Happy New Year!

Goodbye 2007 & Hello 2008!

I can't believe that it is already 2008! This past year seemed so quick and yet so long at the
same time. I am ready for a new year - I am praying that 2008 will be the year that Ronel joins me here in BC, and tonight we are one step closer to that, I finally found my tax stuff so that I can file my taxes and get my needed paperwork to be able to file THE papers! (Ronel's immigrations paperwork)

It was totally God that I found them tonight. I was so upset as I couldn't find them but knew they had to be somewhere! So, I decided that I wasn't going to go out tonight, well good friends of mine weren't okay with that ( I had plans with them) and so we talked about it and I finally agreed that I would go later (like 10ish) which would give me time to still look and J talked about how I couldn't hide away from friends just because I was upset & frustrated that the paperwork still wasn't filed, but that I needed friends at a time like this. Unfortunately, this was true but I (yes, me & my fleshly stupidity!) needed to feel like I had actually done something in 2007 towards getting Ronel here and I was upset & crying and I kind of cried out to God, okay please let me find them before 9pm so that I can go and have a good time and not be depressed & grumpy! I started looking through a "makout" (A Haitian woven basket) that I have random stuff in, that I have looked through atleast 5 times (seriously!) and I went through it piece by piece looking closely at each item and I found an envelope that was LABELED (what - have I been blind! ) 2006 Tax stuff - T4, T4A & Tithe receipt. I mean how much clearer could it be! I almost started crying again, but this time with happiness!

I have beaten myself up so much over this stupid tax stuff and reminding myself that each day I didn't find it was one less day that Ronel's medical was valid for. But thankfully God is bigger than this, He is bigger than immigration paperwork, He is bigger than my humanness! (And I am thankful for that!) I was again reminded tonight that God knows what He is doing and He has never let me down and He isn't going to let me down this time! I am so thankful that I am not doing this on my own! I am surrounded by great friends who are SO supportive and so understanding,I have my family who look forward to the day Ronel can be a part of our daily life, I have a great church family who are so caring and I have this amazing Heavenly Father who just continues to bless me!

Going into this new year had really made me think (and having had this past week off has given me lots of time to do my thinking!) and I need to be more positive in the new year when I think about this whole "waiting" process! I have let it get me down too often and I know that it doesn't help my overall health (emotional, spiritual & even physical) I have had so much on my plate this year and have let myself get depressed and overly emotional and I don't want to enter 2008 like that. I want to stand tall and follow the path that God has set before me.

Please be praying with me as I pray about what God wants me to be doing this year - personally, in ministry & with this immigration process. I would like to plan a trip to see Ronel sometime this year but would much rather go and be able to bring him back - so knowledge about timing and if I am to go twice, then for funds for that to happen!

Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR to you! (Haitian time!! ) I am off to get ready to go celebrate with friends and get excited about what the new year has in store~

Oh and I almost forgot - Ronel asked me to wish you all Bon Ane! We spoke today for a very wonderful 32 minutes! and I am about to call him and welcome in the new year with him! (On his time not mine so that he doesn't have to be awake at 3am!!)

Photos are a few of my favourites and are all taken in Haiti!

An answer!

So I went and saw the doctor on Thursday again about my arm again. Turns out that I have epicondylitis better known as tennis elbow and I have calcium deposits in my elbow (these showed up on the x-ray I had done in November) - below is a paragraph from another site explaining what causes tennis elbow

"Tennis elbow occurs when their is damage to the muscles, tendons and ligaments around the elbow joint and forearm. Small tears, called micro tears, form in the tendons and muscles which control the movement of the forearm. They cause a restriction of movement, inflammation and pain. These micro tears eventually lead to the formation of scar tissue and calcium deposits. If untreated, this scar tissue and calcium deposits can put so much pressure on the muscles and nerves that they can cut off the blood flow and pinch the nerves responsible for controlling the muscles in the forearm."

We're still now sure what caused this, my doctor doesn't think this is related to my arm injury last March as it is a different part of the arm but I am not totally sure about that! My x-rays also showed that I am having muscle spasms in my neck which is causing the pain I have been experiencing in my neck. I have to go to physiotherapy for both my neck & elbow now and I am on anti-inflammatory pills and have a brace for my elbow to help with the pain. I do notice a big difference in my pain levels when wearing the brace and am hoping the pills will also help with the pain. They did help the first time around but not long term, so we will see! I did get a prescription with 5 refills for a total of 360 pills and am taking them twice a day which means I'll be taking them till July!

I am so thankful to finally have an answer about why I have been in so much pain but am asking for prayer that my elbow will be healed and I will not need the pills, the brace or the physiotherapy!

Snow!

A really cute site where you get to make your own snowflakes & it is always snowing!

To all...

I pray that you have a very wonderful Christmas and
that we all remember the reason that we celebrate this season.

I pray that 2008 be a year filled with God's love
& His richest blessings for each one of you!

Merry Christmas!

I fixed it!

My camera that is! It "broke" last March at a conference I was attending when it slipped from my hand while open and fell on the lens and the lens wouldn't move - I couldn't zoom or close the camera. I could turn it on & off but the lens was always extended. I couldn't take detailed photos, but could take like distance photos of landscape and such. Today, when I wanted to take photos of the SNOW we got overnight, I decided to try and see if I could bend the lens back. I had been told to try this by the store I bought it, but when we had tried, it didn't work. I don't think I was using enough force, probably cause I was scared to break it more!! Now, just in time for Christmas, I have a fully functional camera! YEAH! I even took a quick photo of my sister & her fiance to see if it took good portraits again and they are fully in focus and I am so happy! Merry Christmas to me!


I hope you all are enjoying the Christmas season & that it is filled with God's love!

Download Legally–Don’t Be a Pirate!

Digital Piracy is a big deal. In the short time that I have been digitally scrapbooking, I have seen NUMEROUS blog posts and comments about not sharing the download links to designer's work. Free or not, it is still the designer's product and if someone can't go to the proper website to do whatever is needed to get the download link, then they don't deserve the link. Today I saw this post which is trying to show support for the designers and raise awareness that sharing download links & product is SHOPLIFTING/STEALING and it is not okay!

There is a whole blog dedicated to stopping Digital Piracy. Check it out and see what you can do to help stop it!

yummy

So I finally made it to Choices Market I have been meaning to go since my diagnosis this past May. Mom & I went yesterday on my day off. I went up and down every aisle and noted prices of items I knew I could get other places. Choices has a rice bakery with a ton of GF items and so I purchased some to try. I bought Rice Pecan Tarts, Rice Chocolate Cookies, and Brown Rice Multiseed Bread from the bakery. I then also bought some frozen items like a GF pizza, more GF waffles, a package of Pamela's Products Baking & Pancake Mix so that I can bake my own GF foods and also make GF waffles!

My favourite item that I found was the Brown Rice Lasagna noodles! Tonight I made GF Lasagna and I don't think that anyone would have been able to tell that the noodles were not wheat noodles! It was delicious and I enjoyed it SO MUCH! Lasagna is/was my favourite food and I thought that I would not be able to enjoy it anymore and now I can! There was quite a variety of brown rice pastas available at Choices and I like that I can now have more than just elbow pasta & spaghetti!

I also found GF gravy mix! I hadn't been able to find one anywhere else and this will allow me to have gravy at Christmas and any other time without worrying if people are making it with cornstarch or a flour mix or with a package that is almost sure to have flour or some other form of gluten in it!

