I must admit I used this trip to manipulate Mystic's behavior. If she got out of line, back talking or general teenage drama queen tantrums, I would simply say "I guess you don't want to go to Canada then do you" and it worked like a charm. Instantly she turned into this sweet little girl who did her chores without complaint. I found the magic potion, the cure all, well at least until we left.
Mystic is an excitable child. Holidays, birthdays, all the things she looked forward to had a countdown. NASA wasn't as excited at putting a man on the moon as this kid was to going to Canada. She researched the route, checked on what we could and could not bring into the country and was so excited when she found she didn't need a passport if we went before June, 1st. Getting a passport can be a lengthy process and she didn't want anything standing in the way of her making a run for the border. She got out of school on May 14 and wanted to leave the next day. It was so hard for her to stay home long enough to see dad come home for a 4 day visit. Don't get me wrong, she loves her daddy, but he isn't Kyle. I had never seen Mystic so full of energy and hope in a long time. After all she had been through, this made her smile again and that made me very happy.
JR had a rare four days off in a row and it was pure torture for her. He made sure to go over the rules and what he expected ( IE: making sure she comes home in the same condition she left in, nothing extra on board). He went over how she needed to make sure she acted like a little lady at all time, after all, she was representing our home, our values and in a small way, America. She was counting the hours by this time. She drove her father and I insane but it was nice to see her not down and depressed.
Now it was time to pack the car for our "adventure" and if I knew then what I know now...I would have packed more Tylenol. She had not slept from excitement and countless cans of Monster mixed with Red Bull. I on the other hand was exhausted from dealing with JR for four days and getting things together for the trip. I went to sleep at midnight only to be awakened by Mystic at 5am ready to go. 36hrs without sleep had not slowed her down any and I was tempted to see if she eaten the energizer bunny. We were off and she was almost insane with joy. She had the map and we got to Kansas City. We had to make a pit stop to give JR some stuff he had left behind. We did a crash course on how to navigate and were on the road again. Two girls traveling the country, a little scary but an adventure just the same.
By the time we hit St Louis, biological need overcame caffeine overdose and she was passed out in the front seat. I was actually a little happy about this because I was going to need help staying awake at the end of this trip not the beginning. I stopped for gas and she woke up. I couldn't believe she was bright again after only an hour and a half of sleep. We had been on one other vacation in 10yrs but JR drove so pits stops were few. This time it was just her and I and we stopped when ever we needed to. We got a lot of time to talk. I have been her step mom since she was four so we were not strangers but there was a new bond we were forming on this trip and I was happy to see it.
Four states, fourteen hours and thirty minutes later we can see the border. Mystic had been text messaging with Kyle for the last five hrs of the trip and they were both ecstatic. I was wiped out but knowing we were almost there was awesome. We saw the Canadian flag and pull up to the border check point... and that's where the nightmare began.
Bare in mind I have never entered a foreign country except through the airport and the last time I did, I was still a kid myself and mom did all the talking. We pull up to the guard shack and the lady asked us where we were from. We told her we are from Kansas and the first thing out of her mouth was, do they have stop signs in Kansas? I explained that they did and she asked if I knew what they looked like because apparently in the maze that leads to her bright and shiny disposition, i missed 4 of them. Well I guess it was a good thing that it was now 10:30pm so i didn't kill any would be border crossers.
I could tell she was about four hours late for a Midol but also realized it was not a good idea to continue to irritate an armed woman so I didn't vocalize this observation. Then the question came: What is the reason for your coming to Canada? Not thinking this would be something to hide I answered honestly "I'm bringing my daughter to meet her online boyfriend" I said with a smile. Unfortunately for me, one was not returned. When showing our ID she must have done the math in her head and started to go on about how she couldn't believe I was bringing my fifteen year old to a foreign country to meet someone. Yes, Canada is a foreign country, technically, but its connected to the United States and it is not like it's a third world country. I wasn't there to sell her into slavery nor did I stick her on a Greyhound bus and say have a good time. I was being responsible, supervising this meeting and all aspects of her social life. I could not believe I was now having to defend my parenting skills to someone who didn't know us. I was told to park the car and prepare for a search.
We were searched for almost an hour and they separated us to make sure our stories were the same. They went through the car and found places I didn't know I had. They went through our cell phones and questioned why her father was not with us. They wanted his phone number and questioned what we knew about Kyle and his family. They wanted phone numbers, addresses, even Kyles date of birth.
One of the border officers took Mystic's computer and told her to start it up. A new nightmare began. She inherited the computer from her mother. When it started up it had Cathy's name and picture. The officer asked Mystic who Cathy was and she told him "That's my mother", to where he went off saying "You said that woman was your mother". This child who was over the moon for the past almost 15hrs was now sad again having to explain how her mother died. The only good part to that was he felt like crap when she was done.
The officer who spoke to Mystic asked me if i had legal documents from her father saying i could take her out of the country. By this time I'm almost in tears. I do not have legal papers because in our house, we don't treat the kids any differently between his and mine. To us they are OURS and no need for ownership papers, they are not dogs.
The personal search begins and they get a female officer to search us. Thank God it wasn't the Nazi that greeted us at the gate but this woman was not very friendly either. Mystic was outraged she was being searched at all. She looked at me with shock and said "Oh I know that bitch did NOT just touch my ass!!" I told her to chill and it would be over faster but she was indignant at being treated like a criminal just because I was being honest at the border. I want to comfort her but they wouldn't let us near each other enough to do so. I mean really, how many fifteen year old, bleach blond American terrorists really try to invade Canada per year?
Mystic's cell phone was going off through this whole time. Kyle was trying to find out why we were taking so long at the border. She wasn't allowed to answer her phone and that was making her insane. When they finally realized we had no guns, drugs, rocket launchers or explosives and no intention of over throwing the government they sent us to the Immigration office. I asked why we needed to go there since we were only staying a week and i was just told to go.
It didn't take long to figure out why I needed to go in there. It was to have another complete set of strangers question my parenting skills. We had to go over all the information all over again with a new set of people with nothing better to do than screw with my evening. I had to explain I have seen this boy on web cam, I have spoken to him on the phone, emails and instant messages. She had known him for over a year and his parents were supervising as well, so its not like they were going to have alone time. I am not a bad mother, I will and do everything to protect my babies and did not like having a woman who admittedly didn't have children question my motives.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would be this hard to get in to see our neighbors to the north. The truth shall set you free? No, the truth will get you detained, searched, questioned and humiliated. Oh how much easier this would have been if I just lied and said "We wanted to see your beautiful country before passports were required"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment