The Precious

We received our first package from the States this week. My sweet Mom sent us a package with kitchen knives, and thankfully, they made it through customs. I was quite excited to get some new knives because the ones I had (and sold) in Austin were terrible, but I was most excited about what she packed with the knives.

My Mom also sent us almost 2 boxes of Carnation Instant Breakfast. She stuffed as many of the little individual packages of it between the wrapped knives, and it actually made it without getting sliced to smithereens. You might not think that Carnation Instant Breakfast sounds that exciting, but Keith has had it for breakfast almost everyday for around 35 years. Of course, I got hooked on it before we moved, and now we are both sad because we can't buy it here in England.

Now you can see why we were so excited to get our package. When I opened it, I immediately put the packets on a high shelf where the kids couldn't reach it because I have no intention of sharing with them - they just wouldn't appreciate it. I really did feel a little like Gollum protecting the Precious in Lord of the Rings. Keith and I are already rationing our stash, and we are hoping my Mom has to mail something to us again soon.

Even though we can't get Instant Breakfast over here, we do have all kinds of great new foods to try. Last week Keith and I helped make lunch for a group of church leaders meeting at GPBC. We worked with several great people, but we especially enjoyed meeting Julie (a member of Florence Road Baptist Church - the church we are joining with). Julie was kind enough to tell us about all the new sandwiches we were making, and she filled us in on the new condiments we were using that we weren't used to. Needless to say, we had a good conversation about food and grocery shopping.

On Sunday, our new friend Julie surprised us at church with a gift bag filled with all kinds of English condiments. She totally stocked our pantry for us, and we can't wait to figure out exactly how to eat all of our new treats. Julie's thoughtfulness is just another example of the amazing hospitality we have encountered at our new church.

We haven't really done any real cooking because we are still waiting for all of our stuff to arrive from the States. We sent some cooking stuff over here, but I can't really remember what I sent so we haven't wanted to buy a lot of new stuff yet. Everyone wants to know about our refrigerator. It is definitely smaller than what we are used to, but it could be worse. Some of the refrigerators in the rental properties we looked at fit under the counter and weren't any bigger than a dorm refrigerator. Yikes! We feel blessed to have our "big" refrigerator and even more blessed that it actually has food in it.