OE

Facebook memory photo from today: 

Nine years ago today our family boarded a plane amidst tears, excitement and trepidation, to begin our family OE.  Before leaving Canada I'd never heard of an OE, as it's not an expression Canadians use.  But OE it certainly has been.  Our Oversees Experience.

We had no idea when we went how long we'd be going for. Paige and Danae only had two years of high school left and part of me thought that they would return to Canada for university or to work after high school, but they stayed. 

In 2011 Kevin and I returned to Canada (his only trip back in the nine years we've been in NZ) to pack and sort through our belongings in order to ship them all to NZ in anticipation of a permanent stay.  We bought a house. We live in the present with an eye to the future, but we didn't  close doors on what God may have for us. 

And so, after nine years, we find ourselves nearing the end of our OE and don't regret a bit of it. We wanted to show our girls that the world was a bigger place and we did. The world is theirs to explore! And now it's time for Kevin and I to begin the journey back to our roots. 

But then again, who knows where we may be nine years from now!

Packed and ready to fly back to Auckland tomorrow.