I'm BACK!!!!!

I'm so happy I could twirl around the room right now!! Our internet is back up and running, and here I am, posting!! Sigh. It has been a full 15 days since we last had internet access - and SO much has happened, I can't possibly ever catch up!!

So I've decided to do a brief catch-up tonight on everyone's blogs, and do a short (ish) post here for you on our move 2 weeks ago..... and from now on just try to take it a day at a time. Life is so busy, I wish I could spend hours catching up on everything, but I just can't.

____________________________________

Firstly, thank you all for you love and prayers. I know many of you were praying that our move would go smoothly, and I'm so grateful! It did. It was a long, exhausting and at times stressful few days, but we did it!!! With the grace of our loving Father, and the help of many friends and family, we got there. Or should I say, we got here.

My Mum and Ray were wonderful, bringing loads to the house of things which couldn't go with the removalists, and helping me big-time with all the cleaning. Cathy as always gifted us with some wonderful baking and meals. :) Jane was our super fill-in Mummy for almost the whole day, looking after my children so wonderfully I didn't have to worry about them one moment. Many other friends brought us treats, and visited, and phoned, and prayed. Thank you all so very much, it made the whole experience exciting and special - and possible!! xo

Of course, the next few days were filled with the somewhat daunting task of unpacking - eek!! Not as much fun as packing, I quickly discovered. :)

Just over 2 weeks later, and nearly everything is unpacked. I'm getting there! It is definitely starting to feel like home, though I must admit that I'm still kind-of waiting for us to go "home" - this place is so special, it feels like we're on a holiday! I don't know when it will sink in that this is really, truly our home. I'm so thankful. There were many, many hurdles to cross with the settlement - and God brought us through every one of them. It was a test of faith for me that week - everything seemed to be going wrong with all the solicitor stuff, and I was genuinely worried that settlement wouldn't go through. There was a lot of praising going on at about 1:30pm on the 9th when I got the call to say that it had gone through!!!! I'm so thankful.

We've been doing a fair bit of this.

Snatching quiet moments to sit and soak in the surroundings. This was the morning after we moved in. William was eating some breakfast outside at about 5am. :) I have to say it's more pleasant getting up with him here at that time than it was at our old house!! The native birds and the wood ducks visit in the mornings and there's lots to see. And it's peaceful and quiet and the air is fresh. Life is good.

The moments have been snatched, though. For Stuart 4th term is always nightmarishly busy, and throw in our big end-of-year dance concert on the 14th, and things were extremely busy that week we moved. The concert went well though!! I'll try to put up some footage once I get hold of some. Last week was a little quieter - especially for the children, who are settling in here very very happily.

They get more moments like this than I do, presently. :)

But that's okay. I know things will settle down a lot in less than 2 weeks, when the work year ends for Stuart.

I am loving living out here. I do miss being nearer to friends in town, but the quietness of this place is winning me over. And the very short drive to Stu's work - only 4 minutes! All the birds (Saraya is having the time of her life with our field guide- we've seen so many new birds!), and the sound of the frogs and crickets at night, the wide open spaces for the children to explore, all the extra natural exercise I'm getting just walking all over the block - to the chooks, the clothes line, the mail box, the bore, connecting up hoses, etc. etc., it's fantastic!!

And the children have just had a very special weekend just gone, being doted on by their grandparents while Stuart and I had a very special weekend ourselves. Our first weekend away since Saraya was born. It was bliss.

But that, my friends, I will leave for tomorrow's post.

Ah, it's good to be back. Thank you again for your love and support, and your friendship. I've genuinely missed fellowshipping with all of you - and I look forward to catching up soon! :)