Hello, again, friends! Thank you so much for praying for our family. I am really excited to be getting back to them today! As much as I enjoyed a couple of days "off", I really miss them. Last night after church, I went out with a couple of ladies. Now these ladies are older, one 87 years, and the other in her late 60's. We went out for Chinese (I had already had supper with the Eagles). The food was great, the fellowship, excellent, but boy am I ever tired!! I didn't get back to the church until close to 11:30!! But I am glad to have had the opportunity.

Faith Eagles has been so good to me (she has a sweet servant's heart). Not only did she pick me up from the Hamilton Airport on Tuesday, but she also drove me downtown yesterday, had me over for supper, and is driving me back to the airport! Isn't she so sweet??!!

Yesterday's citizenship ceremony went well. After Faith dropped me off, I met my MIL (thanks, Mom, for taking time out of your busy schedule to join me for this) and we had lunch in the same building that the ceremony was to take place, so we didn't have far to go. It took some time to get the ceremony started as there were I think 68 of us, and documentation had to be checked on each of us. However, they seemed pretty efficient. The judge was really good. He gave a lot of Canadian history, talking about the diversity of Canada. That took a while, and then everyone in the room took the oath. After that was done, each name was called, and just like at a graduation, we went forward and received our certificate, and signed the oath. He took the time to ask each person ,or family in some cases, where they were from, and he seemed to really enjoy talking with each one. My eyes welled up when he announced a beautiful family of 5 from the Sudan. I don't know why; I think I was just emotional anyway. While there were many cultures represented, the largest group was the Filipinos. We then sang O Canada, and were dismissed. The whole thing only took an hour.

After Mom and I said our goodbye's, I walked across the street to the passport office. The young clerk that I had to deal with was a little snarky at first. On my application, I wrote that I was traveling to Togo on May 19. So she asked me how long it took to get a visa from there. I told her a week. She said, "There's no way to process this passport AND get your visa by the time you need to leave." I said, "Oh, I already got the visa; it's in my U.S. passport." Then she said, "How is that going to work? You know, coming back to Canada without your passport having been stamped." I really didn't know at that time where she was going with her questioning, and she is still kind of snooty at this time. So I went on to tell her that I would be

traveling FROM the U.S., and when I got back, I would LAND in the U.S., and drive back into Canada. For some reason, we were not seeing eye to eye, and she goes on to tell me that I "need to do my homework and make some phone calls before I leave. That what I was doing would NOT work." I thought in my head, "Lady, you don't know Who actually is controlling things around here!", but I said out loud, "You know, I am just going to pray for a REALLY nice and understanding border guard!!" That made her laugh, and she said, "I like that answer!" Then, she was fine, and proceeded to tell me about the day of HER citizenship ceremony. So we had a really nice conversation. She informed me that I can pick up my passport on Tuesday, the 18th. That's the DAY BEFORE WE LEAVE!!! Who's in control, indeed:) PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

I am off to join my wonderful family in New Brunswick. Yay!

Have a wonderful day!

Psalm 113:1,2

Love,

Ida