Buying GF isn't cheap but knowing that I can buy GOOD tasting items is worth every penny! Last night I tried one of the Pecan tarts with a rice crust and it was delicious! I have tried a rice crust pie and it was horrid! It left a gross aftertaste in my mouth and so I was a little nervous about these but I love butter/pecan tarts so I figured I would try them, especially with the holiday season coming up and wanting to have things that I knew I could have on hand for when non-GF desserts are served.

I did look at Save-on-Foods today and some of the Bob's Gluten Free Red Mill items are available there and slightly cheaper (and S-O-F's is a lot closer to home!) I haven't tried any of Bob's GF mixes yet but will one day. Bob's also carries a bunch of GF flours for making my own flour mixes and making pretty much whatever I want. That is not something I am up to yet, but would like to try experimenting one day.

I won't be making trips down to Choices every week but I think that I will be going probably every 4-6 weeks and stocking up on the pastas & the baking mix and treating myself to some baked goods that will last me a couple of weeks. (I am hoping to figure out how to freeze some of the baked items so that I can make them last longer and it is more of a treat - the pecan tarts for example were 3 for $3.49 which is more than a $1.10 per tart! I'd like to make them last a while!)

This makes me feel better about living a gluten free life and not missing out on some of my favourite foods!

Have a great day!!

paperwork update & random thoughts

Well, I received the final papers that I needed from Ronel. I now just need to get my taxes filed and get my notice of assessment back so that I can file. This is the first year that I haven't filed early and now it is coming back to bite me!

I am very thankful to everyone who was involved in getting the paperwork out to me from Haiti. This has been a huge blessing to Ronel and I.

December 1st marked a year since I last saw my hubby in person. I remember quite well last Dec. 1st - saying goodbye to my husband of only 20 days not knowing when I would see him again. This post and this post were my last two posts written in Haiti last year just before I left.
This year I did make it to the church's adult Christmas dinner (didn't make it last year because my flight from Washington D.C. was delayed for 3.5 hours! - this meant that the friends who had come down to pick me up also missed the dinner!)

This has been a hard couple of days - knowing that it has already been a year since I saw Ronel and knowing that it will be a while still. I miss Ronel, I want to be able to spend Christmas with my husband - our 2nd Christmas as a married couple and our 2nd one apart. I am so thankful that we are so much closer to filing the paperwork.

sorry if this post seems disconnected or just completely random. My brain is not completely functioning.

It has been a crazy weekend - we got almost a foot of snow in a 36 hour period over Saturday & Sunday, I spent the night last night at my sister's so that I would be closer to work in case the snow didn't stop and then came a Pineapple Express with a ton of rain! The forecast for today was for 100 mm of rain (10 cm or I believe 4 inches) I don't know the actual rainfall but it seems like that much if not more!

Today was also a Professional Day for all Delta schools which meant a field trip today with 31 children (and 4 staff) to Science World which was a ZOO today. There were 4 or 5 school groups there as well and it was so busy. And to top it all off, we arrived back at the centre to find the power out! I hope that tomorrow is easier - it is another Professional Day and we are off to Watermania to swim.

okay - off to pack my lunch and get ready for bed!

the view

from my window is WHITE! It is snowing and has been since 3am this morning. We had snow on Monday as well but only in the afternoon and it only lasted one day. This time it is supposed to snow today & tomorrow!! While I don't mind the snow, I don't like the icy roads and the FREEZING temperatures! It is currently -2C but the feel like temp is -9C

It is also ONE YEAR ago that I last saw Ronel. I wish that I could say he would be here soon, but no such luck! I am waiting on the papers that I needed Ronel to sign and my Notice of Assessment for this year and then I can send in the paperwork. Please continue to pray for this whole process and for Ronel & I as it is getting more and more difficult to be apart.

had to share this

I received this in an email today from a friend and had to share it with you.

Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure.

Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, 'I love you and I wish you enough'. The daughter replied, 'Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom'. They kissed and the daughter left.

The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking, 'Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?'. Yes, I have,' I replied. 'Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?'.

'I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral,' she said. 'When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?'.

She began to smile. 'That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone'. She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more.

'When we said , 'I wish you enough', we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them'. Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.




I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.



She then began to cry and walked away.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them but then an entire life to forget them.

okay - trying this again!

I thought I had previously posted this, but now when I check, it is no longer there, so am going to repost it!

In doing some searching online on the Citizenship & Immigration Canada (CIC) website, I found out that they have reduced the "Right Of Permanent Residence Fee" from $975 to $490! That is a savings of $485!

So now our application fees look like this

$ 75 - Sponsor processing fee (For me)
$475 - Principal Applicant processing fee (For Ronel)
$490 - Right of Permanent Residence Fee for Principal Applicant (For Ronel)

$1040 - Grand Total


This isn't a final cost by any means as there is still exit visas, flights and other probably unknown to us right now costs that will come into this, but even so, it means that right now I have to send the government of Canada FOUR HUNDRED and EIGHTY FIVE dollars less!

YEAH!!

on a not so happy note, I also found out that I didn't get Ronel to sign our sponsorship agreement when I was in Haiti last fall (I thought I had) and he didn't send me a photocopy of his passport. So, I have emailed Karen (who I worked with at the orphanage) and have asked if there is anyway she can help Ronel with this and get them out to me quickly!

Especially since I then decided to look up processing times on the CIC webiste and was happy to see that as of Nov 13, 2007 - IN CANADA processing times are 38 days, unfortunately they then send the permanent residence application to a visa office abroad and I checked their processing times and for Port-au-Prince where Ronel's file would be processed, the times look like this

Processing Times at Port-au-Prince Visa Office -

30% of cases finalized in 7 months
50% of cases finalized in 10 months
70% of cases finalized in 13 months

80% of cases finalized in 16 months

I am trying to remain positive and know that we serve a God who is more powerful than any visa office and can have our application processed quickly but I need you to be praying for us and this application. Please pray that God will direct our application to the right person, that all our paperwork will be complete and that there will be no doubt or questions regarding the validity of our relationship. That the missing pieces of paperwork will arrive quickly and that there will be no more delays. That I will be able to finish my taxes quickly and properly (I haven't yet done them as it is not clear how I need to file as Ronel doesn't have a SIN card but I would like to file as a married person, plus it asks if I was married in 2006 and I was so, it then asks for Ronel's SIN and I didn't know I needed a copy of my most recent taxes as I don't need to meet an income requirement as Ronel is my spouse.

I will keep you all updated on this and also once I have filed, updated on our application process.

Praying...........

sappy & sweet

So, I had some GREAT mail waiting for me when I got home from work tonight. The package with Ronel's paperwork arrived today. When I looked through the paperwork (just to reassure myself that everything was there) I came across the collection of letters that I had written to Ronel (we need to send them in with our paperwork) and came across this letter - the very first letter I ever wrote to Ronel, way back in the beginning. It was after my first year in Haiti when I was going home for what I thought would be 2 months. I wrote letters to all my friends I had made in Haiti along with the kids of the orphanage. I was so touched by the fact that Ronel still had it, I love that he is sappy like me and kept a letter that a friend wrote, obviously now it has more meaning!
I am now off to compile all the paperwork together and get it ready to be sent in next week! I am a little shocked that it is here today, I really thought it wouldn't be here till Monday and holding it in my hands makes it so very much more real!

This is a great weekend and it is only the start!

Please be praying as I send off the paperwork that the right person will handle our paperwork and that there will be no delays and issues!

One Year....

