koalas and roos

O.k. you all, we had the most amazing day. Before we left the states, I saw that there was a koala refuge about 20 miles from Brisbane (actually it is about 10 minutes from our hotel in Darra). We went there on Thurs. This place is absolutely awe-inspiring. It is basically just Koala's and kangeroos; but, we were able to spend 4 hours walking around, sitting and starring at these amazing creatures. There were pens of male koalas, pouch koalas, year old koalas, the retirement home etc. At lunch we sat in this open air pavilion that had tree stumps holding koalas. We were probably surrounded by 40 koalas. The best part is they were quite active for the time that we were eating lunch. Cas got some great video. One of our favorite parts was the kangeroos. We went into a fenced area that housed 150 roos. we were able to walk around and feed them. I am not able to express the excitement that this brought to all of us. we were able to pet, cuddle and feed them. A great thing about this place is that they take very good care of the animals.

For those who choose to visit us, this is a place that we will take you to :-)

g'day mates

I have been waiting to use that title for about a year. Yes, we are finally in Australia. Things have been a bit unsettled since our arrival and we have not been able to get internet access. We finally were able to get access this afternoon.
The plane trip over was not as long as we expected. Of course, having movies, TV shows, and games at each seat helped our time pass rather quickly.
Upon arrival, R.T. and I left the remainder of the family at the airport while we navigated the roads and took our luggage to the hotel. This was quite the experience. Might I say, that driving on the opposite side of the road is not an easy task. Not only are the surroundings on the outside of the car very different, but some of the controls on the inside of the car are also switched. After R,T, turned on the windshield wipers several times after meaning to turn on the blinker, I told him that he had to give me a nickel for every time he made that mistake. I have to tell you that I am now the proud owner of a new australian twenty dollar bill.....and we have a very clean windshield :-) By the way, we did make it back to pick up the family about 45 minutes after leaving them.
We have also learned that round-a-bouts are not always a bad thing. Did you know that you can keep going around and around and around and around....until you decide which street you want to turn off on. At first, we were really wishing for our four way stops, but we are slowly growing to like our round-a-bouts. FYI, if you are told to go through a roundabout, that means that you head out in the same direction that you came from. If you are told to do a U ie, that means that you go 3/4 the way around.
There is so much to say, but I do not want to bother you all with the minor details. R.T. and I have been able to laugh about wrong turns and have come to appreciate having a "back seat driver". We are stressed with the details of life, but God is good and we feel completely blessed and at peace with what God has for us.
vocab: trolley - shopping cart, or cart
your welcome - no worries
"sure" - too easy

My God is so Big.....

O.K. I said that I was not going to blog until we reached Australia, but this is to big to keep to myself. When we got on the plane in St. Louis, I sat next to this lady. It was one of those situations where you are not sure if you want to get involved in a conversation with a total stranger that you will never see again or just sit and enjoy being quiet and contemplative. After about 20 minutes, I decided to talk (o.k. so maybe I just couldn't stand to be quiet any longer when there was a human sitting next to me :-) It came out early in our conversation that we were headed to Australia. Soon the lady's conversation was broken and I had trouble understanding her. It was not long before her tears started to flow. Between the tears, I was able to make out that before she sat down, she was thinking that it sure would be great to have a person sit next to her that would be an australian contact for her son who was going to be an exchange student there. After thinking that, she thought "how stupid of me to wish something that has 0% chance of happening". ( You have to remember that we are on Southwest airlines going to San Diego. This was not an international flight). But little did she know that with God all things are possible. I also found out that her husband of 26 years died a premature death last year and was very anxious about her son going so far away. I doubt that our paths will ever cross again...with her or her son, but God is so amazing in how he works. ...My God is so Big, so strong and so Mighty, there is nothing my God cannot do.

