Making the Dream a REALITY

Three years ago we started dreaming a new dream. This week that dream has begun!

We have just booked a 4-month family sabbatical. We are leaving in Jan. 2013 to spend 4 months traveling/working/volunteering in New Zealand, Bali Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand. We have spent so much time dreaming, researching and planning and to finally book those flights seems a little surreal. It feels a little scary. O.K., a lot scary at times. There is so much to do. There are so many people to talk to, BeWaxed by Wendy clients, Can West Drywall clients, tenants, banks, teachers, family, friends, government (business and personal taxes), credit card companies, travel agents, health insurance companies, couch surfing hosts and the lists go on….

Some days I feel over whelmed with all there is to do. Some days I think, is this all worth it? Then I have to remind myself how we felt during our last trip. How we have become the family that we are because of the time we spend together and the things we have seen and learnt on these times together. As a family, we all desire this time of travel. But, it sometimes feels hard. It sometimes feels tiring, like the list are to long and the time to plan is to short. But yes, it is worth it! 

A journey

As long as we are alive we will keep dreaming and as we keep dreaming we will continue to keep chasing those dreams.

We are on a journey, a journey of trying to live very intentionally. Trying to arrange our lives to reflect what we value the most. Deliberately living a life of purpose and passion.

We look at where we are and plan out where we want our life as a family to go. We are learning where our priorities lay and we are working very hard to establish what is most important for our family.

 This is hard work. But we want to look back at the memories that we have made and say it was all worth it! 

One of our goals is to teach Colton and Miranda how important dreams are. It is normal to dream and more importantly, it is important to know how to work hard to make those dreams come true. They know how to do hard things. We want them to not be afraid of hard work, dreams or the world. Through this hard work, they will achieve tremendous benefits of personal growth and character development.

Four years ago we started on a journey that began with a dream. This dream included hard choices. Choices that brought us to the place of selling our dream home, packing up our lives of 20 years and storing it all in an old shed on a country yard.  This became the start of a two-year journey that brought our family through 11 European countries, 5 SE Asian countries, New Zealand and Australia and 4 southern US states. We also spent 7 months house sitting for 3 different families and squeezed into a one-bedroom apartment for 3 months. All in an effort, to make our dream attainable.

 In all this time of travel we spent 24/7 together as family. In all this time of travel, I spent no more than 10-15 minutes without one of my family members by my side. Some might say this dream would not be for them. But it was a dream that none of us was ready to see stop. The problem with this particular dream was that for us, it came too quickly to an end.

So what to do when the dream you thought would be fulfilled after a certain time frame does not end?  

2012 Spring Grab & Run

Every Spring and Fall, our church puts on an event called the Grab & Run. I love it. It is a free garage sale type event. Local people from the area donate gently used children's and adult clothing. People from all over who find they could use some clothing for their family come over and take what they need. Some people bring a bag and leave with a new batch for their family to use. We put it out for an afternoon, fry up some hot dogs and call it a great time. The whole event is tones of fun. Everything is free.

From the unpacking to the packing up of the leftovers. We have a blast.

We are setting up on April 26th in the evening and would love to take your gently used clothing. If you would like to help, feel free to drop them off at the Exchange, 116 Main st. Altona.

The event takes place on

Friday April 27th 4-6

Saturday April 28th 10-12

Everyone is welcome and it is all FREE!!

Make it count!

I found this video on facebook.
        I LOVE it!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxfZkMm3wcg&sns=em

Fishing at soar

http://soar-faithhopelove.blogspot.ca/2012/03/shelter-tuesday.html?m=1

Soar 2012

We are preparing to spend 10 days in inner-city wpg with around 380 youth during spring break. Be sure to watch the video on the left from last year.

http://www.mbmission.org/video/soar/heartland/soar-heartland-2012-promo

An amazing, exciting and a bit exhausting week! Can't wait!

Last year we spent the week with new comers to Wpg. The women were all from Africa and we shared some cooking recipes with them and had a lot of fun getting to know the women and their children.
This year we are splitting up into 2 groups. One group is going to spend the week with newcomer women cooking. The other group is going to spend the week with newcomer men learning about fishing in Mb.

Ballestas Islands

On the south coast of Peru is the Paracas National Reserve, the home to one of the largest sea-lion colonies in the world. Just offshore are the Ballestas Islands. This is were we got to see penguins and thousands of birds. On the island we saw pelicans, cormorants, peruvian boobies, inca terns, sea lions and my favorite PENGUINS!!