It saddens me to say that my family and I are leaving Canada again. We are heading back to Beijing, and though it saddens me to admit this, I am not as surprised as I should be. Canada has been a very good experience for all of us over the last year, and being here has accomplished most of the reasons we wanted to repatriate in the first place. Even though it will be difficult, we believe that leaving is the right thing for us to do at this point.

Since coming back to Canada, I have had the opportunity to meet and see some of my old friends again. Some I met for the first time in 12 years, some I haven’t spoken to in about the same amount of time. I do wish that I could see them again before I leave, but this is probably not possible. We also had the chance to introduce the children to 3 of their 4 grandparents on my side, all their Uncles, and one of their cousins. My wife, Irish, was able to make a few friends here, and we will try to keep in better contact with everyone this time around. Overall, the benefits to the family have been good.

On the flip side of that coin, we have been having non-stop financial difficulty since coming to Canada. Work as I may, we quickly went into debt, more than I ever thought was possible in 1 year. I became a financial burden on my family, which I never meant to be, and I am truly sorry for this. There have been days that I have lost sleep over this, and if you know me that means a lot. Now this has a 2^nd negative effect, because, I believe, my credit is checked when I apply to sponsor my wife for her Permanent Residence (P.R.). Also if I accept any form of welfare from the government, I am immediately unable to sponsor her. One of our goals upon moving to Canada, was to process her P.R. from inside the country, and this has become nearly an impossibility.

One of the reasons we decided to return to China was, upon talking to my old boss in Beijing I was offered my old job back. I loved working at Zhongde School. I was a real teacher, the students were great, and I was working regular hours and was on a monthly salary, not an hourly wage. We will have to set ourselves up again, but we have confidence in that, as we know what we’re getting into there. Irish has friends in Beijing that she made the year before we left. We will be able to send money back to Canada to pay off our debts. I will be able to spend time with my children again. We can process Irish’s P.R. from Beijing, and things will return to “normal” for us.

Yes China has its difficulties, and we are worried about a possible war with the Philippines happening in the near future, which will explode into a multi-national war if started. We are not happy with the “Great Fire-wall of China” either, because that means that our tablets and phones will not have access to western social media, (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google +, to name a few). On a computer, which we no longer own, it will be possible with a VPN (Virtual Private Network), but we will have to buy a new computer first. We have lived with these for 8 years prior to our move to Canada, and should be ok this time.

I have been spending the last week working out our budgeting for the next year, to make sure we are going to be ok with repaying our debts, both personal and professional. This and Visa work for China has left little time to relax. I am still working at my company in White-Rock, and they know that I am leaving. I have been working on getting used to having time to call family and friends more often to keep them informed of what is happening, and let them know we are ok, and that we miss them.

We do not know for sure when we will return. I want to bring the family back to Canada for the summer Holidays in 2017 at the least. However, for us to return on a more permanent basis will require a lot of criteria to be met: first and foremost, we have to have paid off our debts. I have to have my teaching licence for at least 1 province (I was hoping to apply for BC & Alberta). We have to have savings, enough to survive for 6 months or more without work. I need to have a career set up for when we arrive, no part time jobs, but something that can allow me to take care of my family properly.