The first two weeks have been very hectic in settling the family in to their new home and ensuring that everything was in place for them to feel safe and welcome. In their first few days we have been running around arranging the various services and things that they will need from getting their medical …
Woken by the phone at 9:30 – can Global TV interview the family on their first day in Montreal? Have to scramble to find translators but we managed to pull it off. Good coverage of the family and they want to follow up in 3 months’ time. A Syrian refugee family’s first day in Montreal
Received news late in the day that their plane has been delayed and rather than landing at 8pm it is landing at midnight. We arrived at the airport just before 2am. At 3 am they started calling names, one name every 4-5 minutes. Our family’s name was called at 4:45, and we left there by …
A co-workers husband had a huge truck so he was able to bring over the contents of an apartment that somebody had offered to donate to us which was great. We got an adult bed, table, 4 chairs, bookshelf and lots of his kitchen. It’s all coming together nicely. The only down side was moving …
Picked up the keys at 9:30am and did a few trips by car to fill it with all the items that were generously donated to us. Toddler bed, crib, dresser, and kitchen items. Did some shopping trips for items we needed for basic food and toiletries.
We spent the whole of the next day phoning and trying to visit apartments close to us that would be suitable for the family. We were a bit taken back by the range of excuses we were given once we told prospective landlords that we wanted the apartment for a Syrian refugee family we are …
We got an email today from the Beirut embassy saying that our sponsored family will be out on the next plane and expected to land at 20:00 on Monday 15 Feb. One person must be nominated to pick them up 2 hours after the plane lands. They have only given us 3 days’ notice to …
We have been busy collecting and co-ordinating donated items of furniture, strollers and clothes. We have now collected plenty of children’s clothing but we still need to get lots of other stuff together. We are also searching for suitable apartments. We have found several that would be suitable but we need to get a firm …
We have received a letter from the Quebec Immigration dated 27 December giving us the CSQ, saying that our sponsorship has been accepted and our application and documents have now been sent to immigration at Montreal airport and the Beirut embassy. We are hoping that the family will be arriving sometime in February and March.
We heard this weekend that our Sponsorship has been accepted and finalised by the Canadian Government and also that the family that we are sponsoring have been cleared by security in Lebanon. We also got to find out all their names and also a little bit more about their story and why they had to …