Weddings and sunshine!

As you may have guessed by the blogs silence, there has not been too much spare time in the agenda! At times it feels like chaotic busyness, running around like a chicken  about to be butchered, but mostly i am so thankful to be busy. If there is too much time for myself than I am worse than a chaotic chicken running around without a head (these metaphors you learn from having previously lived in a chicken hobby farm...)

A 'refined' looking chicken famer and her handsome man at Maurits' brothers wedding

And just because we think we are so good looking...

A nice evening walk. 

Actually Kirsten and Leeaane (from Smithers) came along as well. Kirsten amd I decided it would be fun to walk on a narrow dike type of thing, after which the incoming tide forced us to get wet pants.

Exploring Rotterdam for free! With a Rotterdam pass you can do a lot of activities either ondiscount or free. Here we went on a boat where they gave a tour of the habour. 

Boat life. The white bridge in the background is the Erasmus bridge, a famous landmark of Europe and quite ingeningenious if you look at the design.

I found out I graduated this past week!

Last night we also went for a walk, and we ended up in a park with  lots of rabbits. Maurits bet me a McKroquet burger from Mcdonalds that i couldnt catch one. So of course then I definitely had to catch one! So here we are, 10:30 at night eating a delicious dessert. Sorry rabbit!

After work relaxing in the sunshine

Eating kibbeling (deep fried fish) and strawberries at the Market

Another incredible sunset

Beach day and a Porsche

Lately we've been settling into a bit of a routine, which definitely still includes some unexpected last minute beach saturdays, some out of the blue sick days, some spur of the moment visits to friends, and an unexpected weekend with a porsche!

Maurits boss has a porsche (its pretty old but hey its still a porsche) and he asked him if he wants it for the weekend.  A very generous offer! So after hours of hemming and hawing (ok not even half a second) Maurits said sure! On the weekend we had no plans for saturday, so we decided to drive a few hours to a little town called Hoek van Holland. Its a really cute beach town. The weather was beautiful as well, making it a peaceful relaxing walk along the beach.

In 

the afternoon we had a treasure hunt type of  activity organized by the church. It is so good to get out and do stuff, and be able to say yes! to just about any random invite! It was also a great opportunity to get to know and have fun with other people from the church, which is always also a great experience. The people here are so welcoming, they truly are wonderful. I have a picture of the whole group but i cant download it so maybe next time i post i'll have figured out how to download it!

Through this all Maurits wasnt feeling so great.  He pushed through it without complaining, but I could tell he wasnt doing all that well. Anyway, Sunday afternoon we stayed home from church as he couldnt drive. We listened to an English sermon from Uncle Seve instead. Monday morning he started hyperventilating, with tinglig fingers that turned white, and finding it hard to breathe. As he couldnt drive I had to take him to the doctor. But he cant drive. And obviously couldn't bike, so there was nothing to do but to give me the car keys. So i drove the porsche actually only a few meters away to the doctors office. He now has some medication and us slowly recovering. But after coming out of the doctors office,we saw an old woman closely inspecting the car. I think she was a bit crazy in the head, anyways she was talking to herself and feeling the car. So i went up to her and i said, "excuse me, can ik u helpen?  This is my car." She looked at me, then looked at me again, then laughed scornfully and said "i dont think so". Well hello lady, why on earth would you think it wierd of a little 21 year old girl with a hunched over coughing boyfriend to have a porsche? Like, seriously. But she walked away anyways!

Monday and Tuesday Leeanne and Kirsten are here. So this morning we went shopping for dinner, and are planning on having a nice dinner and dessert ready for when Maurits and his mom get home. They were also here on Friday, so we took them for a tour.

Driving the Porsche topless so i had to lend my handsome a scarf.

