By Ana O

It was 2011, when my husband moved from Greece to Canada. He came alone, me and our daughters stayed back because we did not have a visa yet. We were seeing that employment was decreasing in Greece, so we decided to find a better place for our daughters to have a better future. My husband had a cousin in Canada and helped him. My husband was a plumber, and I was a housekeeper. When my husband moved, I was alone, with just my daughters.

My husband came to Canada without knowing any English. He was challenged as well because he had to go to school and find a job to sustain himself. We were apart for about 3 years. It was difficult for my daughters as well, their dad was away and they missed him. My husband did not have a job yet, but later on he became a plumber in Canada. When he found a job and he was happy about it and started making money.

The process was difficult, I had to go and get the right documents, I had to go on an interview and most importantly I had to be patient. When I got the right documents and now they had to process them. It was a long time age, when I was asked to go for the interview. After the interview they told me they would notify me via email, to find out whether we can get the visa or not.

The years went by, my daughters had grown, when one day I came home from work and opened my computer to check my email. There it was , the email that I was expecting, the email that would change my life. I opened it and it said we could go receive our visas. I was so happy at that moment! I told my husband and he said that we would finally reunite after 3 years.

It was the summer of 2014 when we first came to Canada. It was so different, the climate and tall buildings, everything was so different. At first, I went to school to learn English, my daughters already knew the language. After a while I got a job at a bakery and I am still working there. My husband already had a job but now he owns his own plumbing business and my daughters are attending school. We have now been in Canada for about five years. We had our struggles but now our daughters will have a bright future.  #immigrantStruggle