a faith observed: the past five months in a nutshell

When we went to the States we decided against bringing a camera as we packed SUPER light, knowing that both of my sisters and their husbands take great photos. Here are some of the photos that Deb and Zach took - Rachel and Darren's are on the external hard drive which I'm too lazy to go hook up, so next time I sit down to post you'll get to see more of the Sally/Gracie photos! This installment is mostly the Simon/Johan Happy Days. Anyway, this blog posting has been a long time coming so I am going to not allow my perfectionistic tendancies to kick in and I will just post it as it is....

Walking along the battery in Charleston

Halloween in the Burgh

Gracie at the pumpkin patch

The police officer and Handy Manny

Tasting hush puppies outside Hyman's Restaurant in Charleston

Gracie and I at the pumpkin patch

Aunties listening to Johan reading books to Simon (Rachel - are you wondering Simon has a poppy nappy - oh wait, he was potty trained by Charleston!)

Walking around Charleston

Another amazing culinary experience in Charleston

The lighthouse playground at Folly Beach

Johan on the slide.

Fire truck slide at the pumpkin patch outside Pittsburgh

At a restaurant in Charleston - I think we both had shrimp and grits, no wonder we're smiling. Little G liked grits as much as her mama.

More Folly Beach shots

Children's museum, Charleston

The battery, Charleston

Outside the Firetruck Museum, Charleston

Folly Beach, SC

Firetruck Museum, Charleston, SC

A visit to the pumpkin patch, outside Pittsburgh

Hayride at the pumpkin patch

It's been a while since I've had internet, let along kept up with my blog. We left Tewantin on the Sunshine Coast in late September. Our first stop was Toowoomba where I started a part time job as a social worker with Lifeline's family intervention team (working with families whose children were on orders with the Department of Child Safety). I really loved getting back into my field and while I of course missed Simon and Little G I admit it was good to have some time away and easy for me not to worry about them as they were in Andrew's great hands. One of the best things about going back to work was just being able to THINK again. Sounds funny, perhaps, but after almost four years of being a stay at home mom it was kind of like a mental holiday. I find that I am constantly multi tasking and managing fifty different needs and emotions on a continual basis and having the gift of just thinking about work 2 days a week was very satisfying.

When we originally moved to T-ba we thought we'd stay at Bob and Steph's until after we returned from our USA trip. At that time, we planned to find a house and settle down in Toowoomba where Andrew would look for a teaching job. However, after a week in T-ba, we found out about a dream teaching job for Andrew that wasn't in Toowoomba but was in Caboolture, which was about an hour from our old home in Tewantin. But more of that to come....

Second stop. USA. I have been hoping to do a whole blog entry on our trip but several months later, I think I will just sum our trip up as AMAZING - one of the best traveling experiences I've had although at points we bordered on insanity. Our itenary -

Brisbane - LAX- Chicago IL- Jackson and Ann Arbor, Michigan-Pittsburgh, PA-Charleston, SC-Virginia Beach, VA-Harleysville, PA-Waterford, CT-Pittsburgh, PA- Goshen, IN - Chicago, IL - LAX- Brisbane (over fifty hours of driving and forty hours of flying or in transit).

The best part about the trip was seeing my family and good friends. As you can see from the pictures, Simon and Johan hit it off beautifully as did Salma, Grace, and Simon. I loved experiencing fall in America. The pumpkins, apple orchards, celebrating Halloween and Thanksgiving American style, apple cider, leaves turning colours, brewed coffee, the FOOD (especially in Charleston!!!), children's museums, LegoLand, SNOW (on the last day of our trip), Mexican restaurants, playgrounds, firetrucks, Chick-fil-a (Simon and Johan liked that!), Barnes and Noble, going to pick out and chop down a Christmas tree - it was all so festive and American and I loved it all. We were so blessed by great hospitality from friends and family. After the first week of jet lag (AWFUL) we really relaxed and had a real holiday. And surprisingly the airplane ride over went well but the ride home was, well I've blocked it all from my memory it was that bad. But hey, since it's blocked, I'm ready to do it all again!

Third stop. Toowoomba again, where I worked some more and we stayed with Bob and Steph again while we waited to see if Andrew would get his dream teaching job at a Christian school in Caboolture. Back in early October we found out about the possibilities of some openings for a job there in January (Andrew's brother Tim works at the school) but nothing was set in stone- at that time they hadn't even posted any jobs. It sounded like a perfect fit for Andrew and we both had this incredible sense of peace and calling - that this is where we were supposed to be. So we prayed about it and just held onto this incredible peace that we would end up there. It was an incredible four month journey of trust and really quite special- as I felt myself constantly/daily/hourly praying about it all. One night in Charleston, SC, I was praying about our future and where we'd live and I asked God if we could think about houses together or more specifically, look online at houses together. So at midnight, I get up and get online to look at houses (with God) and there is this perfect brand new never been lived in, house that leaps out at me for $400 less each month than all of the other houses in that area. Oh my gosh, God - we should do this more often!!! Well, in short, four months later, here we are in the house next door to that perfect house and yes, paying $400 a month less than the market value because of this great government scheme called the National Rental Affordability Scheme that God lead me to.

so, Fourth stop, four (or five)months later, here we are in Caboolture and so grateful and happy to be here.We love our house and being settled and having internet after so many months. We love it that there are two Sudanese families with little children our kid's ages in our neighbourhood. We love it that the principal at Andy's school told him not to take work home on the weekends. We love the extra space we have in our house, the garage, air conditioning, and CLOSETS! Funny how much you appreciate the little things you've missed when you are living out of boxes and suit cases for an extended period of time. Like routines and knowing where you put the nappies.

Okay now that I've updated all my faithful readers on the past five months I can get back to blogging. My goal for this year is to post more regularly, just little things weekly as a kind of diary to keep my family and friends up to date on our lives as well as to look back on in years to come.

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This is me, a faith observed.

C.S. Lewis writes about the pain of losing his beloved wife, Joy, in his book, "A Grief Observed". In some ways this is my attempt to share my journey through grief and back into life, as the past nine months have been characterized by an immeasurable longing for my beloved father, who died suddenly this past January.

After months of hibernation from the internet, I unexpectedly find myself able to re-begin this blog and connect with my larger community of family and friends. This blog will likely reflect less of the intensity and depth of my pain and more of the simplicity and ordinary joy that keeps my life full - namely days running after our little boy, Simon Pierre. But it is because of the incredible love and presence that defined my relationship with my father, that I feel I can will myself to not just survive each day but to pour that same kind of love and attention onto Simon.

My father was an endless source of strength to me, a pillar of faith. His last words, spoken to my mother as he passed into that which is unseen, "God is good - good all the time", have remained with me through this dark cloud of grief. And when God seems hidden, when justice seems to be losing out, when life is unfair, and when death swallows up the one I most love, I remember my father's words and breathe in this promise, that the God of love is in the process of restoring that which has been destroyed.

And as my father told me in dream I've had since his death, "Look to Jesus. As a father, to point you towards Him is the best gift I can give to you." So here I am, this is me, a faith to be observed.

I hold onto that which is not always seen- the promise of God's goodness, the hope that one day in the promised new heavens and earth- on a grassy hill or a sand covered beach- the lion and the lamb will lie down side by side and I, too, will lie down side by side, next to my father, and we will laugh and laugh until there are no more tears left to cry.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

the past five months in a nutshell

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