Wow,

it has already been a year that Ronel & I have been husband & wife! Some days it seems longer than that, and other days it seems a lot shorter! We had hoped & prayed that we would be together by this time but that wasn't the plan apparently! Good news though, the paperwork is on its way to me here! Ronel got his medical done & Val picked up all the papers on Sunday (our actual anniversary - I told her that it was the best gift anyone could have given me - other than having Ronel here and since that isn't possible or quite legal, getting the papers is AWESOME!) and emailed me that she mailed them today and I will have them in 2 business days (so should be here Monday)


The money is sitting in my bank account ready to go and I just need to make sure I organize all of the paperwork I need to send in - thankfully I didn't need to do anything like Ronel did - no medical exams, no police checks, nothing - just write out how we met, answer some other questions and send in letters & photos of us (which is the hardest part - copying all of our letters and getting copies of my phone bills & Skype calls) I will need to get some photos printed this weekend because I am NOT sending them any of my copies - I only want to send copies in case I don't have the original digital file!

I had a hard, emotional week last week and Sunday morning was hard, but after a nice long chat with Ronel, my outlook was more positive! Being here in BC, not able to do anything and trying to help facilitate the pickup of the paperwork was not easy. And if Val wasn't able to pick up the papers, after Ronel getting his medical done would mean that we would be wasting valuable days while trying to get the papers out to me. The medical exam is only valid for ONE YEAR - so Ronel had his exam done Oct 31st ( and picked it up on the 5th of November - not sure which date counts) and that means if our application is approved by next Oct 31st, Ronel will need to redo the medical exam and that will set us back time wise, plus the cost of having to redo the exam. Thankfully our God is bigger than any immigration application and can have this whole process done by then and we are praying that Ronel is home with me here in BC by next fall but realistically the paperwork says it can take 6-18 months and so if I file by the end of November, that means approval could be anywhere from May 2008 until May 2009. I would be ECSTATIC if Ronel was here by this summer but, in trying to remain positive and not set myself up to be hurt or sad, I would be happy as long as he is here by the end of 2008! I turn 30 in February 2009 (wow, feels weird to write that down!) and I want my husband home to celebrate that with me! Anniversaries, Christmases - we will have many of those together, but a girl only turns 30 once and I want to be able to share that with Ronel. Now to some of you that may seem trivial or weird, but that is okay with me, in order to survive being separated from my husband, I had to have something solid to hang on to, something that was attainable and also reasonable. Having Ronel home by the end of 2008 (in time for my 30th birthday - so even Jan. 2009 would be do-able but obviously sooner is better!) was that "thing" for me. Yes, I could have said, by our first anniversary and for a while I did hold onto that, but as it became clear that there were setbacks we had to overcome, both here & in Haiti, that was less and less reasonable for me. And, as our anniversary has passed and we haven't even be able to file yet, that seems like it was a God thing that I didn't continue to hold onto that as I would have been disappointed and the wait would be harder to handle.

God has taught me a lot through this process, most of it probably isn't obvious to most of you, but I do know that there are some of my close friends who can see the work that God has been doing in my life. Being patient and waiting on God is one of those things, Ronel always has told me that I need to learn to be more patient and never in million years would I have thought that this would be how I would learn that! But, there is a lot in this immigration process that I can have NO control over, I can't hurry things along, I just have to sit back and wait - whether I like it or not, I can pray, I can make sure that I have what I need - paperwork, etc -filled out to the best of our ability. But once I have sent in our application, my hands-on part in this process is done, all I can do after that is pray, until I get the news that we have been approved (because I can't even begin to think that we won't be!) Once we have been approved, then I have more that I can do - booking flights, finding us our own place, getting time off work, etc. but that time in between when I send in the application until the approval, I can only wait, pray and believe that God's hand in on this whole thing. And I do believe that God's hand is in the midst of this whole process, but sometimes when I am in the midst of it, I can push that thought to the back of my mind and forget that it is He who is in control, not me! Thankfully God has surrounded me with a fabulous group of supportive friends who often help remind me of that fact, but who are also there encouraging me, comforting me and just all around loving on me. Friends who know not to ask "how are you?" on our anniversary because they knew I wasn't okay, I missed my husband and just want him here with me, friends who know when I just need a hug and nothing else, who know that this whole process has made me more emotional that ever and that some days I just need a shoulder to cry on, that it isn't anything someone did or said but that I am just missing Ronel. Friends who know that I will be sad and lonely on our anniversary & plan a spa day with a masseuse and surprise me with a day of friendship, fun, laughter and a hour long full body massage! Without God & the friends He has blessed me with, I would be a miserable mess right now. And I am so grateful that I am not - that I don't have to be, that I can turn to my Heavenly Father and He is there to comfort me in my times of need.

Well, this post got a lot longer and way more intense than I planned! But it is what it is - it is a look at my life and how I am dealing with celebrating a year of marriage, but being apart from my husband for 11 1/2 months! Hopefully I can sometime soon write a post that says we've been approved and Ronel is coming to BC, but until that day, I will continue to learn how to be patient and wait....

8 months later...

Well, I don't know if anyone remembers this post or not, but after 8 months, I am going to the doctor about my arm! In my defense, it didn't hurt when it first happened and was just a large bruise (or so I thought!) then sometime either late August or early September, I started having a little bit of pain when I overused my arm, now (and for the last couple of weeks) that arm and particularly the part where I hit, has been sore almost anytime I use it! When I wake up in the morning, that arm is very tender and there will be things that I go to do (normal things that I should be able to do!) that I can't do fully - like grip the steering wheel, hold my phone to my ear for more than a couple minutes, grab onto things firmly, etc - without pain. I finally called my doctor's office expecting to have to wait till atleast next week for an appointment and found out that my doctor is away on holidays and she has a sub in and I can see him today! The receptionist says that he is WAY quicker and I should be in and out of the office in like 20 mins, compared to an average wait of approx. 2 hours with my regular doctor! For some reason, even if I am the first appointment of the day, that woman is NEVER on schedule! I am quite looking forward to being in and out of the doctor's and am hoping that this doctor will be able to hlep me figure out what is going on, I will also be asking him about the sharp pains I have had in my back just below my neck, they happened once a couple weeks ago and I sat at the clinic for almost 2 hours before I had to leave to make a meeting I needed to be at and then they went away - well Sunday night they came back, so I will ask about that and see if he will give me a referral to the chiropractor (I need a referral for being able to claim my chiro costs under my medical) as I think that seeing my chiropractor should help with a bunch of the pain I have been experiencing!

Please keep me in your prayers as I go see this doctor today and ask for wisdom for both him & I as I try to figure out why I have been in so much pain!

Have a great day!

Good morning!!

Well, it is a good morning but an early one at that! At 5:46am my phone rang and I heard the wonderful sound of my husband's voice telling me that he was holding the medical exam paper in his hand (this is not the actual medical exam results but the paper we need to send into the gov't to tell them Ronel got his exam done. The actual results paper goes straight to the gov't and this helps them match up the exam with the correct person's paperwork!)

So now I just need to make sure I have everything I need in order (like our phone records, emails, letters, proof of travel, photos, etc) and can send everything off when Val sends me the paperwork. She doesn't leave for another week so that also means I have a little while longer (another pay period) to come up with the rest of the money! I believe that I am like $200Cdn away from the cost of sending in the paperwork!

Praise the Lord! Things are finally getting done and maybe next year we will be together for our anniversary!

Have a great day!

Oh Happy Day!!

Well, today (and more so tomorrow!) is a great day! I talked to Ronel last Wednesday to wish him a happy birthday and found out that he was going to go see the DMP to get his medical exam done for our immigration paperwork to get Ronel here! I talked to him again today and he got it done! He is going in again tomorrow to pick up the exam results! I asked him to call me when he has those papers in his hands!!! There will be tears of joy when I get that phone call! Last week he spent the majority of the week in Port au Prince getting paperwork done! He got 2 other pieces of paperwork done as well while there! So now Val (a wonderful friend who is currently visiting friends in Haiti) is going to bring all Ronel's documents & paperwork to Ottawa and mail it to me and then I will send it all in! I am so thankful for Val and for God's perfect timing with her trip & Ronel getting all the paperwork done!

