Home is where the heart is, Mate!

Okay, so now that internet is up and running....and free...at the house, I can finally keep my promise and keep up with my weekly Sunday blog post. Here we are, on our 14th official day in the Great Southland and we are catching on and beginning to roll. After a rocky and comical arrival into our new country, we have been here two weeks and have endured severe jetlag, instant coffee, no Nick Jr or PBS :-), Alice in Wonderland over and over and two restless little girls (not to mention two cranky grownups who just want to sleep in their own bed!!) Actually, the hotel we are staying at is nice, we have a room for us and one for the girls, a kitchen to cook in and it's very neat and clean. I can easily do laundry and it's surrounded by fun cafes and shops and very near a park, so we aren't stuck here all the time. Here in Australia, they'll tell you they drive on the "right" side of the road, not the wrong side - John is doing great at this, and I'm getting better everyday. I would say that driving on the other side of the road isn't that hard, but driving on the other side of the card is totally weird! What it is even weirder (if that's a word) is sitting on the other side of the car....I feel lost without a steering wheel and a set of brakes on the left side of the car!
As far as adventures go, we took a trip to Mount Taylor and saw our very first Kangaroos!!! It was amazing to think we weren't in a zoo and that they were right in front of us!! The unfortunate part about summer in Canberra is the flies....they look like tiny little house flies, but there are 5 times more of them and they fly into your eyes and your nose. The whole time we were there Lily kept saying, "No bugs, no bugs, daddy help." Another thing to get used to here is the strength of the sun. Skin cancer is epidemic in Australia because of the proximity of the sun to the continent in summer so we've all had to learn to wear hats all the time. Someone here also told me that the hole in the ozone layer is above southern Australia, but I can't confirm that. This past weekend we were invited out to our first "sausage sizzle" with a great family that we met through a church we visited - what a gift to be served by the body of Christ in a real and friendly way. We headed out to an amazing nature preserve called Tidbinbilla Nature Park. (Tidbinbilla is just one of many very funny names here in the ACT - Australian Capital Territory) We took an incredible hike and were treated to delicious food by our new friends - Emma finally has a new friend here in AU and she couldn't be anymore excited!!! She's already planning her next playdate.
We've managed to successfully shop, cook, and find an OB, find our way around, make some new friends and see some really fun bits of our new home. Today, after church, we sat together as a family and thanked God. As John puts it everyday, we have been blessed with an amazing opportunity here as a family . We just pray that we honor God here in all we do -after all, we are here because of Him and we were created to bring glory and honor to Him where ever we are. I just pray that we can keep sight of Him and His purposes for us so we can really get the most out of our time here. Home is where the heart is, Mate and in our case - our home is full and overflowing!!
See our facebook album post below for pictures of our first two weeks in Canberra!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=175722&id=614108495&l=e6b27acf9d