Another few days have passed and it seems we aren’t much
farther along with a return date home. After we spoke with the DNA testing
company in Toronto they had promised to get the DNA test out over night by
Fed-Ex. Three days later, the package finally arrived at the consulate. We
tracked the package every five minutes in anxiousness and the round about way
the package got to us amazed both Daniel and myself. Our DNA test went from
Toronto, to Memphis, Miami, Venezuela, Columbia and then finally to Panama
City. We watched the Fed Ex tracking website with amazement and thought someone
was playing a horrible joke on us.
We tracked the package until it finally arrived at the
consulate and without batting an eye we packed up Layton and grabbed a taxi to
the consulate. Anxious to have the test performed and sent back to Canada this
to us was the only item that was holding us back from coming home. We thought
the test should be pretty simple and straight forward, as a consulate you would
have thought they would have performed these dozens of times throughout the
history of the consulate, but then again things were just not going our way
down here.
After waiting for about 30 minutes until one of the
consulate representatives could see us and then another 20 minutes or so for
them to actually find the test, they came out and said that we needed someone
in a lab to take the swabs as samples. We weren’t going to wait a minute longer
to have these tests complete so we called Sindy at the hospital and she said to
come right over to have these tests done from someone in the DNA lab. Daniel,
Layton, the Consulate representative and I ran across the street and met with
the lab. This was another frustrating task since no one had a clue what was to
be done with the test and stacks of paper work that accompanied the testing
material. Frustrations were getting high from all parties and finally after
about an hour we were able to have the tests packaged up and ready to be sent
off by Fed Ex.
Time has not been our side in this entire process, we did
the test on Friday and thankfully was able to get Fed Ex to pick up last call
on Friday and since it is a long weekend back in Canada we are still unsure of
what the time frame is to have things completed and what will happen next.
What we have painfully had to learn is that it isn’t easy to
get people to help you down here, the consulate only talks to Canada through
email and its hard to get them to pick up the phone and speak to individuals in
person. There is a huge disconnect between our Canadian government and the separate
arms of our own government working in different Countries and no one seems to
all be on the same page on important issues and processes. We know we have done
all we can do right now, and again we are in the hands of a government that has
no urgency to help us out. Hopefully they will get the DNA tests early this
next week and can release authorization for the consulate to grant a passport
for Layton but each week we think we have a timeline in place, but every week
our timeline gets pushed back…some good luck has to come our way soon.
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