The other great blessing was that the medical exam cost only $147 US instead of the $200 US Ronel had been told! I don't know what the current exchange rate is in Haiti but when I was there last year it was $7H to $1 US so that means that $50 US equals $350 Haitian dollars! That is half of Ronel's monthly salary! Unfortunately he needed to pay extra to get one of his other documents done as the last time he tried to get it done, the person that he paid to get it done, "lost" both the money & the documents that were sent with him. Things like that frustrate me but Ronel was able to get it done way faster than expected but it did cost him $300H so thank God that the medical exam was cheaper than expected!

Whistler

Okay, so I am home from our staff retreat in Whistler.

It was so awesome! The drive up was a little crazy as it was raining, dark & there is a lot of construction happening on the Sea to Sky highway in preparation for the 2010 Olympics happening here. Thursday night was a low key night as we arrived around 9:30pm (after getting a little "misguided" as the directions we had were very unclear and we were looking for a road that was supposed to be after the Whistler village but was actually before it, but we got creative, asked a truck driver and found our final destination on his map -which was only a block from where I ended up stopping to ask for directions, but we had driven 18kms past that and had already turned around and came back!)
When we arrived at the B&B (Cedar Springs B&B - I would recommend it highly!) we all got our room assignments and went and settled in, a few brave souls stayed up and played games but I was exhausted from a late night and early morning and was ready for bed! But, not before enjoying a couple of homemade gluten free chocolate chip cookies that Jackie & Joern (the B&B hosts) had set out for me (everyone else also got homemade cookies) ! They were great! Friday morning I was up early and enjoyed a fabulous hot shower and saw a couple of white snow flakes falling but nothing stuck! Breakfast was another delight as we all enjoyed waffles with whipped cream & strawberries, mine was gluten free but oh so delicious! They also had freshly baked bread, fruit, yogurt and a variety of cereals available. Jackie had gluten free bread that was brought out for me and it was quite good toasted and with jam! After breakfast we had our group session which was a video from Willow Creek's Leadership Summit this summer which our pastoral staff had attended. The session we watched was Go Put Your Strengths to Work with Marcus Buckingham, consultant, speaker, and best-selling author. It was a great session and we will continue to learn and work on the things we learned this weekend. After our group session we headed into the Village for lunch at Splitz Grill which is a burger joint. The burgers & choices of toppings was quite amazing. The chef was quite accomadating to make sure that my chicken breast was cooked on a clean spot without any sauces. After lunch was our "surprise group activity" that NONE of us knew anything about other than Terri who had booked it! We walked from lunch down the village until we arrived at Expressions Art Studio
and learned that we were all going to paint our own ceramic item. We had a price range that we could pick any item in and then choose a design and paint it. It was a hard choice but I finally decided on a small jewelery box that I painted for Ronel and am going to send it to him for our anniversary. After we were done with our ceramics, some of us were done earlier than others, we walked around the village and checked out some of the stores - there is some neat stuff up there! When we were all done, we headed back to the B&B for some more free time & to get ready for dinner. Dinner was at the Keg in the Village which was lovely. Our waiter, Graeme, did an awesome job and was very knowledgeable about celiac disease and quite willingly checked on any menu item that I was questioning. Dinner was yummy and having the time to just hang out and talk with everyone was also fun. After dinner we loaded back into the vans and once again headed to the B&B. Once we got back, most of the girls went into the hot tub (that is outside on the deck!) and then jumped into the sauna afterwards. Those of us that didn't go into the hot tub, sat in the guest living room and played games. A group of us had a lot of fun and played games until early in the morning and we got to watch the snowflakes begin to fall about 1am. The next morning when I got up, there was white everywhere! By breakfast the snow was gone from the roads but still on the trees and it was so pretty. After a savory breakfast of Eggs Benedict we packed up the vans and said goodbye to Jackie and headed into the Village for some shopping and sightseeing before we headed back home. We wandered around the village and checked out a lot of the stores and while most of us didn't buy anything, we all had fun. We then drove to Squamish and had lunch at White Spot before heading back to Delta and going our separate ways. The retreat was a great time and I know that I got to know some of my coworkers better and also got to get to know Matt (my team member - we work with the gr 2 & 3's together) a bit better and get to know how we can work to be the best team we can be.

Overall it was a great weekend and I look forward to seeing what changes come out of this weekend!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Leslie and here are my responses.

Jobs I've Had In My Life:
1. Babysitter (that was my full-time job during high school - I could have been booked 7 nights a week if I wanted to!)
2. Telemarketer (HATED IT)
3. Customer Service Rep for Panagopoulos Pizza
4. Children's Ministry Intern at my church
5. Childcare Worker
6. Teacher at an orphanage/school in Haiti
7. Childcare Worker (again - same place as #5)
8. Administrative Assistant/Mademoiselle Finance (& a million other odd jobs including loving on the kids! (that was my favourite!)) at an orphanage in Haiti
9. Childcare Worker (yes, again at the same place - I think I am listening this time though and have NO plans on leaving anytime in the near future!)

Places I Have Lived:
1. Alberta
2. BC (in about a dozen different cities)
3. Haiti
4. BC again
5. Haiti again
6. BC (AGAIN!)

TV Shows I Like to Watch:
1. Cop/Detective shows - Law & Order, CSI, NCIS, Bones, Crossing Jordan, etc
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. Gilmore Girls
4. America's Next Top Model

Places I've Been To:
1. Canada - BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba,
2. US - Washington, Oregon, California, Florida
3. Haiti
** I agree with Leslie - if airports count, my list changes, atleast the amount of cities visited does**


Fave Foods: I am going to divide this into pre-gluten free and post-gf as they are two totally different lists! (and the majority of the pre-gf are no longer an option!)
PRE-Gluten Free
1. Lasagna (but really any pasta)
2. Pizza (Chicken Club or my personal creation - ham, pineapple, bacon, shrimp with a sweet & sour tropical sauce! YUMMY)
3. Nachos - Theresa style - loaded with veggies, chicken & cheese and baked to perfection!
4. Popcorn
5. my mother-in-law's Haitian Pates (drooling......)
6. Haitian bread toasted with Haitian peanut butter!
7. Garlic bread

Post-GF
1. Chicken Breasts
2. Nachos!! (YEAH)
3. Mexican Street Tacos
4. Popcorn
5. Avocados - anyway really! I just LOVE them
6. Rice (this one could be on the pre list as well, but was sort of neglected because of all the other options!)
7. the GF waffles that I had at our B&B this weekend! (Oh, they tasted like "real" waffles!) with whipping cream & strawberries!


Books I've Especially Appreciated (Lately):
1. Poisonwood Bible (but it is not a lately!)
2. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers (again not lately but OH SO GOOD!)
Honestly - I can't tell you the last book I read which is so sad cause I am such a book lover!

Things I Enjoy:
1. Spending time with friends
2. Working with kids!
- when I get to see them really understanding something we've learned in chapel or morning devotions.
- I also LOVE seeing them excited about learning things.
3. Talking to my husband (can't wait till it's face to face again!)
4. Stamping - making cards
5.Blogging - both writing on my own blog & also keeping in touch with others through their blogs
6. Digital scrapbooking
7. Photography
8. Talking (for those of you who really know me - I know this may seem obvious and some of you will think it should be #1, but, this is my list and I do enjoy conversations with those I care about!)
- to my husband,
- to my friends,
- to my close girlfriends -especially those really great heart to heart conversations that just knit a bond that is hard to break!

