Two Months: The View from Here

The sun sets on today, which is our two month anniversary since crossing the border (that's the view from our upstairs balcony). Quick tangent: one of the things I love is that we're in the 2nd largest city (and fastest growing) in the province, but we can still see the stars at night on our balcony. And the sky is so clear (take that, Los Angeles).
Well, the last two months have been a whirlwind adventure as you probably are aware if you're reading this. Right now we're tying to figure out if we can all get back to Iowa for an early Christmas in August. I'm going to be back to perform a wedding (yay, Petey & Pepper) anyway, and we found out that Beth's Mom's 70th birthday party is going to be the weekend after, so we figured it would be the best time for us to go and try to see everyone (since we probably won't get to go right on actual Christmas anymore--it tends to be an important day in the church). It would be a great time to go and see everyone. But we're trying to figure out if our funds can cover it. Six months of unemployment ate up our savings fairly quickly (some of which we had been keeping around to use for a trip for our 10 year anniversary this summer, but that's not going to happen either--not that it could happen with two young ones). And of course all the moving costs, and the extra costs of living north of the border (plus we need to import our car this month and registration and insurance is crazy here). Canadians get monthly child tax credit cheques for children under 18 years old, which we were hoping to get in on, but we have to wait until we've been here 18 months. Ce la vie. Anyway, that's not said to go on some sob story here, but because that's where we're at right now. Just because God takes you some place after going through some challenges, doesn't mean He's going to bless you with twice as much (as He did with Job). And we're not expecting Him to - He's still been providing for us in every way.

And I'm still adjusting to pastoral ministry in some ways. It's a welcome adjustment. We're enjoying it - and love our church family.

And even though we don't notice it in our day-to-day lives, the boys are growing. Nils is sitting up--that's him pretty much supporting himself on my shoulders. Our little boy is old enough for shoulder rides! And Anders is, well, he's Anders. He's learning to be a big brother and to play with other kids and to become "a big boy (/big brother)" as he has proclaimed himself.

To our friends and family back in the States--it's been two months that we've missed you greatly. And if you're reading this in Canada, we've really been blessed getting to know you during the last two months. And we're excited about the months ahead. Don't forget, we've got a guest room - just a mile from the beach.