The next chapter begins...

I am completely and utterly exhausted, in both some seemingly difficult and wonderfully good ways. Here is why...

The beginning of the week marked a kairos moment for our family as we finally transitioned to our new city. We have not yet gained possession of our home so we are so blessed to be able to use a friend's home for the first 2 weeks of this adventure. Bright and early Monday morning we arrived a VBS, put on by the church we will be attending. The week was a godsend for the kids as they met new friends, got to have so much fun and learn about God. Even though little man was too young, we hung out, made connections with some of the adults and he stole the hearts and attention from most of the junior high girls that were helping!
We spent our evenings out- a visit with my grandma, a staff BBQ, bringing a meal to new friends who have just adopted a gorgeous 14 month old boy, and a play park visit to the most awesome school play park ( where we also met a family who had adopted their daughter- and just so happened to be the accountant we met with yesterday !). Yesterday, we trekked over to our new daycare providers house for a visit and a play. They love her already and have been asking all day to go back! It is an answer to prayer for all of us....
I think we are all looking forward to the stability and routine of school, activities, and work - as well as our OWN home! So we are to close the deal on our home build in saskatoon today- which will be a relief . It has been such a rough road to this and of course it would not be complete without several more tense moments in the final hours but all seems to be OK now. All in all, it has been a tremendously amazing experience which accomplished to goals we set out to do- have a bigger space in which to continue to grow our family( didn't think it would be a different home but hey!), continue to finance our adoption and learn new skills.

And amidst all this, complete with purchasing new vehicles( due to breakdowns) and settling, we recognize God's faithfulness to our family. We have met several young families already. We have met 4 families who have adopted- one of which just moved here 2 weeks ago, adopted interacially about the same time we did and have 5 kids (of which the 3 year old twins are adopted...same age as little man!)- God's providence. We have spoken to Alberta Adoptive services and they seem readily available to assist us in transitioning our file. We have some decisions to make but they are good and need to be made as a result of our move. We have seen that our new city is more culturally diverse than we first thought and the kids will be connected to a school in China through their school!

Moving is tough, more than tough- I think it breaks your heart in a million pieces. But God is so good. We are truly in awe of how Christ's body works and how we have been encouraged and lifted up in prayer. The last 9 months have been the most difficult of our lives ( I told myself I wouldn't make a list of everything that has gone wrong/crazy) but He has been faithful and will continue to be faithful. We have learned so much. We are exhausted, but rest will come. And this adventure will only continue and we are looking forward to seeing how it unfolds in the next chapter.

blessings,
candra