Wednesday, July 6, 2016

I’m supposed to be here.

That confidence –that faith –is the factor that allowed me to travel across the continent. Across and out of the country. I wouldn’t be here without that assurance.

This was a tough year. But it’s the hard years that make the good years truly shine. And it’s in the hard years that we learn what it means to rely on Christ and give Him everything.

The Lord is my refuge.

That was my mantra for the second half of this year. God is there, you just need to reach out to Him. When you walk to class and stand under a tree to escape the hot sun, you are standing in the shadow of His wings. When your relationships crumble and all you want is something stable, He is the rock to which you can hold.

God can handle everything you’ve got. He made you. He knows you. He knew I needed Canada. Gosh, did I need Canada. And now I’m here and a plane ticket bought months ago became a reality and I watch the sunset and I color with a six-year-old and I play dinosaurs with a four-year-old and there is peace. There is joy.

Last week’s highlights:

Tuesday, June 28^th: attended young adult group for the church I went to on Sunday. There were moments when I forgot I was a thousand miles away from Portland. Forgot this wasn’t just a normal night in Oregon, and I was gathered with some friends to discuss the Bible. It felt natural, and I loved everyone trying to pronounce Oregon correctly (hint: it doesn’t rhyme with octagon). Also we ate pie.

Wednesday, June 29^th: Mirabelle and I tried to make bird feeders using bird seed and peanut butter. We were mixing the two ingredients in a bowl when Ben joined us to shove the mixture in the cookie cutters to freeze.

“No Ben don’t! It’s bird seed!” Mirabelle shouted.

I looked up from the bowl just in time to see a big glob disappear into his mouth. His eyes widened in surprise before he opened his mouth and let the clump of bird seed, peanut butter and saliva splat onto the porch.

Thursday, June 30^th: Mirabelle and Ben were at day camp for a majority of the day, so I got to walk around the library, check out some books and spend several hours at the coffee shop across the street. It could not have been a better morning.

Friday, July 1^st: It was Canada Day, my first Canadian national holiday. Mirabelle decided she wanted to start writing a book about sea turtles. I welcomed the idea. My four years of education had been preparing me for this very moment.

We spent the morning googling steps to drawing sea turtles and attempting to imitate the somehow perfect pictures. We taped our drawings to the book amid Mirabelle’s neatly written sea turtle facts. She titled the book Sea Turtles and the Ocean.

Saturday, July 2^nd: Mirabelle and I went to the weekly Farmer’s Market in town. We wandered the booths and oohed and aahed appropriately. She held my hand the whole time. I tried my first butter tart. It had pecans and it was delicious. Mirabelle bought a small succulent plant she later named Tiny.

Afterward she took me to the rock store, her favorite shop in town. She showed me all her favorite rocks and explained things about the shop to me in detail, such as the incense or the cat or that green rock over there.

Now it’s Wednesday. Yesterday Ben and I spent the entire morning in the lake hunting for golf balls and playing dinosaurs in the sand. Last night I went to small group and spent a few wonderful hours talking about God and busyness and priorities. Today the weather is even more beautiful, and the water glistens in the afternoon sun. It’s going to be a good day.