A packing day

Packing, sorting, packing, dinner with our kid at the cutest little pizza place right beside her house in the city. Good day!

A timeline of transition

This is our season of transition.  I could write a book about it all and maybe someday I will write more, but for now I'll just share with you the timeline of our next few months since that seems to be the most common question we are asked.  We appreciate your prayers for us (and our children) as we transition and go through the many changes and emotions of repatriating.

(btw, a great blog I was told about regarding re-entry / repatriating is:   http://www.scrapingraisins.blogspot.co.nz/ )




March 31  Kevin  finished at Chinese Alliance Christian Centre after 5 years of ministry.
April 1 I finished at Cockle Bay School, after 9 years working there - 3.5 as office staff and 5.5 as a teacher.

April 2-11  Kevin and I pack, pack, pack..... with only a few visits pre-booked during that time, otherwise we would never get everything done!  We need to stay home and work, even though it is far more fun to go out and visit!!

April 11  Danae and Devon arrive in Auckland, from Brisbane, for a 2 week visit

April 12  The movers come and take our stuff away - mostly cherished possessions, very little furniture.  It will be shipped to a storage unit in Edmonton, as this seemed the most central location. It will take 10-16 weeks to arrive.

April 16-24  We take our wonderful family of 7 for one week in Rarotonga!  Rest, relax and enjoy each other's company!  Can't wait!!!

April 26   Danae and Devon return to Australia for one month before moving on to Amsterdam to work and live.

April 29  Kevin and I hug our kids at the airport (and cry) and go to Hawaii for one week to catch our breath before repatriating back to Canada

May 7   We arrive in Grande Prairie (where both sets of our parents live) and stay for two weeks, where we will purchase a truck and holiday trailer in which we will live for the summer

May 20 - Jun 6   We will be in Calgary, celebrating my dad's 80th birthday, visiting family and friends, and attending CMA General Assembly

Jun 11 - 27   We will be in Kelowna - some time spent at Bruce and Niki's and some time spent at Todd's Tent and RV in Peachland

June 30 - July 3   We will be at Lake Nakamun family camp where Kevin's brother will be speaking and we will have a Nichol family reunion with Kevin's 2 brothers' families and his parents

July 6 -11  We will be in Drumheller for a Reimer reunion

July 11 until whenever we will set up camp in Grande Prairie/Beaverlodge as we wait and pray for where God will send us next

A time of farewells

What a busy week it has been!  Lots of farewell chats, hugs, coffees, meals, visits.... with quite a few more to come before we fly out on April 29th.  It's exhausting and yet it's incredibly encouraging!
Here are a few pictures of some of our many treasured moments from this past week.

Our Principal who hired me to teach, and our office administrator who very first hired me in the office.  Dear friends and co-workers.  Thanks for including me in the incredible journey at CBS!

Just a few of the absolutely amazing families that I have been privileged to know and teach over the years.

school trip to Cockle Bay Beach

700 students plus about 50 staff make for a lot of people to get into one picture!

so many hugs from lovely little people anywhere I go... very sweet

This amazing group of friends from work totally surprised me with a farewell dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.
So incredibly blessed and thankful to call them my friends. 

Fantastic evening with the younger generation at the church.  So blessed by each of you!

Easter weekend

A busy and yet relaxing five day weekend.

Good Friday was followed by a very packed day of visiting on Saturday. Evening dessert party with many people from church.

Easter Sunday was our farewell at church. 

On Monday we drove to Cambridge to visit Clyde and Caren and pick up our stunning artwork by Caren and give them the gorgeous bowl made for them by Mark. 

Tuesday was a day of rest and recovering from our busy weekend and the cold that found me, including pedis and manis with Paige and a sunset walk with Kevin. 

Surprise farewell

Today the students and staff surprised me with a farewell in school assembly. It was wonderful and I felt extremely blessed. I can't believe they pulled off such a great surprise!!  I must be losing my 'spidey sense'! Kevin even knew about it!!  However, I did get a bit suspicious when I was on junior school duty and two students were talking to me and one asked if I was leaving today and the other said no we are just farewelling her. Very cute. It was lovely and I'll the the videos to this post too along with the screen shot above. 

Memories video link http://youtu.be/gdFEek29cZE

Assembly link https://youtu.be/Ow8AAxkMNRE 

25!!

On Saturday CACC celebrated 25 years as a church. A great evening of celebration!!  

Kauri keepsakes

Kaitai kauri from northland.

A few months ago I saw the work of a wood sculptor, Mark Jones, at the Howick village market. I loved it!!! There was a mirror he had that I came back to purchase but he didn't have it any longer so he showed me a piece of wood he'd had in his shop for a few years that he had yet to carve. I agreed to purchase it as a finished product to take back to Canada with us. 

In thinking of a special thank you gift for friends of ours who helped us with the process of purchasing our home here, I decided to see if Mark had anything that might suit. He had three roughly hewn out bowls in process. I chose two for a good price. One for us and one for a gift.  

Tonight Mark delivered all of my commissions and I'm in love! The craftsmanship is outstanding and the pieces are gorgeous!! I can't wait to display them in our new home in Canada. 

Takanini kauri from near Papakura