Filipino family reunited in St. John's following 11-year immigration fight
Mylene Badiola had to leave her family behind to create a better life
A St. John's family has two more reasons to be thankful for this holiday weekend.
After more than a decade apart Mylene Badiola will be able to sit around the dinner table with all of her children.
Following a years-long struggle with Canadian immigration the Filipino woman finally got the paperwork in place to bring over three children she had left behind in 2012.
"I was so excited to see them," she said. "I can see them on the Internet but it's different when you see them actually."
Badiola made the difficult decision to leave her three children — Kate, Jelo and Jade — with her ex-husband in the Philippines to come to Canada to work and send money home.
She landed a job with Tim Hortons and has quickly risen in the ranks at the coffee chain.
While living in St. John's she met a man, fell in love and had two more children. Until recently her Canadian-born children had never met their Filipino siblings.
Wading through what she called a difficult immigration process that took years long than she had hoped, Badiola was allowed to bring her youngest son Jade to Canada back in February 2022.
Over the next year she continued to battle to bring over her two eldest, Kate, 22, and Jelo, 20.
"Eleven years of waiting for my children," she said. "It was like a roller-coaster."
For every significant event in her life, Mylene Badiola usually has her phone on, live-streaming her life to family and friends in Canada and the Philippines.
Last month, she captured a moment she had been been waiting for since 2012: hugging her two oldest children.
A moment her daughter fully embraced as well.
"For 11 years we have no physical contact," she said. "My heart is full."
Kate, Jelo and Jade now join the other young two children, Mikaal Druken, 8, and Maya Druken, 6.
Add in Mom and Dad, and seven of them live together in the city's Shea Heights neighbourhood, with the three boys in one room and the two girls in the other.
"It's chaotic and it's fun," Badiola says.
"Everyone has to do their job. Someone has to do dishes, someone has to cook, someone has to clean."
This weekend, for the first time, the Badiola-Druken family will celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. And since Badiola and her three Filipino-born children all have permanent residency, it won't be the last time.
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