I tag Renee & Val

Staff Retreat

We have finally arrived at the 2007 Staff Retreat and all of my co-workers & I are excited! This year we are heading to Whistler, BC. This will be my first ever trip to Whistler (which more than a few of my co-workers find to be appalling!)

What really excites me about this retreat is that the bed & breakfast that we are staying at is used to having celiacs stay with them and they make their own gluten free muffins, cookies & other goodies. I am so excited! The fact that they are in Whistler and are frequented by people with celiac disease makes me think that their food will taste good! We also have reservations for lunch & dinners at restaurants that already know in advance that I will require a little more work in getting a meal I can eat and they are all more than willing to accommodate whatever needs I have.

There is some free time & also a "surprise activity" on Friday and so we all are excited to see what that is. Also, the fact that this will give me some "off work" time to get to know Matt, (who is my team member - Matt & I work together with the grade 2 & 3's ) I have gotten to know him a little over the summer when he was volunteering at the church but don't know him that well. We get along really well and hopefully this weekend will just make working together all that much better! The funny thing (to me) is that Matt is just a couple months older than my niece!

I am sure that I will have lots of photos & stories when I get back Saturday night!

I'm hooked

So I have gotten hooked on a new game - Flood It. A friend at work has it on her page and I asked her what it was, and she was telling me about it. I found it and added it to my iGoogle page and now I am hooked! After many many tries, I actually won, in 25 rounds which is the max. Since then, I have also won it in 22 rounds. It is hard though and also a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Friday was my mom's 60th birthday and my siblings & I had planned a family night out - bowling in hopes that Mom would think that was all we were doing for her birthday. Saturday we had a big surprise party planned with family coming from the island and friends. Friday night we all had a great time - we had to divide into two lanes as there were 12 of us bowling. In the first game my brother beat us all with a score of 209 (my score was a whopping 95) The second game went a little better for those of us in my lane. My mom beat us all with a score of 205 and I managed to break a hundred with a final score of 110! In both games my brother got a turkey (3 strikes in a row) in the final frame.& Saturday morning we all headed out to Langley to Jacques' house where we were having the party ( in case you don't know - Jacques in my mom's boyfriend) so that us kids could set up everything while Jacques occupied my mom. We had to set up shelters & tarps because the forecast was for rain. That in itself was quite the adventure as we tried to figure out how to arrange the two canopies we had along with tarps to make the largest space possible as we weren't totally sure how many people were going to show up. When Mom showed up, she was totally surprised and it was fun to walk her around the house where her mom & aunt Ann & uncle Ray were waiting. They had come over from the island on Friday and had stayed at my aunt's house.

My sister had arranged to rent a cotton candy machine that she had at her wedding as my mom had loved it and while we were picking it up at the party place we found a sash that said "60 & Sensational" I knew that we needed that for Mom as she was a Snowball Princess back when she was like 18 or 19 and how fun would it be to have photos of her now in a sash! She thought it was quite funny! It was also one of the few things that were for birthdays over 40 that weren't about being an old fart or being over the hill.

It was a lot of work but well worth it - it was a lot of fun to see all the people that came by to celebrate with Mom and also have us all just hang out together.

trial & error

I love learning new things for my blog! Especially how to alter my template's HTML and figuring out how to do what I want to do by searching online through other tutorials and also just by trying out things and seeing if that gets the result I want! Tonight I wanted to have the "posted at" line underneath my signature image and not beside it and while it took some tries - I got it and it feels so great! Knowing that I can change things on my own is a great feeling!

A new blog tool

Today's post on Blogging Basics 101 was about blog editing programs and after reading the accompanying tip, I decided to check out ScribeFire which is a FireFox add-on and since I use FireFox and love it! I thought, it might be way cool! Well, I am writing and posting this all on ScribeFire which is a full feature editor that works within FireFox. It is super easy to add & use and you can add multiple blogs to it and post to all of them from the same place! I think that I may be better at keeping up to date on the blog when I can post while still doing other things online as ScribeFire only takes up the bottom part of your screen so you can still have other pages open.

It is quite easy to change colours and many other options as well all at my fingertips.

a garage sale...

So, this past Saturday we had a garage sale (organized by friends of mine) to raise money for all of Ronel's immigration fees. We had a TON of stuff - donated by my mom, sister & her family, brother & his girlfriend, my friends and some of my own stuff as well. With everything really pulled together in like 2 weeks, we had a great day, there were 5 of us manning the sale and we had a lot of smaller items and we took pretty much ALL & ANY offers (we did turn down two which were way too low!) and we made a great deal of money!! At last count, we made $770.72!!!! That alone is 1/2 of the paperwork fees and with other money I had already we are about $350 away from me having the $1500 needed to file the paperwork, but Ronel also still needs the estimated $200US he needs for the medical exam. Tonight, he told me that none of the doctor's offices will actually tell him the exact price but want him to come in - I told him to tell them that he lives 4 hours away and that it isn't easy for him to come in, just to find out how much the exam will cost! That is so frustrating!!!

Well, with all this money raised, I am hoping that we can file all the paperwork by the start of 2008 and I hope to have Ronel home by the start of 2009!!


Off to get some rest! Still tired after all the work for the garage sale - way more work that I ever remembered! Oh, and if anyone local reads this - We will be holding another garage sale in April to help with the rest of the funds Ronel & I need to get him here (exit visa, plane tickets, etc) If anyone has any items that you would like to donate, please contact me - We can take it now and store it until the sale!

Only God can have a garage sale raise $770 in 6 hours and have the largest sale item be only $20! We are hoping with more time to get items & more time to promote & prep, the next sale should be just as good if not better! We had a steady stream of people and almost ALL were strangers who saw the signs put up by my mom & also by a friend.

k - seriously am now off to bed!

sorry for lack of posts!

I have been really tired lately and think I am fighting something but don't know what yet! I had to come home from work early today because I just couldn't keep going - even with sitting down! I need whatever this is to GO AWAY! I have been sleeping ALOT lately and even still, I have no energy! I need to be better at taking my B12 vitamins as I know my B12 is low, but you are supposed to take them with your morning meal and I have no appetite, so it is hard to take them. I think I am going to just start taking them with whatever my first meal is.

Ronel started back at school today - that was hard for me cause now I can't call him whenever I want and I liked being able to call him before I left for work in the morning but his school starts at 7:30am and he leaves his house 15 mins earlier which means, with the current 2 hour time difference - I would have to be up at 5am and be conscious enough to communicate if I want to talk to Ronel in the morning! Plus, school goes longer this year because they have all the classrooms completed and don't need to do school in two shifts. So, I can't even call when I am home on my morning break as he will still be at school!

I have enjoyed having him available at all hours and now I have to actually figure out what time it is there before I call! One more reason to get him here soon! So I can say good morning in person - EVERY DAY!

Arghhh - I miss my hubby~!

Off to bed (again, after being up for less than 3 hours!) so that I can get up for work in the morning!

night out...

Dana called me today and asked if I wanted to go out tonight, I said yes and we went out for dinner & a movie. We went to Red Robin's where we had the worst service! We had the manager come talk to us because I had asked the waiter (who took about 10-15 minutes to come after we sat down!) for their list of gluten free foods (which I had previously gotten when we ate at RR in the US, it was simple!) He looked very confused & so the manager came to tell me that she also didn't know what gluten was and so didn't know how to help me.

