Mylene Badiola had to leave her family behind for a better life
One St. John’s family has two more reasons to be thankful 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.
After a years-long battle with Canadian immigration officials, the Filipina finally got the paperwork in place to bring over the three children she 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 actually see them.”
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 got a job with Tim Hortons and quickly rose through the ranks of 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.
Mylene Badiola has been reunited with her eldest children for the first time since 2012. See what happened when she gave them the hugs she waited 11 years for.
After wading through what she called a difficult immigration process that took years longer than she had hoped, Badiola was allowed to bring her youngest son, Jade, to Canada in February 2022.
Over the next year, she continued to fight to bring her two eldest children, Kate, 22, and Jelo, 20.
“Eleven years of waiting for my kids,” she said. “It’s been like a rollercoaster.”
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 waiting for since 2012: a hug from her two eldest children.
A moment that was also fully embraced by her daughter.
“For 11 years we have not had physical contact,” she said. “My heart is full.”
Kate, Jelo and Jade now join the other two young children, Mikaal Druken, 8, and Maya Druken, 6.
Together with mum and dad, there are seven of them living 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 fun,” says Badiola.
“Everybody has to do their job. Someone has to do the washing up, someone has to cook, someone has to clean.”
This weekend, the Badiola-Druken family will celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving for the first time. And since Badiola and her three Filipino-born children all have permanent residency, it won’t be the last time.
