Into a Spacious Place

 We are now 8 days post move:

2 days of driving

5 days of unrelenting unpacking and arranging the house (almost done)

1 day of rest in the middle of the mess

Despite the many unknowns of how this Nova Scotia life will play out, the hiccups of arrival (like the unplanned lack of appliances and the house being a bit more of a fix 'er upper than expected!), and the enormity of the life changes, our hearts are so very full of God's immense blessing in giving us this place - indeed He has brought us into a spacious place (Ps 18:19, 31:8)...

What else could be said when this is our living room window view 

and we've been so warmly welcomed by friends and family!?

4 Days and Counting

 In the last 4 days:

Our house is sold firm! 

    We have a handful of fixes from the house inspection, but nothing terribly burdensome.

    We've signed the papers - it is truly really goodbye to our Ottawa home.

2 trips a day to Ottawa U for Aiden to attend TeenTech camp. In this way the girls are getting highway driving practice... the original intent was for Dad to take him and and a computer and work there to bring him home, but we've needed him at home too much to deal with house buying and selling and moving issues. But highway driving practice for the girls is good as they will be sharing the driving with Mom on the trip to Halifax next week.

Mom and Jasmin had an afternoon date with a Presotea gift card mom found while packing. It was a rather unfortunate attempt as Dad had taken Mom's wallet out of her bag and not put it back so they could only buy one drink and now there is still money on the card... but the afternoon together was wonderful :)

A little bit of packing has been done... not nearly as much as mom would like to do, but she too keeps getting pulled into house buying and selling conversations or other urgent activities.

We hosted meals twice, squeezing in a few more goodbyes - one a meal together that was arranged back near Easter but kept getting put off for various reasons (sickness, busyness, holidays, etc.) 

Way too many late nights talking with Halifax team arranging housing and future!

2 mornings of final lane swims with a friend.

And the next 4 days looks like:

We take Jasmin to see her friend face to face for the last time.

Church picnic

Final church service and potluck

Finally proper packing because Monday evening we get the U-Haul and start loading...

Halifax here we come!

8 Days and Counting

 IN the last post, our last month before moving was mentioned... ...now here is the evening of our 8th day left! We have just been tumbling through the days, scrambling to keep up with all that God is putting together for our new life in Halifax and in getting us there. Since last posting:

Our Ottawa house conditionally sold!

Mom and Dad have spent lots of time planning all the ins and outs of the actual moving travel:

•  a friend to help drive the U-Haul
•  a friend to stay with along the way 
•  the correct dates that match all the moving pieces and requirements.

We've attempted to fit in numerous goodbye meals with people here so the evenings this week will be mostly spent with others.

Aiden and Mom and Dad spend 2 days painting a rental property and helping a friend move.

Grace and Jasmin are working hard at their school work so they can easily afford the days off while we move.

We attempted a purchase in Halifax that fell through on inspection - and now are working through another purchase that is extremely wild and so above and beyond what we could have imagined it must be God! All the same, it is keeping us extremely busy with calls back and forth to Halifax trying to arrange everything correctly and nothing is firmly established yet.

BUT

We've set a date (departure Aug 13) and are firming up travel logistics.

Aiden is attending TeenTech day camp at OttawaU this week. We signed him up way back when we thought this summer might be boring for him!😆

Thanks to our crazy June, the packing is almost a peaceful process as it is mostly all done already.

We're all finally quite excited to be going and what God is preparing for us there.