Wow, what a time it’s been since returning. It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been back in Canada for 2 weeks. It seems like Costa Rica was a million years ago, but at the same time we seem to still be struggling to ‘fit in’ here and it’s a constant reminder that we’ve been gone a while. Our mind-frames are different… Our outlooks, passions, and desires for life seem to clash with the norm, making light conversation less than light, at times.

As can be expected, everyone has questions… Some are harder to answer than others. And the ‘hard’ part is the fact that we don’t have answers.

We’ve kept busy over the past 2 weeks, which has helped distracted us from the fact that we are no longer in Costa Rica. Although sometimes I feel that our hearts are still there. We’re still a little displaced yet.

We flew into Winnipeg on April 14th and spent a few days there, then spent a few in Dauphin. On the weekend we skipped town and headed down to Minneapolis with two of our bestest friends. The trip to Mini was probably the best thing we could have done. Spending a few days with close friends that understand missions (they went to Haiti a week after the earthquake in January), marriage without children, wanting to dedicate your life to serving Christ, and uncertain life plans due to feeling a call towards ‘non-normal’ careers, we could talk to them about anything. So therapeutic! (And don’t get me wrong, the shopping didn’t hurt either!!! Nor did dressing up western style, taking in a benefit concert, catching a movie, or camping.)

And now? Now we are now out west. We flew to Vancouver after returning from Minneapolis. Tom has family here and in Victoria; I have family in Nanaimo. We’ll be around these parts for about 10 days. Wish us luck when we go panning for gold on Saturday.

Life has been fantastic in many ways since returning back to home turf (we love traveling!). But it’s also been difficult in other ways. A part of me wants to suppress all feeling and live it up while we can… But my more mature side is encouraging me to take this time to process. Processing after a major life event (which Costa Rica was, for us) is natural, normal, and needed. And sometimes processing results in a non-smiling face… Which sometimes results in misinterpretations by those you are staying with.

Sigh.

But for those of you that may be wondering, we do have some life plans ahead of us. After returning from the west we will only have a few days left in Manitoba, then we’re heading east. But only for a few weeks… Because we are heading back out to the mission field!!!

Anyone want to guess where?

Blog Stalker

We went to Winnipeg Evangelical Church today. It's always nice to stop in and take in a sermon from Pastor Ron in the ol' familiar church Tom and I started in. It's the church I went to when I became a Christian, and both Tom and I were baptized there (nearly 3 years ago!).

As per usual sometimes, because we attend so infrequently, and often before or after big events, we were asked to rise; this time to accept an applause from the congregation for our work in Costa Rica. We love WEFC, we feel at home there, and quite supported.

After the service people often come over to say hi. It's really nice, but sometimes it's met with a challenge... Sometimes we can't remember people's names :I (We justify this by thinking that because Pastor Ron announces our names, they remember ours.)

But today, today was a bit different!

After the service we were saying hi to people and saw a young lady coming towards us. Tom said 'Uh oh, here comes the challenging part... I have no idea who this is."

Then the young, beautiful lady announces, "I'm your blog stalker!"


It was awesome! It was really nice to meet her (you!) in person. After she delurked on my blog a little over a year ago (over a crock-pot recipe), I started following her's. It was great because it was like we were old friends! We knew stories of each other, and where we were at in life.

Really cool, and the first time that's happened to me; meeting a virtual friend in real life.

When we parted she said "I'll be sure to follow you on your next adventure!"

How cool is that?!?!

That's It!!!

Back!

A ton processed.

A ton to do before leaving in 6 sleeps.




(which is really too bad because I have A LOT of blog fodder going on right now...)

Retreating...

We're off for a few days to do some major processing (and have a few meetings in San Jose). We'll probably be back on Friday.

Wish us 'luck'.