Fun in the sun and some great news!

Today we had a great family day. Boat trip out to Green Island, glass bottom boat tour and a swim in the ocean at the gorgeous beach there. We almost lost a backpack, but primarily due to my husband's mean 400m dash (hah!) it was retrieved before the boat left the island. On the way home we gathered our energy to visit yet another park along the esplanade which has beaut (I'm working on my Aussie vernacular) play equipment. This is truly a beautiful place. We wish we had more time (and money) to explore it in greater depth. The green-ness is particularly stunning, particularly for people who've spent most of the last four years in the concrete jungle of Tokyo. We all came home tired, but happily so. I didn't have a headache. Probably because I didn't try to take the boys into a shopping centre :-) We ate left overs tonight too, so I just needed to warm up dinner. (Fish and chips tomorrow night! Something we haven't had in a looong time.) When we arrived home, a note awaited us. We'd missed a Real Estate Agent's call by five minutes this morning! We tried to call back, but they were already closed (5.15pm). Wondering, wondering what this all meant...but just before we put the boys to bed, I logged on to send an email and found the email we'd been waiting for. "Application approved!" We have an address to aim for next Thursday (9th)! Yay!!! Praise God for His kind mercies. Now, we're looking for help to move furniture into the house. Various people are lending us things which are being moved in this Saturday as well as on Tuesday afternoon when my parents are bringing stuff they've stored in their house. Do let me know if you have some muscle !! to lend.

Not-so-fun transition moments

A couple of days ago I wrote about some of the funny and positive things happening around this transition to Australia. Today I'm going to touch on some negatives. Transition makes you tired, not just the plane trip, but all the adjustments too. Nothing is 'normal'. Just like when you start a new job you are exhausted after the first day. Same for us now. Small things are making us tired and the boys too. Looking after them during this time is very wearying. They are more whingy and impatient than usual. They have many questions and as I mentioned in a previous post, our eldest son particularly, is very persistent and detailed in his questioning. We've been expected to be experts in sausage making and sugar cane growing and processing, to name a couple that have cropped up in the last two days. They're also very perceptive and know that at this time of stress, they will likely be able to get away with more, so apply lots of pressure. They need us to be consistent, but resist us more strongly than usual. That makes for challenging parenting. We are trying to simultaneously rest, look after boys (always a hard combination), see some things in this special part of Australia, plan for our long drive on Thursday (about 900km), wait for news about a house in Brisbane and generally long to settle down again. It is a lot. We were tired already before we left Japan. We feel crazy at times. This afternoon I struggled with a very foggy, achy head. I'm headed to bed early tonight. Tomorrow we're headed out to see the Great Barrier Reef and Green Island. I just hope the boys have a better day. A day when they are more thankful, more willing to obey, less grumpy and more responsive. I, for one, am thankful we're going through this part of our transition to Australia without living with other people. That might seem a strange thought, but at least with the limited resources we have, our attention is not divided. We can focus as best we can on helping the boys. I say this because I know what the alternative is like and it is even worse. After Thursday we have a week of visiting with family, I hope and pray that we'll be a little more rested and the boys will be easier to manage!

Culture shock, swimming and shopping.

We're into day two of our holiday in Cairns. Today at least we've found the energy to do something. A good night sleep really helps. 

Our youngest was asleep amidst the noise and light at 5pm, we roused him for a banana for dinner and he was in bed by 6pm. He slept until about 7.30, as we all did. Our middle son had a good nap after lunch yesterday, so was very late to bed. David and I got about 10 hours of most welcome sleep. I was so tired last night that when I washed my hair I forgot to put conditioner in and today I feels like straw. Nice! 

 Today we went down to central Cairns, which is almost on the beach. There is a great pool-like area just off the beach called The Lagoon. For those from Brisbane, it is somewhat comparable to South Bank, but with more grass (!!!!) and trees. 

 Culture shock? I could show you a photo of all the shoes at the front door - we can hardly bear to walk inside with shoes on! There is no rubbish sorting, all in the one bin - that is a hard one. Australians come in such different colours and shades AND sizes. Some big people out there in bikinis who just shouldn't be! I'm not sure how formal to be in my speech sometimes and find myself apologising perhaps too much. That is the Japanese side of me coming out. Sometimes we're sprouting Japanese words too, even my 10 y.o., who for all appearances, hates the language. 

Other than that we're doing okay, although we had to work hard to persuade our boys before we left to swim, that Australians don't wear swimming caps and goggles if they are just swimming recreationally. The grocery store this afternoon was full of so much stuff, food I've dreamed about for years, and some I've never heard about. Couldn't find my youngest's preference for a calcium drink. He doesn't like milk, so we've been buying drinking yoghurt. Doesn't seem to be much of that around. 

For all those agonizing (is this the Australian or US spelling?) over yesterday's post, I did bring myself to decide on some chocolate, buying some Mars Bars. Decided we couldn't delay any long in introducing our boys to those. I also brought home Minties! 

 At the same time as all this frivolity, our friend is still looking for and applying for a house for us to rent in Brisbane. We're praying we'll be able to take out a lease by the 4th of July so that we can move in on the 9th when we finally arrive there. 

 My biggest encouragement these last two days has come from our 6 y.o. He is the one who has the most difficulty adjusting to new experiences. He like to stand back and check things out first. However, he is so excited to be in Australia. He is taking the new things in his stride. As we walked back yesterday, after sampling Australian ice cream (I had a White Magnum, for all those worried about my problem with chocolate yesterday morning), he declared that this could be our "Australian Adventure!" Obviously that mentality makes all the new experiences much more fun.

