February
For those who have studied hurricanes, you’re probably
familiar with the eye of the storm. It’s the one place where the air is still.
Well, our month was a little bit like that…it moved so fast that the only place
we could find peace and quiet was in the center of it, removing the focus from
ourselves and focusing on what God was doing through the situations. While most
of the month was great, it also served as a time of testing: testing our
resolve for our life direction; testing our relationships; and, testing our
limits.
On the first of the month, Olivia began a playdate with some
friends of hers, giving her a chance to develop and deepen relationships with
those around her, despite her limitations as a stay-at-home mom. It has been an
enormous blessing to her and given Tannin a chance to play with some other kids
each week.
Tannin is continuing his gymnastics and enjoying it
immensely! He’s made new friends, which he calls his “boys” (doesn’t matter if
they’re a boy or girl, lol), and continues to influence them with his fun,
playful self. The first time he went to gymnastics, he flopped down on the
ground and started pushing himself across the floor with his feet. Before
Olivia knew it, the other kids had joined in, following his lead! We’ve already
got a leader in the making, lol.
That first weekend, I got to travel to Canada. I had
received news the previous week that my grandpa had died, so we bought me
tickets for the weekend of his funeral. The trip up went without any trouble
and my sister and brother-in-law picked me up in Calgary. After they fed me a
great supper (you guys are great cooks by the way, especially on such short
notice J),
we got everything packed and headed to my parents’ place 2 ½ hrs away! That
next day went by so quickly, I was lucky to be able to sleep in until 8, lol. I
got a few hours to catch up with siblings before we all went over to the
church, followed the hearse to the graveyard, and had the burial ceremony. While
there, I was able to stop by my friend’s grave, Cam Enns, for the first time.
When I had come up a year earlier
for his memorial service, the time had been so short I hadn’t had time to stop
by the graveyard. It was hard to finally see it and let it sink in…again, that
he was gone. I’m just glad we have the hope of the resurrection some day!
Well, after that, we headed back to the church and held
grandpa Reimer’s memorial service and then enjoyed a time afterward to talk
about our memories we had of him, catch up a bit more with family, and enjoy
chocolate together! I left a little early to meet a friend I hadn’t seen in 4
years and had the privilege of meeting his wife as well! How times change! We
had a blast catching up and hearing how our lives have changed over the last 4
years. That evening, all the extended family had a dinner together and played patty-pegs, a game that grandpa had loved playing with us whenever we'd all get together!
A quick story: While I was travelling up to Canada, I
thought, hey I should check my permanent residency card to make sure it’s still
valid. What a novel idea! Well, it turns out the card had expired a few months
prior…so now I as was preparing to leave Denver, CO, I was reaching the point
of no return. I realized that I may have an issue getting back into the States,
especially with an expired card. As I tried to figure out what to do, beginning
to worry that I’d be stuck in Canada, I realized that we had applied to renew
my permanent residency, but it just hadn’t been processed yet. The paperwork
said I was still able to travel, but I had forgotten to bring the paperwork
with me. I knew the government could be finicky when it came to original
documents vs. copies, so I began to worry again that they wouldn’t accept it
and I’d have to wait 2 weeks while the mail made its way up to Canada before I
would be able to show them the original document. My wife talked to the customs
in Colorado and assured me that all would work out, but I still had my doubts.
I printed off a copy and brought it with me, expecting some resistance. I made
it to the ticket station and it almost looked like I’d get through without any
problems. Unfortunately, those machines were smart enough to realize that I was
a permanent residency card and smart enough to read that my card had expired. A
ticket agent walked over to me and I began sweating. I thought, here it is,
this is where they tell me I can’t go back to the States!
To my surprise, she told me that this happened all the time
and I just had to fill out a form and show it to the customs as I went through security.
I quickly did so and made it to security. The security was nice and hardly
asked me any questions before letting me through. I was home free! Kinda weird
for a Canadian to say, but hey, I was dragged to the dark side, lol. Anyways,
the rest of the trip went without a hitch and before I knew it, I was driving
back from Birmingham to my family J
I even met my foreman from work on the way home. What a Cowinkydink, lo!
That next weekend, we traveled to Florida to go camping for
the weekend. We had a blast there, despite managing 2 kids the whole time.
Between keeping Alana from eating dirt, and Tannin from running off, we had a
great time, got to meet some new people and talk about our life direction with
some family friends and their friends. By the time the weekend was done, we
were more than ready to go home!
The week following, Olivia left with the kids to Birmingham
to see family. Well…I still had to work, so I got to be a bachelor for 3 days,
making my own meals and catching up on all my favorite TV shows. I even did a
bit of woodworking J
The rest of the month had us busy with family events like
Olivia’s sister’s bridal shower, playdates, and meetings related to our future
direction.
For those of you who want to know more about what we’re
doing, please message us on Facebook, email us, or feel free to call us! We’d
be more than happy to arrange a time to get together and talk more about it J
That’s all for now folks! See you next month!
