We Made it One Year

Today  is officially our one year anniversary.  It has been a while since I have posted and I have a list of posts I have been meaning to put up so I guess it will be a little out of order.  I just wanted to take a little bit of time to write about how I feel about being past the one year mark.  I think it is actually a victory for us. Alot of couples talk about the first year being one of the most difficult ones of their marriage and that has been no different for us.  I am not writing to complain about my marriage but rather to be honest about where I am at.  When I got married a year ago I thought I did not have a fairy tale idea of marriage and I still think that was true but I did not have a reality of marriage either.  Sean and I both have come from family backgrounds that we knew going into this marriage would make things difficult, but we both believed strongly in the commitment of marriage and the desire to change.  I naively thought these two things were enough but I quickly learned that commitment and desire to change are just the beginning parts.  The hard part and the part that actually takes guile is actually changing yourself ( I wanted to point out all of Sean’s areas that he needed to change).  For me this year I have come face to face with my own problems and areas of sin and boy are they big.  I have to admit in the first few months of our marriage I was shocked to find my self really struggling with my attitude.  Our marriage consisted of fighting pretty much every day and most of these fights were because of my dissatisfaction and nit- picking.  Whew what a learning curve we have had.  Today as I look across the room at my husband sitting and reading I am proud of the journey we have come through the last year.  Not that we have fixed all of the problems but because I am seeing development in our relationship; a respect and love for each other that is different then an infatuation.  We are learning to respect the differences and be comfortable with them.  The hardest part for me is when I fall into the same destructive patterns over and over again, the change is so small and gradual that it feels like you are not moving forward at all.  At the same time that little minuscule change that you can barely notice has taken me so much to change it is a huge victory.  I do not believe that Sean and I are any different then most marriages, all marriages so I am told go through seasons of frustration and anger.  I am so blessed to have a husband who is working with me and sticking with me as I deal with my negative behavior.  Now to a happier note, Sean surprised me with an anniversary weekend.  I think I had the best time I have ever had.  The best part was that I was perfectly comfortable with letting him do everything (for most that know me this was a huge victory since I normally want to critique, control, and organize everything , this usually kills the mood on a romantic evening).  What a surprise it was when I actually let go, that Sean was perfectly capable at creating the best romantic getaway.  I think my ability to release control came from Sean asking me several weeks ago about my expectations about the weekend.  This conversation allowed me space to voice my dreams. Then this past weekend my expectations were not getting in the way and ruining the weekend.  Mostly I think I just felt listened to.  I was so blessed by the many conversations we had this weekend due to the fact that there was no frustration and anger going on to short circuit communication.  Looking back on everything from this year we have had alot of hard hits and bumps in the road but after this weekend I would say that we have weathered this year.  I feel just as in love with my husband if not more than when we said our vows a year ago. I believe it is a different kind of love a more mature love.  Year number two here we come!

The Sunsets are Beautiful Here!

When I first moved to Abilene I really struggled with living in West Texas. I did not like the desolate scenery and relationally I had a hard time making friends which was a sharp change from my time at college.  I did not want to be a rain cloud all the time so when people asked how I was liking Abilene I would simply tell them that the sunsets were beautiful.  Really it was one of the first things I liked about Abilene and for a while it was the only thing I liked about Abilene.  However as I continued to live in Abilene there were things that I grew to love about that place.  Mostly, I am thankful for meeting my husband there and having wonderful memories of dating him.  I also eventually was able to make friends, whom I still miss.  I guess at Harding it is easier to make friends because you are all in the same boat not to mention the same dorms.  Life in the real world is not that easy.  Now I am finding my self in the same situation again. I am in an unfamiliar place, away from friends and family, and struggling with relationship. The one difference is that I am more confident that the Lord is with me.  Today  we had a church meeting and picnic out at the polo field and our preacher gave a sermon about sharing our good news.  He had us think about what in our lives give us glimpses of God’s presence, of God’s goodness, and God’s promises.  I believe for me I can find that in the sunset.  In Abilene my answer to how I liked my new home was really a desperate attempt to find some sort of good news and now in Victoria the sunsets are the good news!  Lately I have struggled with depression and homesickness, but I am working through it. I have learned so much so far about myself, about my marriage, and about my Lord.  Despite my struggle I do not hate it here, actually I am thankful for the new place I am at both locational and spiritual.  Thank you Lord for the Sunsets!

She Sells Seashells by the Seashore

 

The other day we went to visit some friends that live down by the coast and discovered a nice little beach area that is pleasent to walk around.  The beaches here are pretty rocky and the water is cold. I have not seen the typical scene of everyone out in their bathing suites enjoying the waves. Most people walk along the water enjoying the sound of the waves.  I find the rythmic sound of the tide very relaxing.  Sean and I have visited this beach a few times since then. Sean likes to go and read and I like to poke around taking pictures.  It was also fun to find shells.  I found several shells that were connected and it reminded me of butterfly wings which in turn reminded me of my sweet memories with the caterpiller and butterfly group. Oh how I miss those days but they bring a smile to my face.

Sean enjoying some reading time

I love the way the water leaves this design in the sand

Exploring Victoria

Sean and I have had many opportunities to explore this new city we are living in. One thing we have discovered is that we love the scenery.  We are truly blessed to get to live in a place that most people plan to visit on a vacation. There are alot of fun activities that cater to tourist and we don’t mind partaking.  We are also learning that the locals also have lots of interesting festivals, parks, and outdoor markets.  We have visited several of the parks here in town. The other day we were at one and saw tons of little baby ducks following their mom across a busy street and there were people stopping traffic for them. It totally reminded me of “Make Way For Ducklings.”  The downtown area is really nice here.  One day we decided to ride the bus to the downtown area. There is a bus stop a short ways from our apartment. Streets downtown are difficult to traverse because of all the one-ways so it is easier to take the bus. We explored alot of shops downtown, we found a good used book store (kind of disappointed they don’t have half price books), we also found a soda shop that we really liked. The soda shop is not like having a cream soda but it is the next best thing.  Government street downtown is full of great shops as well as mesuems and very old buildings.  Right on the inner harbor is the Emporess Hotel, which is a very old historical hotel. It was fun to poke around and take pictures downtown and on weekends the inner harbor is teaming with lots of activities. My favorite thing to do so far is going down to Dallas road which is the road that runs along the coast. It is a beautiful view, you can even see the mountains across the way in Washington state.  There are lots of little inlets that you can park your car and get out to walk around. Every time we go out I try to remember to grab my camera.  The other day Sean and I explored a new place, the peninsula.  We walked along the nice sidewalk that followed the inner harbor and enjoyed easy conversation.  On busy week days you can see kayaks, Cruise ships, and float plans all coming into the inner harbor.  We have also gotten up on a few Saturdays and gone garage saleing.  I convinced Sean to come along with me inorder to learn streets and back routes here in Victoria.  One Saturday morning as we were driving around looking for garage sale signs we ran across a big group of people with tents hanging out in the parking lot of a local school. We decided to check out what all was going on. It turns out that it was a local market that sets up every saturday for local artisens and gardners to sell their products. It was basically an outdoor craft show, it totally reminded me of my days with my family setting up at craft shows. We had a blast!  Sean’s favorite part was that he got a huge homemadesausage hot dog, he scarfed it down in seconds.  Also, we have found that almost every weekend in the summer there is different free festivals taking place. Our first experience of these festivals was the Highland Games that our friends Brian and Crystal Morton asked us to go to.  This festival was basically a tribute to the Scottish heritage. They had dancing, kilts, bag pipes, and more. I think my favorite part was watching these guys pick up a huge pole (the size of a telephone pole) and launch it in the air. They point of the game was for the pole to flip end to end.  There was only one guy that was able to do (he did it twice).  In the month of July there are alot more festivals and the music in the park series starts so I hope we are able to check these out. I have included alot of other pictures after this post because I am just amazed at all the beautiful things there are to see and do here, I just wanted to share with you a piece of that, I hope you enjoy.

outside beautiful historic hotel

the double decker buses, yet to ride on one yet, but just like England!

The flowers are just beautiful here!

The parliment buidling on the inner harbor

This place is within walking distance from our apartment

Feeding the ducks at the sanctuary, this guy liked the food so much he thought he would sit and stay awhile!

The Highland Games: Pole toss(called something else but don't know) point was to toss this and it flip over.

It is so windy and cold on the coast, the wind was pratically holding me up!

Giant cruise ship headed out of harbor, when they come in they are as tall as the buildings downtown.

Inner Harbor right at sunset, beautiful!

The parliment building at night time

Apartment Shopping

We were extremely lucky to find an apartment here the first day we looked. We called two places and the second place we looked at was perfect. It is amazing to me how the Lord just takes care of things. When the apartment manager showed us the apartment he asked us why we moved and what job Sean was doing. When we told him that Sean was a minister he responded with that he was a christian too. He also told us he had been praying for more christian couples to move into the building. We were very excited about this, you never know how someone will react when we tell them what we do. I suppose we should not be afraid to tell people and we have never not told any body what Sean’s job is when they ask. At the same time as you let the words come out of your mouth you almost cringe and wait for the response. You almost wish they had not asked that question. I think the biggest thing is that this is a new country and we just were not sure how people here react to Christians we have heard alot of different things about the post modern culture here being non receptive to Christians. Honestly I don’t think I have run into that yet.  So, it was an answer to prayers that the apartment manager and his wife are Christians. They have welcomed us and offered to help with any settling in that we may need.  Sean and I both knew moving up here that we would choose an apartment as quickly as possible so that we could get settled in. In a year we will begin looking for another place maybe in a neighborhood we want to work in. Our apartment is a one bedroom apartment, the kitchen is smaller then I would hope, but the apartment is bigger then our one in Abilene.  We have a balcony with a great view and Sean and I love sitting outside at nights and talking.  I found a gliding rocking chair at a garage sale that I have out on the balcony for my quite times with the Lord. We have also pretty much gotten everything unpacked except a few boxes of decorations. A family from the church gave us a sofa and it is so wonderful to have a living room. In Abilene it was difficult if I wanted to stay up but Sean needed to go to bed.  This apartment continues to feel like home more and more everyday. This past week we had friends over for dinner, it was so wonderful to be able to entertain. Again in Abilene it was just too small to have people over for supper. I totally believe the Lord went before us and found this apartment for us.

