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.

Sutton's First Day of School

Today is Sutton's first day at her new school, Hove Park. I am not sure who was more nervous me or Sutton. OK, I am pretty sure I was more nervous than she was. Sutton seemed pretty calm. I think she was definitely ready to go back to school - any school. It has been the longest summer she will probably ever have.

We picked up Sutton's schedule yesterday, so she had a good idea about what her day would be like today. Her year, year 8, has 300 kids in it, and those kids are divided into 3 groups of 100 (Hove Park is one of the biggest secondary schools in town). Somehow they are divided based on what languages they are studying. Sutton is going to be studying French and Spanish.

Unfortunately, Sutton's school is a pretty good distance from our house, and it would take too long for her to walk there. Luckily, Keith was able to take Sutton to school this morning. Our neighbors left town yesterday, and they left us their car to use while they are away. Sutton will eventually ride the city bus to school, but we are still not positive which bus she needs to catch. Actually, we think we know the bus #, but we are just not sure about which stop she has to catch it. We need to figure that out. Hopefully, she will meet someone from school who lives around here, so they can tell her exactly what to do.

Speaking of driving our neighbor's car, we had quite an adventure yesterday. We took our neighbor's car out for the first time, and Keith did great! He was very brave because we decided to go to the Marina across town to go to ASDA (like Wal-Mart). It was a pretty straight shot on main roads, but they were busy roads. The most difficult part was maneuvering a round-about by our house. Our neighborhood is called Seven Dials because we live near a round-about where seven roads come together. It is a little scary (even worse than the Circle in Waco), but Keith handled it like a pro. I am still not sure I can handle this driving thing. I think I prefer to just be Keith's navigator.

Sloane is doing great, and she loves her new school. She was so excited to finally have some friends to play with. In fact, she had a friend over to play on Monday (her second day of school). Some things never change. Here is a picture of Sloane and her new friend Izzy drinking tea in our garden.

I should have known Sloane would be the first to assimilate. She (and Sutton) already insist on drinking tea everyday. I am just waiting for their accents to change. It shouldn't be long.

Worshipping at GPBC

I love our new church! Worshipping at Gloucester Place has been the highlight of our time here. Everyone has been so friendly and welcoming that it already feels like we belong. I love that about the Church - it really is a family.



I also love believers here in England. They are so REAL - that is the only word I can think of to describe it. Keith and I noticed this difference the first time we went on a mission trip to London. Maybe it is just the churches we have been to and the believers we have met, but faith just seems more real here in the UK. I think it has to do with the fact that being a Christain here is not really that common, and it certainly isn't popular or cool. At home, it seems a lot of people go to church on Sunday to "do the right thing" or they say they are Christian because that is what everyone says (especially in the Bible Belt of the South), but this claim hasn't really changed the way they live their life on a day to day basis. Here, when you meet a believer, their faith seems more genuine and deep, and they are committed to the church and the community. It is very encouraging.



I was also encouraged this morning when I looked around the congregation and noticed how diverse it seemed. Not only were there people from every generation, there were people from many different backgrounds and even countries. After talking with some people after church, I realized that beginning in our row and going back 3 rows we represented the United States, Eritrea, Latvia and Poland. How cool is that!

We Are Still Alive!

I knew I was going to be a bad blogger, but I never expected to be this bad. I am sure some of you were starting to wonder if we ever even made it to England. Well, it has been a long week and a half, but we are still here. I am blaming my poor communication on the crazieness of moving in to a new house (in a new country none the less) and our lack of internet service at home until yesterday.

For the 11 days we have lived in England a lot has happened. I am not sure even where to start, but I know you want details. Here are the major things I can think of off the top of my head.

• Our flight began in Houston, we changed planes in Charlotte, N.C., landed in London at Gatwick, took a train to Brighton, and sqeezed ourselves and 7 enormous bags into a taxi to get to our house from the train station.



• The Steells, our friends who live around the corner, were away on holiday in Spain, but they left us the keys to their house. Unfortunately, we couldn't figure out how to turn on their tv.



• Even more upsetting was the fact that it took a week for Virgin Media to come to our house to set up our home phone, tv and internet service. We just got all these services yesterday, and we are thrilled to have reliable technology again.



• Because we didn't have a working home phone, we needed to get UK cells phones as quickly as possible. Sadly, we found out that because we don't have a UK credit history we can't get a mobile phone contract. No new phones for us! We are all on a pay-as-you-go plan and have the most pitiful phones you have ever seen.



• On the bright side, people from our new church have been so kind and considerate. Last weekend, we had several people stop in to bring us cards, flowers and food. One couple even brought us printed google directions on how to walk to church on Sunday. After church on Sunday, we ate lunch at the house of a couple from the church, and then another family took us to do a little shopping.

