Moving Day

Today is the day...out of our house we go. Thought I might have a hard time falling asleep last night, but fell asleep just fine. Problem: woke up and could not go back to sleep when the clock said six-something. I am so NOT a morning person, so packing another box or sorting anything right now is probably not a good idea. So, I'll visit/have coffee with you guys instead! (Again, not a morning person, so I as I reread what I've already typed, I see this post leaning toward the "not-so-complete-sentence-style".)

Visa developments:

• The missionary in Spain, Isabelle, who we will be working with, was able to speak to someone in the Madrid office, who actually located our files!
• Had a big scare when they mentioned that we were missing a document. A phone call to the Toronto office assured us that they had already taken care of it. Whew! What a relief! If it would have been a document that we hadn't yet submitted, that would have meant finding/creating the document, having it translated by a certified translator, having both the original and translation notarized by a lawyer, sending them to Ottawa to be authenticated for Canada, then to Toronto to be authenticated for Spain, then to the Spanish Consulate in Toronto (still not sure what exactly they do there), then back to Madrid. That's the process, the one that has taken us five months already! Praise the Lord Toronto already had whatever that document was!!
• Isabelle also found out that the person handling our application was away on holidays this week (of course! ~ sorry, please excuse the exasperation), BUT it's Friday! So the week is over and we'll pray that person comes back from holidays next week, refreshed, ready to get down to work and zip those apps through =)

Preparations for leaving:

• purchased 4 extra sticks of my favourite antiperspirant - trust me, I've tried others and only Secret Solid Unscented will do - so hopefully, that will last the 11 months.
• purchased extra of my favourite moisturizer and powdered mineral foundation (Pure Anada - manufactured by my very own make-up-making cousin). P.S. Candace, I'd link to your site here, but again, it's early, and I'm a rookie blogger, and not sure my brain can pull that off right now, sorry. P.S. Everyone else: Google it - good stuff! Manitoba grown! Steinbach-ers: available at Mission Nutrition. ~end commercial break~
• Best recent purchase: Digital luggage scale...it's astounding how heavy jeans are! how light winter parkas are! Will have to do some very random-abstract packing to max out the 50 lbs. per suitcase...2 jeans, 8 T-shirts, 3 winter parkas, 4 deodorant sticks, 1 textbook, 1 plug adaptor, socks, underwear and a few Barbies/Polly Pockets to fill in the gaps = 50 lbs. That's hard for a concrete-sequential girl to do!
• Great Canadian Thanksgiving meal with friends! Had a turkey in my freezer that needed to be cooked, so mashed potatoes, stuffing and yummy sesame green beans made it official! Thanks E & H for the great evening! (Had a picture to prove it, but I see my diligent husband has already packed up the cable needed to be able to show you.)
• Got to meet the family moving into our house...we couldn't be more blessed!

~Heavy sigh~

Okay, back to finish packing. Should be awake enough now. Thanks for having coffee with me this morning! Any packing/travel advice is welcome!

Oh yeah, so our home phone number will now get you the Barkmans. And Emery's cell phone will now get you a different SCHS teacher. Emery's parents' home phone number will somehow find us. Just sayin' :)

What a Difference a Week Can Make

After our initial recovery from the bad news from the Consulate, the decisions felt so huge and so many. But, here we are, significantly feeling all our prayer support, decisions made.

Drum roll please...

~ One more sleep in our beds.
~ Then off to deliver the kids to "the farm" (my parents) to experience the last of harvest season.
~ Then Emery and I will finish packing up the house and moving over to join his parents in Mitchell, who have graciously solved our homeless non-issue.
~ We'll eventually get our kids back in time to start school - not Homeschool!
Braden will return to SCHS. Macy will join him at SCHS for the first time for Grade 5. We're hoping just a short trial of private school will help her and us make the decision  later on whether she will go to SCHS for Grade 6 or 7 or maybe 10. And Rayna is thrilled to be able to join some cousins and friends at Mitchell Elementary School.

We all feel complete peace about these decisions. I think the kids will do well to be in routine and social circles for at least another month. They are all starting a new adventure and can hardly wait for school to start.

As for Emery and me ~ since birdwatching, soap-watching, or just about any other kinds of watching haven't been a big part of our lives up to this point, we think we might do better getting some building projects or volunteering done for other people. (Ah-ha! I can just hear the rush to the Suggestion Box/Odd Jobs List - that's good!!)

God provided another little shot of encouragement in the visa department. Isabelle, from Bethel in Spain, may have found a way to track our papers. She is going to try to find out where our visas are at in Madrid this week. From Madrid, our papers are sent to the local area where we will be living. Our reports of the speed at which that local office works is encouraging.

Okay, off to scrub and pack some more! I guess this was my siesta time.

Enjoy the journey?

As we looked at our About Us section of this blog we noticed it said our adventure was beginning in August. Has it?

Way back, when we thought about what we wanted this year to all include, Emery and I had discussed whether it would be multiple "things" or just one main "thing". Some "things" began to take shape and it looked like we would do the one main "thing" and go to Spain.

Last week we found out that our visa process was not as advanced as we had hoped. The news from the Toronto Consulate was that the applications only went to Spain on August 7 instead of July 7. This was not welcome news as we were not liking the idea that our adventure would have to wait to begin. But as we processed this news, we've decided to change our perspective. Our year will not just include  one "thing" anymore.

And our adventure did begin in August (at least for me!). For nearly a month we have been sorting, purging, cleaning, fixing and packing to get ready to move out of our home for the beginning of September. (Emery does not share my view that this has been an adventure:) It has been freeing and exciting for me! You know some of those things that just don't get done because they are ugly jobs or because you just don't get around to doing them? Almost all of those are done! It's fantastic! And some of those things may never get done (or have to be done) again! So we will hand over our home in September, regardless of our visa status.

Don't worry, we won't be homeless. We're not going to just "wait", but continue our adventure. As someone once said, it is important to enjoy the journey, not just the destination. So we will enjoy the time we have this September to do some things that we have never done before. Homeschool for the kids, no other responsibilities for us, no house to clean or yard to take care of. I'm thinking the quality family time, giving our kids our undivided attention, will have eternal value.

People say the East Coast is beautiful this time of year.
Our very own province has polar bears in the North!
We could live at the lake!
Did you know that flights to and accommodations in Florida are cheaper than either Canadian Coast?

Our clowns at Rainbow Falls, July, 2012

Time Still Flies

Yikes! A whole month has passed since the first post!
And....nothing has happened - with our visas, that is. We called the Consulate in Toronto and they informed us that there is no way to check up on the status of our process and we shouldn't bother calling again until the end of August.

So...we are enjoying some GREAT Manitoba summer weather and activities. We've been at the lake as much as possible, with family and friends as much as possible.

Most common question answer: Shockingly, no, we aren't that frustrated. There have been so many affirmations that this one last detail, however major, isn't dampening our spirits.

• We have a wonderful family to live in our house for the year.
• We sold our van.
• We have someone to "look after" our car while we are away.
• We dispersed of our pets.
• So encouraged by people filling up the squares on our Pick-A-Plett Prayer Support Calendar.
• The sorting and packing of our belongings has actually been quite freeing and fun!

So, yes, even while you are waiting for something, time still flies!