The time has come

We are leaving tomorrow afternoon. After planning for this trip for a year, it seems hard to believe that we are within 24 hours of leaving. It has been a good week. We have shared some great meals with some great friends. Friendships have been deepened and the realization of leaving these friends behind has been bittersweet.
R.T. will be attending a conference in San Diego through Sunday and then we will be staying with family in Irvine until we leave on the 29th (at 11:30 p.m.). We will be arriving in Brisbane at 6:00 am on the 1st (even though it may seem like a two day flight, we will only be in the air for 13 hours).
Unless there is some big news, I will not update the blog until we arrive in Brisbane.

under a week

We are very excited about leaving in just 5 days. This past weekend, we were overwhelmed by the love and support of our church family. We were given a going away party and we felt humbled by the amount of people that attended. We, in no way feel deserving of the deep relationships that God has given to us. I now know why Paul usually started off his letter by praising God for the friendships that God gave him. "walking the walk" is so much easier when you have dear friends who are walking the same walk.
We have had several more developments in our trip preparations. The first is that we have a place for the fluffiest member of our family. Our kitty cat will be staying with a kind gentleman in our church. Also, our house in Willow has had alot of activity this past week. We actually have a person talking with the bank.
The other development is that suitcases are in every room of the house. We usually throw things in the suitcase the night before a trip. Not so with this trip. We are planning to close the suitcases on Sunday afternoon.

whooohooo

Tonight (Wed. 3rd) we got a phone call from our consultant stating that R.T.'s medical license has been approved. We now have plane tickets and our visa's will hopefully be approved by Oct. 6 (R.T.'s first day of work). We praise God for lifting this huge burden from our shoulders. We are now looking forward to seeing how God is going to work in the sell of our house

one month and counting

It is hard to believe that we will be leaving our West Plains address in a little less than one month. Before I get to much written, I wanted to explain why I have not posted in several months. I was waiting to find out more information. I have been waiting for the Willow house to sell and for R.T. to get his Australian medical license. Neither of which has happened. We do feel God's direction in this trip and are looking forward to how God is going to solve these "minor" details. By the way, because R.T. does not have a medical license, that means that he does not officially have a job, which means that we do not have a work visa and also means that we cannot book our plane tickets----all just minor details. We have been assured that all those "minor" details will be taken care of. Thankfully, the Australian gov't is going to get our tickets for us, so we do not have the added stress of making reservations.
I must say that God is good and gives us just what we need. In my devotions, I have been reading in Phil. and this morning, I read Phil 4. It is comforting to know that if I think about what is right, lovely and pure that God will provide the peace that I need. It is amazing to feel His peace , when every earthly thing (activity) is stressful around us. Recently, my dad compared us to Abraham - he knew that he was going to be the father of many nations, but at the time he was childless and advanced in age( we do not feel worthy to be compared, but it does help us to know that we are not the only ones. We know what the end result is, but we do not know how it is going to be accomplished)
Sooo, how do we know that this is still God's will......This summer our house was under contract - for 6 weeks. We knew that we had to get visa's, plane tickets , medical insurance for my parents. We also had to get all the homeschooling material for the kids. All of these things fell into place. Yes, my parents have all the things that we do not have :-) Unfortunately, the sale of our house fell through the day before closing. It was very tempting to take that as a sign from God that maybe we should not go, but with much prayer and counsel from friends, we had to look at the big picture. God has opened all the doors, except the house. We have come to the conclusion that we need to go and trust God to work out the financial details. There is something comforting about being so completely powerless, that you have no other choice but to rest in the palm of Gods hand.
Our plans, we fly from St Louis to San Diego on Tues, the 16th. R.T. has a conf. there until Sunday. We will leave on Sunday and drive to our relatives house and we will stay there until the 29th. We will leave around 11 p.m. on the 29th and will arrive Brisbane on tues. R.T. does not start his job until Monday the 6th. We are unsure what we are going to do for those days in between. By the way, we do have a house and a car waiting for us in Australia.
I will try to update this on a weekly basis for the following 15 months or so. If you would like to be notified when I update my blog, let me know. My sister-in-law told me how to do that.