The Oude Haven (old harbour)

Cubus houses

So theres a taste of our weekend! The week was spent mostly helping various people with English. It was a good week :)

The beginning of three months

After eleven months of a long distance relationship it is mind blowing (literally!  My brain feels like its blowing up under water or something!)  to have a bit more of a 'normal' relationship. Of course normal is different for everyone, but i think the normal of the past week and a half is my favorite! Skype works ok, but it is really odd to live our own lives all week and then for a few hours each week be able to see eachother and communicate. And then theres those weeks where we are too busy to have more than three hours on Skype...blech. It is almost surreal to be done that for the next three months! 

Sitting in the city center (can you believe it? Rotterdam really tries to preserve a lot of nature areas). I was working at Maurits' s warehouse for a few days and we relaxed together after work in the sunshine before dinner. 

Im thankful for the time we had apart, as we really got to know eachother in this time. We didnt know eachother too well before I left Holland the first time, and after 11 months of Skype and occasional travels back and forth we figured that this was real enough to uproot our lives to some degree to make it work! Crazy, but so exciting. This past week especially, even more than before which was already a lot, Maurits has proven  actually quite a few  times that he is someone that i can respect incredibly, and I honor him more than i can say. If you want details you will just have to email me :)

There is of course little things that need to be ironed out, as with all new situations in relationships I think! Which is also beneficial in getting to know eachother better. And Maurits is simply amazing in his willingness to serve in these somewhat heavier things, Im learning a lot from him!

Pieter found a car derby on the weekend! Fries with mayo, a beer, and some great company made for a great afternoon of all of us getting slowly roasted til we were pretty sunburnt.

One of the fastest cars. They look pretty fun.

We also went to Maurits friends wedding last weekend. It was good to get to know some of his friends. They are a little different than my Canadian friends, but incredibly welcoming, dont really care about much more than looking out for eachother and having fun. I think some of them still havent cut their wild hairs, which makes them a pretty fun bunch of folks. 

And then Sunday was great again, being part of a congregation I have come to really love. 

And Maurits family has really become mine as well. One of the bros put his arm around my shoulders at some point and told me that i am part of the family. They are so much like the folks back in Smithers especially. A bit redneck, no shame, kind, always having fun. 

I am sleeping at the house of a young couple that live fifteen minutes away by bike from Maurits. We really want to stay pure before marriage as thats something which we believe God would honor, so this is a little safer in that way. (We get asked why we do it all the time, this is almost a recording...)

So all is really well altogether, it is so good to be back! I think Im floating in the clouds sometimes, it almost seems to good to be true. But God has been blessing us so richly,  and actually also others through us as well. Its so amazing to see his fingers doing their prodding and guiding, sometimes painful, other times tender and secure. And at the points where we can see his fingers clearly, we both have to stand amazed at how he makes things fall into their place, so that who he is can be made known and also other people see how great he is!

PS... pics

Some days I remember that many days ago I forgot something... Here's some pics from the last trip (mostly). Hope you are all having a good week!

Sushi Japanese-style on mats

Cabin with the siblings

Some pretty fantastic bro's

Life inside an 8000 kilometer relationship

is expensive.

And so much more! There is the pain of being alone on weekends out where friends are cuddling around the campfire with their boyfriends. There are Friday night dates with a fuzzy picture on a screen and a voice that is interrupted every minute by a 'Slow Connection' notice.

There are also the most wonderful weeks that begin on Saturday morning with a giant leap at the airport into arms that just can't let go.

This past week was one of those almost out-of-this-world ten days. Alas, yes, I do believe I'm still in the infatuation stage. Even after spending almost 24/7 together for 10 days.

Saturday afternoon we went to an Exhibition on immigration stuff to different countries. It was really good to be well informed before making decisions. At this point we are not too sure where God is leading us, I hope to go to Holland for the summer and we can make long term plans after that!

Saturday evening we made a Japanese style dinner, sitting on a mat cross legged and eating lekker sushi in candle light. Sorry ladies, my man takes the cake for being romantic! Except for the fact that eating sushi with Chinese stick things is not such a romantic experience, and neither is spilled wine. Details.

