Time Marches On

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I wrote last. Honestly the days have sort of melted together and the weeks have flown by! We really are in quite a pattern now, Joe with his regular work shifts and me with the ins and outs of my days. I've been working hard at the primary school, and hard at my writing...all in all it makes us both exhausted at the end of the day and so ready for rest. Isn't it funny how life is? I mean, in a sense it's tempting to be disillusioned by the fact that our dreams are so big and sometimes reality is a far cry from what we envisioned for ourselves. For example, before we came here I had these big aspirations for travelling on the weekend, exploring, camping, etc. Yet, we don't have time much less income for such things! Goodness Emily, what were you thinking? And so instead, here we are in Australia and for the most part we can't even really explore the city we are living in because at this point we are still trying to get our feet on the ground. Yet, at the same time life has sent so many hidden blessings our way because we are having to work so hard. We are closer than ever, and the simplest things give us SUCH great joy! We worry together, yes, but it unites us in our faith and hope and drives us to aspire in a new and better way. We rejoice over a teensy, semi-rusty, 13 year old car that seriously seems a miracle to us. Just a few years ago I would not have felt that way about it. God knows what He is doing, and He has made us so HAPPY, that's all I have to say about that.

What can I tell you? Well, last time I wrote I promised to recount our Thanksgiving celebration. On Thanksgiving Thursday here in Melbourne we rejoiced in Joe's day off! We headed into Melbourne to do some errands. While we were in the city we stopped at the Queen Victoria Market. Usually we are pretty simple when we shop there, the prices are just so amazing, but on Thanksgiving we bought a whole roasted chicken, a loaf of olive bread, and hummus. OH. MY. GOODNESS. You've never seen such a feast! We ate it right then and there, and honestly in that moment I was so content....we felt so rich and so spoiled. We had to sit and digest for a bit after. Here are some before and after pictures of my American hubby on his holiday.




Also, we picked up our beautiful little miracle car! Joe was seriously a CHAMP learning to drive manual and learning to drive it on the wrong side of the road. He picked it up in half an hour, and that very day we were able to drive half an hour home without so much as one stall or tense moment. I can't quite describe the sense of freedom I had when we were driving home. I was thinking...this was all us, we accomplished this together, and boy does it feel amazing. We took a picture with our new set of keys....

I think that is all for tonight. It's 9:00 pm here, and Joe will be home in about 45 minutes from work so I am off to make him some dinner. We are striving to live a holy and faithful advent, but it hasn't been easy! It is so easy to lapse into routine and forget to make time for prayer, or to start feeling tired and allow prayer to be the first thing to go. In a way, it's quite easy to feel united with the Holy Family this Advent. We are far from home and uncertain of what is next. Unfortunately, so often I find myself behaving in ways far from Holy Family behavior (aka selfishly)...and so we try, try again!

We love you all and miss you so very much. We pray for you and all of your intentions this Advent season and of course we ask for your prayers. xoxo