The living room, it totally looks huge without anything in it.

Dinning room from the living room

Kitchen from dinning room

otherside of kithchen, fridge is as tall as me (very short)

Bedroom it is a little small but the bed fits if we angle it.

view from our balcony is very nice, we are on the back of the building so it is quiet

Our balcony, very long and great to sit on

The outside of our building

We are offical! This is our intercom system so we can buzz people into the building

Pounding vs. Gramming

 

Special Nniamo Bar a cultural dessert

The first week we were here the church gave us a pounding. Basically that means that everyone brought a pound of different groceries to help me build my pantry.  I thought it was funny that they still called it a pounding even though everything here is in the metric system.  I was very thankful for all the support the congregation has showered us with. The pounding was such a great idea because shortly after I ventured out to the grocery stores and was completely lost. I am very sad and overwhelmed that most of the brands and things I like they do not carry in the stores here.  It was nice that people gave

The biggest jar of Nutella, reminded me of college years

 me a large variety of items because now I can try different brands and figure out what I like. I can’t help but feel like I am starting over and it

really is overwhelming. I

They have the weirdest chip flavors, these are ketchup chips! Yuck

think that was the first experience of culture shock I had.  Since that point I have gone to the stores and just walked around figuring out the products and familiarizing myself with how to buy food here.  Somethings are in pounds and some are in grams. The other day I tried to order sliced meat from the deli and the lady asked me how many grams I wanted. I was dumbfounded. Luckily she came to my rescue and helped me convert what I wanted to grams.  It was quite an out of body experience, can’t say I have experienced that before.  Also, I am getting use to the fact that every food item here the packaging is in French and English. It took my a while to figure out that some items that I couldn’t read on the shelf just needed to be turned around so I could see the English side of the package. It was a little crazy at first to not be able to read the french but I am figuring out the system here.  I guess with time I will be a pro at the grocery store!

I was excited someone gave me alfredo sauce

We love these maple cookies!!

I had no idea what this was, turns out it was peach flavored gummy penguins!

Home sweet Home

Steve and Joan Mann (elders here at the church) opened their home to us when we first arrived.  They had a wonderful basement suite that we called home for two weeks while we hunted for apartments and got settled in.  It was a blessing to have such a wonderful place to stay and it was hard to leave when did find an apartment.  I am so thankful for their hospitality.  When we first arrived Joan had put some groceries in our kitchen in the basement so I didn’t have to go grocery shopping right away. They also invited us to there weekly family dinner on Thurs. nights.  I was very thankful for their hosting us and giving us the space to get acclimated to Victoria.  Thank you Steve and Joan!

BC Ferries

Once we crossed the boarder we drove to the ferry terminal so we could cross to Vancouver Island.  This is aparently a mood of travel we are going to have to get use to.  Since Victoria is located on Vancouver Island then the only way to get from the mainland to the island is by boat or plane.  The ferries are huge, so huge, that you can drive mulitiple eighteen-wheelers onto them.  I had never seen anything like it in my life.  They basically measure you and charge you for how long you are (we were pretty long) and then we line up in the huge parking lot, once the ferry has docked then you drive onto the boat. They pack you in like sardines.  The upper decks have a shop, caffertieria, an arcade, and tons of comfy seats. I must say it was an interesting experiece.  When we arrived at the ferry terminal we had just missed the 3 o’clock ferry so we had to sit and wait for the 5 o’clock one.  It was nice to have some time to stretch you legs and not be in the uhaul. I think it was probably the most relaxing part of the trip since I knew that we were almost to the end of our journey. 

lined up and waiting

Crossing over

I thought this was interesting monument at the boarder, it reads "children of a common mother"

We were all prepared with paper work and had heard lots of stories of what to expect at the boarder.  Sean and I were defiantly nervous.  When we got there we only had a short wait and the boarder patrol officers were very helpful.  I was a little disappointed that they did not look at my detailed inventory list of all our boxes since I had worked so hard on it. However, I was still glad I had all my paper work because it would be just my luck to not have it and then they wouldn’t let me cross the boarder.  We were amazed that it only took us an hour and a half at the boarder (that is short).  We now have our work permits and were officially allowed to cross.  When we came out of the office building we noticed that there were several patrol officers going through someones car and pulling off the panelling. I was very thankful that they did not search our truck since we had packed it so well, that would have been a nightmare. I believe the Lord was looking out for us at the boarder. 

I can't describe how good it felt to see this sign!

 

America the Beautiful

America the Beautiful Words by Katharine Lee Bates,

 O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee.

(I couldn’t help but think of this song as we travelled across country)