Difficult Week

This week has certainly been a difficult one. First, we found out that there is no way that my passport is going to get to the consulate, get processed, and returned to me in time for me to fly to Toronto for my grandma's funeral. Tuesday, my dad called the Canadian consulate office in Chicago to see if there was anything that could be done to speed up the process, or if there was a letter that could be written saying that my passport was in the process of getting renewed, but just wasn't finished yet. My dad was told that some sort of letter could be written, but now that I had moved to Mississippi, I was no longer under the jurisdiction of the Chicago consulate and I had to talk to the consulate in Atlanta, Georgia. I put on my big-girl pants and called the Atlanta consulate on Wednesday, but of course they didn't pick up. I left a message, trying to explain my situation as best as possible and hoped that they would get back to me. Surprisingly, they called  me back within two hours or so, and I talked to a woman named Stephanie. Again, I tried to explain my situation as best as I could, saying that my passport had expired, and I needed a new one in time for my grandma's funeral in three weeks. After numerous phone calls on both of our ends, (including me having to call the funeral home and having to get them to fax me a copy of my grandma's death certificate to prove that she actually passed away , something I NEVER wanted to have to do,) it all came down to me having two options.

1. I could either change my flight so that I landed in Buffalo, NY and drive over the border with just my permanent resident card. This was a possibility because apparently security over land is less strict and they would "most likely" let me over the border. However, this option didn't work for me because my plane ticket (as well as my mom's) was bought with airline miles from my dad's father. To change the tickets now would result in a fee as well as us having to rent a car for the 5 days we were going to be there and we just didn't have the money to cover all of that. 
2. Since changing the plane tickets wasn't going to work, I had to prove to Stephanie that by trying to change my ticket, I would lose all of my air miles, or that the fee to change the ticket was more than the ticket was worth, and if I was able to do that, she would consider trying to help me again. Air Canada wasn't willing to write me a letter, so I had to fax her my plane ticket that showed that my ticket couldn't be changed. However, this wasn't proof enough for the consulate, so I was basically back to square one. 

My dad, who I swear is part of the Canadian mafia (if there is such a thing) somehow knows someone in Parliament so he contacted her and she said she was willing to try and help us out. So now we wait and see if anything comes of that. If all of these things fail, I guess I'm just going to go to my flight with all of my documents proving who I am and hope that they let me through.

To make this week even better, I just found out my dad's in the hospital and I'm 9 hours away from him. My mom said it's just another bleed that he gets every now and then, but I hate being so far away from him especially since things with him can go downhill so quickly.