After some discussion, I had figured out what I could eat, and the manage took our order - to make sure there were no errors made in preparing it. About 20 minutes later, she came back and apologized because she had forgotten to place our order because she had had a customer complaint that had taken a long time to solve. She told us she had rushed our orders and we would have them shortly. The manager delivered our meals shortly thereafter, but the main part of my meal was missing! She was quite upset that after clarifying with the kitchen that my chicken breast was not a burger - NO BUN, that when they served it up, it had a bun! She brought my fries & many apologies and within 2 minutes I had my meal delivered and the manager also let us know that she was only charging us half price for both our meals.

Dana encouraged the manager (who told us that this was only her SECOND shift on the job!) that SHE had done a fantastic job that evening and not to be discouraged. When we got our bill, our drinks weren't on it, so I went and found the manager to let her know and she said "Thanks, but that is okay" so while we had to wait for our meals, we weren't in a rush and we ended up only paying half the price! It was a blessing in disguise! (Dana & I both actually said that they did pick the right people to mess up orders on - we had lots of time before the movie & didn't have any problem sitting at the restaurant talking,


After we headed to the theater to see Hairspray, but we were early so we went to Dairy Queen for a blizzard (I had a 2 for 1 coupon) and then went and saw the movie. The movie is absolutely adorable! We both really enjoyed it and loved Nikki Blonsky who plays "Tracy" the lead character. It is a fun, mainly upbeat movie with a great cast, & great music and while I didn't know much about it going in - I loved it! It was a lot of laughter and a really great way to end a Saturday night!

If you haven't seen it, you should watch it - or atleast rent it once it comes out on DVD!

You never let go

Yesterday, on my drive home this song came on the radio. I had heard it before and liked it, but yesterday it hit me -
God NEVER lets go of me - through all of it, everything I am going through - good or bad - God is with me. Now, this isn't the first time I have come to realize this, but I needed the reminder.

You never let go - Matt Redman (slideshow with song at end)

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won't turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Chorus:
Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We'll live to know You here on the earth

Yes, I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You, still I will praise You

Good news

The Livesays (a missionary family in Haiti - they are taking a maternity leave/furlough as Tara is expecting a baby and due to past deliveries is having the baby in the US) just got good news which is also an answer to prayer that many people have been praying for. I cried when I read the post (which is linked above) It is just another visible reminder of how great our God is!

If you go check out the Livesay's blog, check out Troy's photos - He has taken some awesome photographs and shares them on the blog & through a Flickr link on the side of their blog.

What a great way to start the long weekend!

blog redesign

I was asked by a friend if I would be willing to give her blog a redesign. I told her that I would be willing to try and see if she liked what I could come up with. Well, I created a header for her and changed her template & colours and it seems that she likes it! You can view her blog here and tell her what you think of her new look!

I also had some time to play around with my blog and came up with a custom signature for my posts - in case anyone is wondering about the "winnie the pooh" - I am a huge Winnie fan and thought it would be fun to have winnie the pooh in my signature!

Enjoy!

my hubby

I got to talk to Ronel tonight. I haven't been able to talk to him since Saturday and that was only for a couple of minutes cause it started to rain and he needed to get home & get his moto in from the rain. Well, I found out tonight that he had a "ti" (little) accident that night on his way home. He hurt his foot & shoulder, but says he is fine (I think he is really fine, but also making sure I am not too worried about him, when I can do nothing but pray) He also said that his moto is fine, which I am thankful for as that is his main mode of transportation, especially to & from work and it is much cheaper than taking a tap-tap (public transportation) It is getting harder & harder to be apart - we are both feeling it now and I can hear it in both our voices when we talk. Just because we know that God has a plan for us, and that He has this whole situation under control, does NOT make it any easier to be separated by thousands of miles from your spouse, with no end date in sight. While I have been able to look at it more positively lately, - each day apart is one day closer to us being together - it still is hard each and every day that we are apart, and especially each day that we haven't been able to file. We are both now waiting on finances and while I know that God knows exactly what we need, waiting on money is hard for me. I can't pull this amount of money out of thin air, I have to trust God for this and I see how He is providing it bit by bit - for example, I just got an email from a friend (whom I will leave nameless for privacy) saying that she had wanted to send us a wedding gift but was unemployed last November and so was unable at that time and she had forgotten about it and had just remembered about it and so wanted to send me a cheque. I was floored! and so extremely thankful - the amount of the cheque doesn't matter in the least, what amazes me is God's faithfulness and how He is using those around me to bless our socks off! I am so grateful to the obedience of those around me as God is using them and continually showing me that He, NOT ME, has this all under control! My friends in my bible study want to have a garage sale to raise money for my "bring my hubby home" fund and even just that blesses me immensely!

As my header says - through everything I am going through God is growing & stretching me and I am getting excited to see the result of all this growth! I know that there is something great on the other end!

Count your blessing and be amazed at the greatness of our God!!

My nephew

I just got an email from my sister with a video of my nephew at the PNE. He helped a performer with his trick and it was so cute! But it really reminded me how big they are both getting and how fast they grow up! I missed C's first year of life as I was in Haiti, then I was home for 9 months, then gone for the majority of the next 3 years with multiple trips home but only for 3 or 4 weeks at a time. I was home for 3 months when T was born but because I was sick, I wasn't able to spend as much time with the boys as I would have liked. On my breaks at home, I would spend alot of time with my sister & the boys because everyone else was at work during the day, but now, with me working full time, visits are fewer and farther between. C starts kindergarten in Sept. and I just can't believe it! He has grown so much since I came home in Feb of '06 and while both boys have warmed up to me after knowing me so long through web chats & infrequent trips home. I am glad that I have been able to be around over the past year and a half and can't wait until Ronel can meet them, after hearing me talk about them for years!

test results

I went and saw my doctor on Monday for my test results and my anti-tTG is 124. The normal range is under 20! This means that I still have celiac disease. My B12 levels are also low and will be taking supplements also.

This is not what I expected to hear but am dealing with it. I know that God answered our prayers in June, I have been asymptomatic since June 6th and that is a miracle in itself! But, I do still have celiac disease and so I have started again on a gluten free lifestyle. I don't want to call it a diet as it isn't - this will be my lifestyle until God decides to completely heal me of celiac disease. At first, on Monday night, I was quite upset, but after a couple of days of being able to reflect on this and pray and discuss it with others, I have come to see the positives in this and see that God did touch me, but it wasn't the complete healing that I (and others) thought it was. I have also come to the realization (with help!) that this could also be God's way of getting my attention and having me pay more attention to my health.

As my new header title says - through it all, I am growing! Growing personally, growing relationally, growing spiritually, growing into the woman that God wants me to be!

P.U.S.H

I saw this on a blog I read and really liked it!

A man was sleeping one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might!

Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: (He will do it every time)! "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time and it hasn't moved." Thus, he gave the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. Satan said, "Why kill yourself over this?Just put in your time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough."

That's what the weary man planned to do, but decided to make it a matter of prayer and to take his troubled thoughts to The Lord. "Lord," he said, "I have labored long and hard in Your service , putting all my strength to do that which You have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"

The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed? But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back shiny and brown; your hands are callused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. True, you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. That you have done. Now I, my friend, will move the rock."

At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him. By all means, exercise the faith that moves mountains, but know that it is still God Who moves the mountains.

When everything seems to go wrong...............................Just P.U.S.H.
When the job gets you down...........................................Just P.U.S.H.
When people don't do as you think they should................Just P.U.S.H.
When your money is "gone" and the bills are due............Just P.U.S.H.
When people just don't understand you...........................Just P.U.S.H.

P = Pray
U = Until
S = Something
H = Happens

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start,any one can start from now and make a brand new ending."

it's been HOW long?

