CANADA!

Well, we made it! We are officially residents (in a temporary-3-year-visa-for-now-kind-of way) of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. We arrived to a wonderful group of people from the church and to the perfect home for our family and pets to rent until May.( If only Toivo and Mankind could foot the rent! or at least split it with us) Ooo, I realize now the danger of writing this so late. Strange and worrisome humour. Forgive me.

We feel comfortable, blessed. Sometimes overwhelmed. All that you might expect from a move of this nature. The best part is that we may rest knowing God is the master-mind behind this whole thing:) I feel a bit overwhelmed as I'm not sure where to start writing. So much has transpired over the last 30 days. I find this incredible and mind-boggling just the same. I guess I'll start with the immediate. We are without permanent cell phones and consistent internet, hence why you have not heard from us! That's also the reason you won't see any photos on this update. The photos are on my computer which won't pick up the neighbourhood's (there's another something to write about! We must integrate and begin spelling all of our favourite words, colours, etc correctly:) anyway, won't pick up the floating-around wireless. So I write from Josh's computer and wait patiently for our internet to kick in. Rumour (tee hee) has it Wednesday may be the day.

And things are well! The folks at Lighthouse Community Covenant Church here in Sarnia have been absolutely wonderful to us. They have helped us unload, unpack, furnish our temporary home, they have brought us meals, gift cards to grocery stores and coffee shops (Tim Horton's, of course, where Ezra has already had his fair share of Tim Bits...photos to come), they have shown great hospitality to us in these weeks by inviting us into their homes for meals and football games (go Vikes!- at the time I write it is 28-28 O/T in the Vikes/Saints game! There are many, many Vikings fans here. Who knew?) Oh my goodness, I hope you can bear with me writing this way. Each sentence seems to remind me of something else I want to share with everyone! Yes, thank you Lighthouse. The students have wowed us already with their genuine selves and we are humbled by their graciousness as they allow us into their lives. We look forward to getting to know them better with each day. This is going to be fun! God is very good (and contrary to popular belief, He does know what He is doing)!

For all you Ezra fans out there, he is doing wonderfully. He has really grown up this month. I don't know if it's because he has almost had to with the transition and busyness, or if it's just this season of his busy 17 month old life. He has had a few more time-outs this month, but again, we are confident this is the age for the beginnings of pushing limits and testing boundaries. I guess I do have one photo. It's of Ezra on his time out stool. Seems wrong to move to another country, finally make contact with our friends and family via our blog and only post one photo of a time out. So I'm not going to. I think I'll throw it into the mix on our next post.

We miss our friends and family. We love you more than you know. We wish we did not have to leave as fast as it felt. But we are here now and it is an adventure. We leave on Saturday for my 4th annual exhibit at the Blue Mangrove Gallery on Marco Island, Florida. Though we are still getting settled, we are looking forward to hitting the road, getting some hopeful sun, visiting dear friends and showing the oil paintings I worked hard on this fall (which are now on my website). Josh and I look forward to talking about all that has transpired in the van, which he recently updated with aqua captains chairs circa 1972 for the back seat. Who says cargo vans aren't kid friendly? Ezra has an amazing view down onto all the traffic. He made the trip from Minnesota in style if you ask me. :)

Well, the Vikings just lost. Ouch. Josh will be home soon and I must comfort my weeping man. I'm looking forward to our next post! Thanks for keeping in touch...