blessings

[ty]

The past month has been pretty busy to say the least. As Stefanie mentioned already, very suddenly in the middle of November we decided that we should move to Rosenort. I have been teaching grade 3/4 in Rosenort pretty much straight time since the beginning of September. The 2 hours of driving from our apartment just south of Portage and back each day were really getting to me. On top of that there were still the responsibilities every evening of being caretakers at our apartment block which was just becoming too much.

So once the decision was made to make the move, we had lots to think about. Putting in an offer for the new home that we had our eye on, figuring out mortgage stuff, getting ready for Christmas, planning a 3 week trip to B.C., lots of lawyer stuff and paperwork for the new home, all the while taking care of our little guy and 25 other kids at school and planning those teaching days.

The reason I wanted to write up a post was to explain how much I have learned about God through this experience. Mostly that even when you may feel distant from Him (as I have at times in the past year or so) He is always in control, even when you don't ask Him to be. That realization was amazing for me, that even when I had not given God nearly as much attention or time as I should, that He is still looking out for me and for us as a family.

The first time I had this realization was concerning a list that I had made. When I have many different things to think about, in a number of different areas of life (apartment stuff, caretaker stuff, teaching stuff) I always feel better when I make a list of things that I need to do. One day I had found a forgotten list that I wrote up about a week earlier and as I read over the things I had written down, I realized that almost all of the things had already been taken care, even without the help of the 'almighty list'. This is when I thought about how silly it is to worry about things excessively. God must just shake His head sometimes as He watches us try and do things on our own. I have been so blessed in the past few very busy weeks in so many different ways. Here are a few:

- I am very thankful for a wife who takes care of so many things while I'm at work. I cannot even begin to imagine how demanding it is to spend all day with our little guy, never mind to get things accomplished in the meantime. I am very thankful for my wife.

- The dreaded first year of teaching is always tough, never mind when don't have the summer to prepare for it, and are kind of just told one day that you have a class to yourself (first for the following week, then month, then couple of months, etc). I have absolutely loved it so far, and a huge reason why is that I have been surrounded by an extremely helpful staff. The other early years teachers have helped me out so much and the principal has been incredible. He is such a great person to work for and he always makes time in his busy day for me to stop by his office to talk. It is such a blessing to work for a principal that I can have conversations with about teaching, but from a Christian perspective.

- The class that I have inherited is so much fun. At first I had a few reservations about teaching grade 3/4, as it is a younger age than I am used to, but very quickly I really fell in love with the group of kids and I am really proud of how well they have been doing this year. We have a lot of laughs throughout the day and they have really made it pretty easy on me in my first year of teaching (or at least it could be much, much worse).

- One of the things that I had on that list was to somehow find a trailer that we could use for the big move. After putting it off for a week or so, my very generous Uncle Brad and Auntie Colleen offered that we could use their huge stock trailer (not only that, but Uncle Brad also drove the truck that pulled the trailer, and spent the evening helping to load it up and unload it).

- After a long day of teaching, (and a long drive home as I previously talked about) I was hanging out with Hudson while Stefanie was out at a hair appointment and for some reason on that day, there were a number of things to do around the apartment building (it always seems to hit on the exact day that you hope it won't). It was around 7:30 and I hadn't eaten since lunch, and was just thinking about making some toast as that's about all I could make with a little Hudson clinging to me, when all of a sudden the phone rings. It was Mom and Dad saying that they were on their way over to help and asking what they should pick me up for supper.

- One day I was just about to send an email to Zach (my cousin in Rosenort) to see if he would be willing to tag along with my Dad and Uncle Brad to come and help us load up the trailer in Winnipeg. As I was about to send that message I received an email from my very good friend Jeremy (who I met at University) letting me know that if I needed an extra guy for moving that he was more than willing to help out. I am so thankful for my buddy Jeremy and his willingness to give up an evening to come and help, and also for Zach who did end up meeting us in Rosenort to help unload.

- The morning of the big move, I brought Stefanie and Hudson to the airport at 4:30 in the morning, then headed back to the apartment to do the last minute packing (Stef had done most of it already in the previous weeks) and cleaning. By the mid-afternoon, I was pretty overwhelmed when all of a sudden I see Mom's car pull up. She had come to help me.

These are just a few of the many things that I was so thankful for in the past month. And I know that God orchestrated them all. I am really hoping that in the next few weeks I get into the routine of setting aside time to spend with God every single day. A while back I was in the habit of waking up 15 minutes earlier than usual to spend some time in prayer and devotions. I really found that was a great way to start the day, and that it helped to keep God close to me throughout the rest of the day.