• The girls' school situation has worked out great. At the last minute, Sloane got into the school we wanted, and it is right behind our house. She was not able to start on Thursday with the other kids, but she started on Friday. She had a great day and loves her new teacher, friends and school. We met with Sutton's school on Friday, but she won't be able to start until next Wednesday because they have to work out her schedule and figure out where to place her.

• Our next door neighbors are both great (thankfully, because we are VERY close). On one side is a family with a teenage daughter and a 13 year-old son, and on the other side is a retired couple. We thought we were in trouble when our neighbor, Rose, told Keith that she didn't like Americans. I guess she has come around (or at least likes us) because she has already taken Sloane with her to her cat rescue job, lent us tools and a heater, and she and her husband have offered us their car for 2 weeks while they are away on vacation.



• Our neighbors have lots of cats and they wander through our garden and try to get in our locked cat door. The good thing about the cats is they entertain Sloane and keep the seagulls away for the most part. We will see what they think about Lucy when she comes.

• We are all still sleeping on air mattresses, and this is getting really old. Keith and I took a train to London last night to go to an Ikea. We spent about 3 hours gathering a house full of furniture. A guy from our church who has a large van met us at Ikea, and helped us get all of our boxes home. We were unloading all our stuff last night around midnight. It is probably going to take about 2 months to put all of this together. Unfortunately, the bed and mattress Keith and I picked out was out of stock, so we will be sleeping on the air mattress for a little while longer.

Well, that is all the juicy details I can think of right now. We all love it here, but it will be nice when we are a little more settled and our house feels more like a home. It is a little strange not celebrating Labor Day weekend, and we are all missing the start of college football (really just Keith and I care - we did see some of the Michigan game on ESPN America). We know we have new things in store for us here, and we can't wait to experience them. I promise I will be better about blogging, so you can experience them with us. Happy Labor Day weekend!

We Made It!

I am going to keep this short because I have now been up nearly 30 hours, and I am not making much sense. I did want to let everyone know that we (and all of our giant bags) made it to Brighton safely. We left Houston Tuesday around noon, had a layover in Charlotte N.C. and then arrived at Gatwick around 7:30 Wednesday morning. Somehow we made it with all of our bags onto the train from Gatwick to Brighton (about 25 min.), and even more amazingly we all fit in one (large van) taxi when we arrived in Brighton. The taxi took us to our new house, but unfortunately, our new landlord wasn't there. He had told us if he wasn't there, the keys would be at the knitting shop around the corner (our landlady owns the knitting shop). Sadly, we arrived around 9:30, and the knitting shop didn't open until 10:00. We did get a chance to meet a couple of our neighbors as we were spread out all over the sidewalk. Sorry I don't have pictures or more details now, but I will blog them as soon as I am able.

ONE MORE WEEK

It is hard to believe, but we only have one more week left in the United States. We will be in Austin until Saturday, and then we will leave for College Station for the weekend. In College Station we are going to say goodbye to Nana, Grampy and Meme and drop Lucy off. Lucy will be living with my parents until November when she will be able to join us in Brighton. Then we will head to Houston to visit with Gran and Grandad until we fly out of Houston on Tuesday the 24th.

Even though we have spent the last couple of weeks sending items overseas, moving some things to our parent's houses, having a garage sale and making many trips to Goodwill and church, we still have things to get rid of here at the house. We have to get it down to the things we will be able to fit in the bags we are taking on the plane. I was kind of hoping this week would be a time of rest and recovery from the last couple of weeks, but that hasn't happened. There just isn't enough time to do all the things we need (or want to do).

The main thing we want to do is say goodbye to all of our wonderful friends here in Austin. If we haven't seen you or talked to you yet, give us a call or just stop by. The clock is ticking, and we don't want to miss you.

Downsized

I have never been so tired in my entire life. Keith told me on Tuesday that he had good news and bad news. The good news was the moving company was coming on Friday to pack and ship our stuff, and the bad news was the movers were coming on Friday to pack and ship our stuff. Needless to say, I have spent the last several days (and nights) scrambling to decide what we were going to take to England with us, what we were going to store at our parents' houses, and what we were going to have to get rid of.

We decided not to try to ship our furniture, because it is so outragously expensive. In order to take some personal things (like clothes, pictures, toys, etc.), we decided to just ship a small container. That means most of our things couldn't make the trip, so we have been very busy selling our big items on Craig's List and trying to talk our families into taking special items for us.

The main question I keep asking myself is how in the world do we have this much stuff. I feel like we have intentionally tried to live simply, and everyone knows that I do not keep anything (I hate clutter and my family makes fun of me for throwing everything away). This has definitely been a convicting experience, and I have sworn to myself to never gather this many possessions again.

It has been a little difficult having to part with some things that I really like or that have sentimental value, but I am reminded that it is all just stuff. Really, I think that is what part of this process is all about. Today I have felt really thankful. I am thankful that God has blessed us with so much, and I am even more thankful that God has given us all peace about giving up so much. Simplifying and downsizing is not an easy process, but it is extremely liberating.