One month gone

Since I last blogged, we have been through 3 countries, flown in 4 airplanes, rode the train under the English channel, experienced all manner of public transportation in London and Paris, and walked miles and miles around the English and French countrysides.  We have been so blessed to have this short Sabbatical time to refresh and reflect on our last 10 years in South Africa.  We all feel recharged and ready for the next stage of our lives.  But our conversations remain full of South African idioms and memories that mean so much to us.  We want to publicly thank Hopeshares for making this rest time possible for us.  It has benefited our family tremendously.

We said our farewells and flew out of Durban on March 29. It felt a bit unreal — like we were just flying back to Canada for a visit — despite all of our good-byes and extra work to wrap up all the details of our South African life. The kids said it seemed like we were leaving for a few months, as we’ve done before. That made the emotions easier for us, which was a grace for the family.

The next few days were some of the best – just the five of us, staying in a little cottage in an English village. We rested, talked, explored the countryside and began getting used to a new normal, without the friends, colleagues and work that have made up daily life in South Africa. Over that week we also visited English friends who spent time with us at SOH.

The next week, we met up with Carl’s parents, who’d flown to Europe to join us for a trip to Normandy, France. It’d been a dream of Carl’s to see Juno Beach, where his grandfather landed on D-Day, and experiencing that with his parent’s was special. The kids, who had spent only about 3 weeks with their Canadian grandparents in the last 5 years, immediately hit it off with them and kept them entertained with South African stories.

After a few final days in France, we said goodbye (for now) to Carl’s parents and returned to London, where we stayed with another former SOH volunteer, Hannah Green, and her husband Rowan. Four days later, we were on our way to Tennessee, to Michelle’s mom, and cousins for the kids!

An unanticipated blessing during this trip has been the chance to briefly enter new “worlds” at each step of the way. From rural England, to Normandy, to the big cities of Paris and London, and now the southern US, we’re finding ourselves adjusting and observing differences in how people live, relate and how things work. It struck us how helpful that’s been for our family — not merely jumping from SA to Canada’s contrasts — but seeing how different each place is, and putting this move into that context. I think it will make our adjustment easier knowing that everywhere you can go in the world is both “normal” and “different” depending on your perspective.

This week, we’re having joint birthdays for Marian Kelch (Michelle’s mom) and Elise (10th), and looking ahead to our arrival in Canada next week. Mish’s job search looms large, as well as the logistics of settling our family, getting kids into some sort of school/activity routine, admin details like health care and phones and receiving our boxes from SA, etc. In the midst of it, we look forward to beginning the process of reconnecting with family, friends, and looking to connect with a local church. The list seems to lengthen every day!