the government, health care, education, work, housing ect ect. I got bombarded with info. I can truly say i know more about canada and it’s rules, then i know about the Netherlands haha.I also had contact with an Canadian immigration buro in Manitoba. One person told us that if my husband has a joboffer in Canada, there was no problem to immigrate.We then decided to take the first steps. We gave up our rental home, sold/gave all our properties, and i mean all. We found new homes for our pets in family and friends (that was the hardest decision) and we went of to live at my mothers home, so we could save a lot of money each month. We first paid of a big loan. Then saved money for our holiday.
And then finally,in July 2008 we went on our first holiday to Simcoe-Canada (Ontario). We said to ourselves, the first impression is most important, when we arrive and after some days have the feeling, no, then we would forget about the whole thing, but you can guess it, that wasn’t our first impression. Ofcourse i know that we were on holiday, but i felt at home there. We were lucky that we could spend our holiday at my (second) parents home. We rented a car for 3 weeks, and visited quite some places, also visited Governmental institution,talked with Canadian people a lot. I got hooked on Tim Hortons, yeah, hot chocolate, yummie. We contacted the immigration buro in Manitoba and we got to talk with the right person on this.It seems i was talking to the wrong person on that departement when i contacted them while in the Netherlands, it turned out that we do have to have CAD 32,500,000000 even if my husband has a joboffer.That was unexpected and a real disappointment. So that would mean living at my mother’s home longer than planned.But my mother lives in a small appartement,and it was fun at the beginning, but after couple of months it got soon to crowded. “Luckly” my husband was only home in the weekends, so it didn’t have much impact on him, but i started to get depressed, irritated ect. I didn’t even feel a mom to my son anymore, more like i big sister i felt. So about 2 months ago, we had to make the decision we had to have our own home again (this was decided after out holiday to Canada), i wasn’t happy anymore, i had regrets (mostly about our pets)
What a beautiful country it is, ofcourse i have seen pictures on the internet befor, but wow, what a space, nature, relaxed people, KIND people. I have fallen in love. We had the best 3 weeks there. I honestly didn’t want to return to the Netherlands when the time came to leave. But we had to unfortunally.
Then you come ‘home’ again and it hits you, for me anyways, i don’t want to be here. But okay, you have to go on and live turned to old and soon we had to make new plans. What to do, admit that we have made a “mistake” to leave our home and pets, accept that the person we talked to first at the immigration buro gave misinformation and continue to live at my mother’s home? Or decide that that situation couldn’t go on anymore and look for our own place again. We dicided to do the last, for (my) our happiness and wellbeing, that was the best decision. But that doesn’t mean i feel extremely guilty that it was mostly my last word : yes Patrick, i don’t have any problems of living at my mothers home,he asked me many times,before we decided to lave our home, Claudia,are you sure you can live at your mothers home? Ofcourse i said (also knowing that that was the best way to save lot of money each month,so Canada would happen quicker). But now i feel so guilty.
Now we found our own little appartement again, we move there february 1. We have to buy everything again, furnuture,the smallest thing,everything.
But i’m also excited that we get our own place again. Canada will not disappear, it only takes a bit longer now before we can start the immigration process.
This is us