Today, I wondered how long it has been since I last saw Ronel (Okay, I know that may be a weird thought for some of you, but I've been missing Ronel ALOT lately, and while knowing exactly how long, it also makes it a little better - I don't yet know the end date, I do know that it is now 264 days closer than it was last December when I boarded the plane.

the wedding

The wedding was great today! The Catholic church where it was held was beautiful - and so was the wedding! Both the bride & the groom were gorgeous and J - the bride's son who attends our daycare was adorable! He is a great kid and he was so excited to see us all! As was his mom! It is so great to have relationship with the families we work with! We took our photo with the whole family but I don't have them on my camera as well as photos of the 4 of us girls from work but will post one when I get it! J now gets to head off to Kids Camp for the week while his mom & new stepdad head off for their honeymoon! We know that J is going to love camp and it is also great timing so his mom won't have to worry about him!

Now off to Shona's 30th Birthday party!

memorial service

Today was the memorial service for Joanna. It was a great celebration of her life and while it was a bit awkward with the format and some confusion between who was doing what with the leading of the service, it was a nice time to be able to remember her and share memories with other friends and family. I got to see some friends and teachers from my bible college days as the service was at my old bible college. I had a nice talk with one of my old teachers and we both commented on how we know that Joanna would have been glad we were all there celebrating her life, however short it was. Joanna and I both shared our favorite verse - Jeremiah 29:11 and that was talked about today, how Joanna really held on to that verse, even when it became clear that she wasn't going to be able to beat this. It was great to hear that even in the midst of battling cancer, she still knew that God had a plan for her and that plan was full of good.

I got to talk to Joanna's mom for a bit and we both just remembered all the times I spent with Joanna and the family and Jolande (Joanna's mom) said she had been looking at a photo of Joanna & I on their couch and she thanked me for being such a good friend to Joanna and how she was sad that I hadn't been able to visit with Joanna but that she just didn't have the energy at the end to do much of all, and visitors had just been too much. I started to tear up when she thanked me for being a friend to Joanna, cause I had been upset at myself for not keeping in better touch when I moved to Haiti and Joanna left our church. Joanna and I had been so close during the last couple years in high school and also in bible college and even for a while afterwards, but once a little distance separated us, we both let our friendship slip. Events like this really make you look at your life and rethink things like that! The friends I have now, I want to keep, no matter where life takes us!

Okay, so it is now late and I have been working like crazy since I got home on Wednesday. I have been helping with preparations for our Lower Mainland Foursquare Kids Camp and I have put in 12-13 hours both yesterday and today and my body is starting to complain about the lack of rest and tomorrow is also a busy day, with both a wedding and a birthday party! One of our daycare parents is getting married tomorrow and she invited all the staff to come to the ceremony and then we have a party for a friend's 30th birthday and I still have some prep to do for the decorations for the stage at camp! Oh, I can't wait for school to start, life will be a little less hectic once school is in session! (or atleast I am really hoping that it is!!!)

Goodnight,
~~ and look 3 posts in 2 days..... I don't know if I can keep up with this pace, but hopefully I will be posting more regularly!~~

