The big drive is coming up and I am not allowing myself to think about not seeing family for over half a year! Instead I’m focusing on cleaning and packing, eating enough food and drinking enough water. I can’t believe everything has come up so quickly! On Friday I will officially be a Landed Permanent Resident of the United States of America. Oh my goodness. I picked up my passport with my visa today. Wow. This is really real. Well I better go pack or something before this seriously sets in and I turn into a blubbering baby confessing she doesn’t really want to go. Because I do want to go. Oh, I’m going. I’ll save emotions for our new little apartment.

So I had to take another driving test. Unfortunately Alberta came up with GDL (graduated drivers license) driving before I passed my Learners which therefore meant I would have to take a Basic Road Test, be on probation for 2 years and then take an Advanced Road Test. I’ve seriously put off this last test… until today. Ya, I took the test today and passed (phew!). I was hoping I could slide out of this one, but did a little research and found that Colorado has a very similar system (and I’m still considered a minor in the USA) so either way I’d need to take a test. We decided it would be best for me to keep some Alberta ID since we’ll have residency in both the USA and Canada. So there it is. All that anxiety for nothing!

One thing on my definite must see list was the Basilique Notre Dame. Oh my, was it ever beautiful! It was built between 1672 and 1683. Additions were made in the 1800s and in 1978 a fire ravaged the Sacré-Cœur (Sacred Heart) Chapel which had to be reconstructed. It is an immense building and the details are incredible!

This is the main chapel, the famous chapel. It’s so large! The colours are fascinating.

Down the middle aisle on each pew is carved a person. I’m assuming that each is a different saint.

The doors and the stained-glass windows were incredible!

Everywhere are paintings of Mary and these rosary beads sit right in front of some sort of Mary shrine. Am I using the right words? Anyways, very catholic.

This is the underside of a spiral staircase or pulpit. I guess Priests would stand on steps so their voices would be able to travel better and so this is called a pulpit.

Here’s a different staircase in the Sacred Hearts chapel:

So although I am not catholic, I can certainly appreciate the beauty and history of this chapel!

We arrived back in Calgary yesterday afternoon and I’m still recovering today from a most tiresome vacation. It was so relaxing however we somehow wore ourselves out. It was probably from all the walking we did! I loved Montreal and would like to go back again someday however I will not go back in the winter time because it was so cold! And windy too, which made it even worse. Still, I very much enjoyed our little trip. I think I’ll gradually post photos; today will be shots of our hotel room. We had the best hotel, it was so sweet and quiet.

First, this is our set-up of all our documents. I spread them out on the table and Conor and I went through our checklist and then we packed ‘em all up!

Our room:

Our double doors into our room… there’s about a foot and a half between each door. Our room had two sets of doors and each set had this same set up. One doorway entered the kitchen and the other went to the main foyer.

This homemade chandelier hung in the main entrance. I feel rather inspired by it and would love to duplicate it. It’s absolute gorgeous!

All in all we had a fabulous time. It was a great trip!

We got what we came for! Woo hoo! We were anticipating being at the consulate for 5 hours and were only there for an hour and a half. The interview was a piece of cake; the interviewer was hilarious and upbeat. It felt as though I was approved before we even went in for the questions. So… my immigration visa will land in Calgary in about a week and I’ll receive my greencard in about 2 months. This means that we’ll be coming back to Denver next weekend. YES!

Merci beacoup to everyone that has prayed and fasted for us. This has been a month of miracles for our little family and we’re so excited and grateful to be recipients of so many blessings.