Leaving on a Jet Plane

Don't know when I'll be back again. But boy, I hate to go.

I guess we should have known, being Americans, that our stay in Canada was not permanent. But I think we never saw moving as a choice to move to Canada, but simply to Bowen Island. Unfortunately, Immigration Canada does actually recognize Bowen Island as part of their world, and that means that we are illegal here. Not terribly, and after so many years in southern California, where "illegal alien" has some pretty concrete connotations, saying it feels strange. But the reality is, we have been allowed to reside and live on Bowen because Chris has a student permit, and he is no longer a student.

There are other reasons too, of course. We are actually American, and being in Canada is a cultural change for us. Not one that we dislike, but one that exists, and there are things which we deal with that make it more difficult than easy (paying taxes in two countries is just one example). We are also very far from our family, which makes all of life more complicated! And, Chris is raring to go in moving to the next stage of his Story Collective/ Piko Fellowship (we are calling it Piko Version 2.0), and with our ability to work in Canada non-existent, that becomes quite difficult.

Needless to say, nothing can really describe how sad we are at making this decision. We not only love the location - the beauty surrounding us, the water and the green and the mountains, the ferry, the isolation and community - but we love the people here. We have friends for life here, people we don't ever want to live away from, much less MOVE away from.

But move we must. The plan is tentative and firm at the same time. We will go trick-or-treating on Halloween - the ultimate Bowen holiday - watch the fabulous island fireworks in the evening, and then catch the last ferry off Bowen. We will cross the border late that night, stay in a hotel in Washington, and fly out from the Seattle Airport on Nov. 1 (hence, leaving on a jet plane). The car is taking its own special cross country trip from Seattle, hopefully not arriving too long after we get there.

And where is there? Temporarily, Washington DC (from the OC to BC to DC is our route, it seems). The vast majority of my family is on the East Coast, and this will allow us all to reconnect and build on our family relationships. The kids will get to know Gramma and Papa Carlos (and great aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc). in a real way, not the hyper environment of a vacation. It will be a time for Chris to work with those he has already met in the DC area, and those he will meet because of them. Our prayer is that this six months (a total estimate) will be a time for us to grow as a family, and to develop his next move strategically. Where will we end up after that? It really is anyone's guess. Thankfully, we don't need to know that today, because I am too busy grieving for our move from this place.