Seattle Trip

~~~~Update continued from previous post~~~

Then, this week my mom & I went to Seattle for 2 nights & 2 days. I had two days off in a row from work and I wanted to go to the Woodland Park Zoo & the Seattle Aquarium and so my mom rearranged her work schedule and we went together. My mom is into letterboxing and so we also did a couple boxes on our trip. And the best part of going to the US - SHOPPING! We made stops at multiple Wal-Mart & Target stores, mainly in search of supplies for my kids at work but who can resist doing some personal shopping! I got my nephew, C some really cute school clothes for his birthday as he just turned 5 and is starting Kindergarten in Sept, and I got some onesies for Audrey for her baby shower in Sept.

Tuesday we started off at the Seattle Aquarium at Pier 59 in Seattle. It is quite a cool aquarium but different than what I am used to. It doesn't have the larger animals - like orca whales, dolphins, belugas, etc that I am used to from the Vancouver Aquarium. But what it does have that I enjoyed is more of a look at Pacific sealife which is what is all around us but a much closer view. Their newest exhibit is called Window on Washington Waters, a 120,000 gallon exhibit with a 39' X 17' viewing window. It is very cool and gives you a very up close and personal look at what is beneath the water around us. There was also an exhibit which showcased the birds of the shore and how they interacted with the sealife.
They have quite a few touch pools where you can reach in and touch the various creatures. My mom was braver than I and reached in and touch a few of them but they were a little too slimy for me!
One of the many touch pools - this one was full of various types of sea stars

My mom really like the stamp they used for their re-entry mark

They stamped it on the inside of our right wrist. It was kind of cool as it didn't wash off with the first time you washed your hands!



One of the really cool exhibits was the underground dome where you were in a huge glass dome where the fish were all around you, above you and it was just so neat. Even as you walked down into the dome, there were panels in the "roof" which allowed you to see into the tanks overhead.

this photo was taken on the way into the dome of the school of fish that was overhead.















After we finished at the aquarium, we headed over to Pike Place Market, which was celebrating their 100th birthday this week, to grab some fresh fruit and ended up also getting some mini doughnuts and stayed to watch some of the fish throwing - tried to get pictures of them actually throwing the fish but it all happens so fast!

This is the fish market during a quiet time

After we finished up at Pike Place, we headed over to West Seattle so my mom could go to Lincoln Park and check out some letterboxes. After we finished with that, we headed out to Saltwater State Park and walked the beach a little and then settled into our campsite to spend the night.Wednesday morning we woke up and I headed out to have a shower at the campground - it was the HOTTEST shower I have ever had! I actually had to wait before I could step in and first figure out how to cool the water down! The shower was operated by tokens which you got 4 for a $1 and a 3 minute shower was 2 tokens. The tokens were quite neat -and while it was a quiet and small campground, it was quite nice. The campground was a "self-serve" site where you had to fill in an envelope and put your fee in the envelope and then drop it into a deposit box on site. After both Mom & I were ready to hit the road and we had had our breakfast, we headed north towards the Woodland Park Zoo!

The Zoo was great! I love zoos and have always wanted to go to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and have always been totally booked on trips to Seattle or alone and didn't want to go by myself to the zoo. A great vacation for me would be to just travel and visit zoos all over the US and Canada.

When we got to the zoo, we headed first into the Australian section (where there was a letterbox hidden) and then started our way around the zoo going through all the various sections except the Northern exhibit which held bears, foxes, eagles, and other animals which are found up North and which I have all seen many times here. At the end of the day when we got near that exhibit, my feet were killing me as I hadn't worn my sneakers and orthotics for a couple of days and so my feet didn't like being made to conform to something not natural for them! We were at the zoo for 4 or 5 hours walking the entire time and while I truly enjoyed it, it was very tiring! Their exhibits are all more about the animals then the visitors, they all have HUGE habitats and at some, more than one type of animal share the habitat, just like they would in nature. For example, the giraffes, zebras, gazelles, ostriches, and hippos all share the same African Savannah habitat. They all have their own "barns" but during the day they all mingle together in this large habitat made to resemble their natural surroundings. The elephant habitat is another amazing one! It is absolutely huge and has many different areas, including a 60,000 gallon pool with a waterfall that the elephants can bathe in! The gorillas and the orangutans also had really great habitats with lots of room both outdoor and indoor and many high swing and seats made out of woven canvas. I have LOTS of photos from the zoo and haven't been able to go through them all yet but will get some up here soon!!

another crazy update

So, life has been busy since the beginning of the month and I really can't believe that it is the 16th of August already! The long weekend camping trip was great, it was lovely weather and it was wonderful to just be able to relax and not worry about much of anything! We had the best of both worlds as we were camping in a beautiful setting but had all the amenities close by.

When I got back from the camping trip to Kamloops, I went straight into house sitting for the week. It was nice to see the two girls again and one of the girls was quite happy to see me as well. The other girl was getting ready to head back to Korea for a visit before coming back in September for another year of high school here. On Friday, the 10th, I got a call from Nicole saying she needed to talk to me. Since I was only 2 doors down from her place, she came over and told me that Lottie, my pastor's wife, had just gotten a call (she was visiting them) saying that Joanna had just passed away. Joanna is a long time friend of mine, we became friends when we were in high school, went to bible college together and also interned at the church together. Our birthdays are only 8 days apart and so we always did something fun together to celebrate. We drifted apart my first year in Haiti and when I came home after my first year, she had left the church and we didn't keep in great touch after that. A couple of years ago, while I was in Haiti we reconnected on MSN messenger and kept saying that we should get together when I was home. When I got back from my honeymoon in December, I found out from friends that she had been diagnosed with cancer. Now, Joanna had Chrohn's since she was 6 years old and had many health issues growing up. Apparently she had collapsed at her apartment and her mom found her when she didn't show up for work and someone called her parents. She spent a couple of months in the hospital with many problems, and was released in January, after the removal of most of her intestines. She took each day one at a time and was re-admitted to the hospital a couple of weeks ago. At this time, I tried to go and see her ( I had tried to go in January but she had just been discharged and didn't return my calls or emails wanting to get in touch) and I called the hospital and was told she wasn't up to visitors. While I have been preparing myself for this news since I first heard about her diagnosis in December, it still doesn't make it any easier. Especially after my healing! I have been praying for Joanna's healing for years and just prayed harder after I found about the cancer diagnosis. As a good friend of mine told me, my prayers were answered - just not in the way I had wanted! The memorial service is tomorrow (Friday) at the bible college we both attended. I know that it is going to be very tough but I want to be there to support her family and let them know how much Joanna has meant to me over the years. I have lost family members and friends, but they have all been much older than me and losing someone who is my own age makes you look at life a little different! You never know how long your time here is and you better make sure that you are doing what God has planned for you and you also better enjoy each day to the fullest!

okay - definitely time for an update!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything substantial on here!

Medical
I promised a more detailed post about my healing so I will start with that.
During our Ladies' retreat at the beginning of June, our speaker had spoken alot about how she felt that God had wanted her to speak to us about how He WANTS us to be pain-free and healed of any illnesses, etc. And that we needed to really believe in the fact that God can not only heal us, but that He wants to heal us. That really hit home with me because I had really been struggling with the whole "healing thing" and I had come to the conclusion that if God had wanted to heal me, He could have done it before I was even diagnosed. It wasn't like we hadn't prayed enough times that God would heal my pain and take away all the symptoms I was dealing with. I had decided (on my own) that my quick diagnosis must have been God's answer to my prayers. So over the weekend, I spoke with a couple of my good friends about how I had thought that God didn't want to heal me, and that my diagnosis had been my answer to prayer. I then had some long talks with God, first off asking for His forgiveness for me not allowing Him to be able to show His power in my life. Fast forward to Tuesday, I somehow got gluten contamination and was quite sick and in ALOT of pain, pain I hadn't had since my biopsy and me completely cutting out gluten. Wednesday at bible study, the girls started talking to the guys about our retreat and how great it had been and what the speaker had spoken about. At the end of the night when we ask for prayer requests, I really felt God leading me to ask the group to pray for me for healing of my celiac disease. We then all came together in a circle in the middle of the room and they all laid hands on me and we started praying. At this point, I was still dealing with a lot of stomach pains from the day before and so as I prayed, I asked God to let me know that He was touching my body and healing me by taking away the pain in my stomach right then. There are two guys in our group who are quite the prayer warriors and between them and the women who were still pumped from retreat, it was quite the prayer circle! I don't know how long we prayed for, but somewhere in the middle I started to realize that the pain in my stomach was gone. At that point, I started crying and rejoicing out loud and thanking God for healing me. Well, that just got everyone pumped and we kept praying, thanking God for what He was doing in my body. That Friday, I had a cheeseburger with a wheat bun!! and had NO pain or symptoms at all! From that first bite, I just kept going, eating whatever I want, it has known been almost 8 weeks and I have been eating whatever I want with no pain or symptoms of celiac at all. Thursday the 19th of July, I finally went in and saw my family doctor to ask her to redo the blood work that first diagnosed me with celiac disease. She was reluctant and was quite open with me that she is not at all religious and while she believed that I thought I had been healed, I would be doing a lot of damage to my body if it wasn't the case. On Saturday, the 21st I went and did the blood tests and am now waiting for the results. I called my doctor's office today and they are not yet in, but if they aren't in by tomorrow, the receptionist will call and ask for the results over the phone. It is still quite exhilarating to be able to tell people that I no longer have celiac disease.

Ronel
This is one reason I haven't been posting lately ~ I really have no new news about our immigration process, except that Ronel has finally made contact with the DMP( Dr who can do his medical) and found out that it will cost him $200 US for his medical exam - this is the equivalent of $1500 Haitian dollars. This is money that neither of us have at this time, plus I need to have to $1500 Cdn for sending in with the immigration paperwork. My friends have been fabulous and we have been talking about doing some various fund raisers to raise money to get Ronel here. Calling Ronel has been hard because it is getting harder and harder to be okay with the fact that we are still not in the same country, and that for right now phone calls and memories are all we have, and a hope that one day - IN GOD'S TIMING - we will be together again, as husband and wife, living in the same country able to really start our live together. I spoke to Ronel on Sunday and found out that other than the medical exam, he is only waiting on one piece of paper - an archived copy of our marriage certificate. So, other than waiting for that paper, we are both just waiting for the funds so that we can get this immigration process started. Then comes more waiting! Filing isn't the end of the road, it is only another beginning - the beginning of a 6-18 month wait. I know that God can get our paperwork through the process quickly if that is His plan and I am learning daily that I CAN'T take control of this, I have to leave it all in God's hand. Not having control is hard for me, especially on something this big! I especially struggle with having no control over things like money! It is a daily prayer that gets me through each day without breaking down and bawling because my husband isn't here, but I also know and can hold on to the fact that I KNOW that God told both Ronel & I that we were to be together and that this time apart is not for forever. Being able to call and talk to Ronel is both a good and not so good thing... Good because I miss him like crazy and being able to hear his voice is better than nothing at all! Not so good because it makes it harder being away from him, and on "bad" days when I can hear the strain in his voice and hear how much he misses me, without him having to say a word, is some days more than I can handle on my own.

Oh, and I just looked and I have not yet shared that at Ronel's follow-up appointment for his gallstone, the doctors couldn't find anything! So this means that he will not have to have surgery! Thank you to anyone who was praying with us for this!!

Other
I was blessed at the beginning of July to house sit for a family in my church who went on a missions trip to Mexico with our church. They have two Korean home stay students and so needed someone to stay at the house and cook dinner for two students. I was completely blessed by the amount that they paid me for the two week stay and that was put into my "get Ronel here" fund! I will also be staying there next week while the family goes camping (but the students still have school) after I get home from my camping trip this weekend with most of the people from our bible study. We will be going to Kamloops and staying in the (huge) yard of Terri's aunt. I am excited because I met Terri's aunt last October when we all went up to stay at a B&B in Kamloops for our staff retreat and loved her and her family. The girls who are going will be heading up Thursday evening after work and then the boys will follow us on Friday evening after they all get off work.

I am looking forward to the first night being a girls' night and then a weekend of fun and lots of laughter!

Okay, off to bed now as I have a long day tomorrow at the lake with 40 children!! (and 3 other adults!)