In Australia at last

We landed at 5.15am this morning in Cairns. Exhausted, but relieved that we're finally here. We had a good flight and got a little bit of sleep, but nowhere near enough. JetStar was fine, despite some warnings we've had. The boys were great, most of the time. Not, though, when we tried to have a rest time after lunch today! It is lovely and warm here in Cairns. The boys are swimming at the moment, while I dash off a couple of emails. I'm so tired I didn't even have the heart to buy some Australian chocolate this morning. Hopefully we'll all sleep well and long tonight.

Flying Day

Even though I've travelled on aeroplanes a few times, I am still not used to it. Especially international travel. We've been in Japan since 2000 and have only travelled to Australia twice before. "Travel Day" has its own special stresses, especially with children. As a parent you are trying to meet your own and everyone else's needs and keep your mind around where everything and everyone is, as well as be aware of the timetable. Especially trying is the varying emotions flying around, not just my own, but the children being even more volatile than usual. From euphoria to quiet concentration to despair, the whole spectrum of emotions flying around are stressful for all. Thankfully today we are not straining to get to the airport on a tight schedule as well, but the boys did wake up before 5.30am. Our flight leaves at 8.55pm - that is a LONG time to wait. And my children are not especially good at waiting with grace! My backpack is almost packed, except for this computer. Trying to be Mrs Mum-Scout is a little trying, especially not just being prepared for anything, but remembering where I put everything! Which reminds me, I'd better go and put some more bandaids in - our youngest is crying for a bandaid at the slightest injury today. I also want to have a shower now before we leave, that'll help me feel just a little less grotty tomorrow morning when we have to struggle through Australian customs at a bit before 6am! Pity the folk who've driven all the way from Brisbane to meet us with the van. We'll be a sorry looking lot tomorrow morning!

Car story

I've been meaning to write about this car we're being lent when we arrive in Australia. It's quite a story. The missionary lifestyle is a challenging one when it comes to things like cars. When we're planning to be in Australia for only one year what do you do about a set of wheels? We prayed and generally hoped someone might have a car spare that they'd lend us for a year. Strange? It happened last time, though it was my parents who were generous that time. After some time when we'd received no offers, we started to make some other plans. Other options - lease a car from a mission group in Sydney who do this kind of thing, or from another denominational group who had some smallish cars available. But nothing stood out as a really good option. Especially for a family with three boys who'll be travelling with extra deputation stuff to tote around. A little aside here to explain an extra complication. We're flying to Cairns, not our final destination, Brisbane. Our logic for this is not the shorter flight, but so that we can have a little bit of holiday time and then visit family members in Central Queensland on our way to Brisbane. Of course, to do this we need a car. Initially our plan was to hire a car, this proved to be an expensive option. Eventually our homeside ministry team suggested we could buy a car through an agent they had experience with and they'd sell it for us after we left. Interesting idea. We explored it and it seemed feasible, especially as our savings are gradually building up in Australia when we're not there to use it. We even flirted with the remote idea of finding a car in Cairns to buy. Then, with only a couple of weeks to go a friend popped up and said, "I have a van that is surplus to our needs, I want to sell it before October, but you can use it until then." The phrase that particularly caught our attention was, "I could even ship up to Cairns if that is cheaper than hiring a car up there..." We suspended our packing mid-box and quickly asked some important questions. Especially, about the option of buying the car ourselves. It seemed like a good deal, especially if it could be sent to Cairns at less than renting a car would cost. Last week when we went away to conference, we waited for news about whether our friend had been able to get a train 'seat' or even a truck to take it up. We waited in vain. Nothing. Then the day we came home after driving five hours, we dropped by the house to pick up some food and suitcases and found a general email sent by our friend around our home church network asking if someone could drive the car up! A long shot. But we were praying. The next morning when we eventually got back to the house for the final days of packing, amidst myriad boxes and the filth that comes when you disturb things that shouldn't be disturbed, I got an email to say that a (mostly) retired couple from our home church would drive the van up and had already booked their flights home. They even planned to meet us at the airport up there with the car that they'd driven 2000km, just for us! We stopped mid-box again. Such generosity! In the middle of the disordered mess that our lives had become last week, our heavenly Father was taking care of our needs.

Finding a house by remote

Have you ever let someone else find a house for you to live in? We've a wonderful bunch of friends in Brisbane who have joined together to help us by being a home support team. Their brief is both practical and spiritual. At present they are embroiled in finding furniture, groceries and a HOUSE for us when we arrive. We don't want to spend the first weeks back looking for a place while we hole up in more temporary accommodation. Minimise the transition pain - is our motto. Also the boys will (hopefully) be starting school only seven days after we arrive. By then we'd like to be settling into the abode we'll be living in for the next 12 months. So...we have to trust someone else to do this for us. Earlier in the year we were offered several unsuitable places to live. Nothing worked, so now we are going for private rental, which we've budgeted for, so it is okay. In our target area (near the school) there are lots of newish houses for rent. What we've seen seems suitable, so hopefully we might even get a choice. It is still not a fun process - looking for houses to rent. Even in remote. Each place has its pluses and minuses. What to compromise on, what to stand firm on - these things are not always clear! Pray for Catherine, who is looking. Pray for us, as we answer her queries as best we can from afar. She may need to talk to us on Friday, after we've lost a night's sleep on the aeroplane. Pray we'll make wise decisions and that God would provide just the right house for our needs.