from mountains to sea (and more mountains)

Hello everyone! Warm greetings from the Canadian West, where we have been spoiled with a home to stay in near the coast for a month. This is Maia's recounting of our relocation to the Sunshine Coast in BC. A much more entertaining than any version I could offer. Enjoy!

Hi everyone. This is Maia.

Last week, we said goodbye to Abby and Nipa (the dogs) and my new friends Faith (from church) and Silas (from swimming lessons) and left the house in North Carolina.

(Maia's swimming teacher emerged from the pool one day saying,

"I think Miss Maia has a booooooyfriend...."

Could it be because she and Silas were inseparable during the lessons

and held hands on the deck at every opportunity?

Wow. Is it time for Tim to practice his mean daddy look already?)

The day before we left, we had a surprise visit from Reesey, Ireland, Connery, Gideon, Uncle Sean and Auntie Tara. They stayed for a few hours on their way home from Florida. That was so fun.

We drove a long way in the car and stayed at two hotels. Then we stayed at Oma and Opa’s house for two days. We had Easter dinner with Auntie Yolanda too. I got to ride on Opa’s tractor three times. He even let me drive it! Opa helped me too so I didn't hit the trees.

Then we had our very big day of traveling to our new house! Oma drove us to the airport and took our picture.

We went on a plane from Toronto to Vancouver. It took five hours. We were under the clouds and then over the clouds! We were even over the roads and the lakes and the mountains. The mountains even had snow. We got some good pictures from the window.

We even saw another plane from the window of our plane.

I sat beside Daddy and Ellie sat with Mommy in front of us. Ellie was supposed to nap but she never did. She was too excited. My favourite part on the plane was watching kid’s TV with earphones. The TV was right on the seat in front of me!

I drew a picture of our plane in my journal while we were in the air.

After the plane, we went on a train. It’s called the sky train.

The train took us from the airport to downtown Vancouver.

Then we went on a city bus.

Then we went on a ferry boat.

Then we went in our new friend Carol’s van. She drove us to our new house.

Finally, we were at our new house. It is in Canada this time, not the United States. It is just two blocks away from the ocean. We are also close to a park and an ice cream store and a bus stop. We don’t have a car here so some days we take a bus. We love that.

Eliana and I are sharing a room. At first, I didn’t think that was a good idea because she always thinks it’s a party when someone else is in the room with her. But I am good at pretending that I’m sleeping. Then she stops talking to me and falls asleep.

I love that we are by the ocean. We like to go to the rocky beach and turn over the rocks. There are little crabs under almost every rock at the beach! Eliana screams when she sees them. She likes them. This week we saw sea lions in the bay near the shore. Mommy and I got a book about them at the library.

I love everyone.

Love Maia.

mountain man

In March, I found myself referring to Tim as "mountain man." I think it was all that hair. He stopped shaving for lent. Did I mention how happy I was for the resurrection of the razor at Easter? I have to admit though that I did particularly enjoy the intermediary 'chin strap' stage...

resurrection

This Easter was pretty unique from all the others. Far from both our families and church families, observing lent (more on that later) and stunned with summery heat (weren't we just wearing our winter coats last week?), I think the only constant for us this year was the resurrection itself. And, well, that's a pretty great constant.

The most thrilling part of this particular Easter was seeing Maia wake up to the person of Jesus. To see the stories in her children's bible come alive for her in recent weeks was beautiful -- stories of Jesus talking with people (especially the 'least of these'), healing people (did you know he never turned anyone away who asked for healing?) and teaching them about what God is like and how he sees us. It's hard to put into words what a joy it is to see a spiritual awakening in your own kid. Resurrection indeed.

My parents passed through here on Good Friday en route from Florida to Ontario. It was great to be together. The girls were especially thrilled. And not even because Oma showed up with matching Easter dresses. Though that likely added to the thrill. Ever since they left, Ellie has been talking about them and asking if I'd sing 'Opa's song'. He loves to sing her, 'Hush, little baby, don't say a word..." I really must learn the words so I can indulge this request. I always get stuck after the diamond ring.

On the way to church Sunday morning, Tim and I talked about how different this Easter is, not being with family at all. (We did see my parents on Friday, but didn't really celebrate Easter together in the way that we always do.) So it was quite lovely when a large family at the church invited us over for Easter dinner with them. Fabulous southern food and warm hospitality. It reminded us of the generous homecooked meals and company of our Mennonite friends. They enjoyed our girls and we were honoured to be part of a stranger's family for a day. "Strangers no more," I suppose, as the hymn goes. On the drive home (through the corner of Tennessee, which is actually more direct than the North Carolina route), Tim made a comment about how good it is for us to be with people who are really different from us. And he's right. Yeah. I live with a man who is pretty much always right.

Easter has also meant saying goodbye to some new friends. I think we are both really surprised at how some special friendships have emerged for us here in such a short time. We didn't intend for that. In some ways this time away was about drawing away from people in our lives in order to draw closer to God and to each other as a family and return refreshed and ready to be fully present again. So to be leaving here with a few new friends that are close enough that we would keep in touch -- but without any expectations -- is about as surprising as discovering daffodils that have suddenly sprouted up, and equally as beautiful.

One of these new friends is Jason, a pastor here at a church plant that surprised us with its depth and beauty. Jason and his lovely wife Kim also started a non-profit to help free people rescue people trapped in slavery. Jason actually did a Q&A with Tim this morning during the service about sabbatical -- what it is and what it has been like for us so far -- which somehow felt more like a blessing to us. It's become clear that Jason and Tim have been a real encouragement to each other in recent weeks. I'm glad they're going for coffee one more time this week before we leave North Carolina on the weekend.

Through swimming lessons we've gotten to know another great family. We even shared a sitter with them so Tim and I could go for a night out and catch the Banff Mountain Film Festival on its world tour. Loved it. Maia and Silas have quickly become best buddies. About three lessons in, they started holding hands on the deck and sitting beside each other on the pool wall. In her swim teacher's words, "I think Miss Maia has a booooyfriend...." Our families got together yesterday at the park and for dinner so these two could play together one more time before we are on en route.

Hard to believe our time here is winding down. I have mixed feelings about that. It took time to adjust to being here but now that we've settled into life here, I think we'll all be a little sad about leaving this slice of paradise. But I am believing that the One who goes before us has a great second half of the sabbatical in mind for us and that He will keep 'resurrecting' us all. He is capable of more than we ask or imagine, after all.

These treasures in matching dresses are just one reminder of that for me.