Sunday we went to church. Immediately after crossing the threshold of the church I was surrounded by people who had become family over last year. It was so good to catch up from the last months with these beautiful people. I cannot even say how much I love these open people who are so willing to be vulnerable with a stranger, who genuinely care, who are direct and blunt (otherwise known as rude ;) who can make fun of a complete stranger and the list goes on. They sure are great.

We spent the next few rainy days mostly inside, baking a boterkoek, going shopping, eating 1 euro breakfasts, mini golfing, swimming, visiting old friends for dinner, making a day trip to a local village on the water, making dinner together, ahem playing with lego, and just holding eachother and chatting. We spent a bit of time listening to John Piper as well for devotions, and spent quite a few hours talking about them later, also knowing each other in a spiritual way. Maurits worked for two days as well and so I went with him to work and made four essays! And may have slept under the desk for one afternoon... Anyway it was really neat to get to know him also in that environment, and to witness the "Stoepie" work ethic I had heard about from his boss and brothers! He really is an incredible guy. Ok I'll stop with the mushy gushy now.

On Thursday we went to a small town about two hours away, where we were to spend the weekend with Maurits's brothers and their girls. We spent the day walking around the city, exploring a castle and some old churches and shopping for the weekend. We arrived that evening at a small quiet cabin in the woods. I had met his brothers only briefly before, but really got a chance to know them. They really are about the greatest (and probably the most arrogant) in laws to have (in laws? I don't quite know the right word...) One shamelessly carries around (maybe I should say 'struts around with') a 'body groomer' just in case his chest hairs get too long, and the other wears old plaid jackets and has been to jail for accidentally lighting a bridge on fire when a bonfire got out of hand. That's a pretty good description of both of them. Sorry guys for telling the info, although you guys are cool enough in my world to publish a newspaper article on! The girls too are very sweet and tons of fun also. The language barrier is still rough, as they much prefer speaking in Dutch as it's a lot easier. But still we had some really good laughs, great food, and tons of fun. The family is welcoming as well, welcoming enough at least to give us an invitation to their wedding that addressed me as Maurits's wife. I don't exactly know what to make of that... I'll just call them welcoming ;)

All in all, it was 'een heel mooi' week, beautiful sunshine, beautiful people and becoming even more in love with my man as we've grown once again to know eachother in a deeper way.

And now I feel refreshed and ready to complete the 2.5 months of school left!

So there's a quick update, and I hope things are well with all of you!

Blessings,
Kim

A Smithers Christmas

Aaand it was a quick trip up to Smithers for two weeks for Christmas! 

We spent 24 hours driving to and from the Valley... lots of quality time with my man!

We spent a lot of time hiking trails that were supposed to be a lot shorter and less slippery. We also spent time keeping the kids out of trouble for Mom, and found out that Mom's idea of trouble is usually our idea of kitten-purring tame with a lot of noise. 

We also went snowboarding in some of the world's best powder in the most beautiful Smithers! 

Three days were spent at the cabin on Babine, looking over the frozen lake sparkling the sun's frozen reflection. No running water made for lots of lake water always on the stove for tea and dishes. Lack of running water also made the outhouse nessecary with its half decayed door that finally retired into a horrendous smelling bonfire. A new door is on, and if you can look past the peeling paint and the fact that it looks like the tower of Pisa, it's great! And hey, now we wont have to step in little yellow holes in the snow every time we need to get some wood!

At some point we must have eaten enough to account for my six extra pounds... that's what happens when you're a student- you have to stock up where you can!

Unfortunately I have very few pics as most of them are on other cameras. Here's a couple I have! 

A Love Story

After many moons the Happy Traveller is back, with some pretty sweet news to report.
Here it is: I found the sweetest, kindest, most good looking, wonderful gentleman in the world, and he decided after getting to know eachother for five months to ask if I shared his feelings. I couldn't stop a huge smile and a 'YES!' from sneaking out... and the rest is history!
Although long distance is difficult, these past five months have been more than worth it. We have much to thank God for!

Switzerland trip, May

Trip to the Kinderdijk in April

Five months ago, just after we became official, right before leaving Rotterdam

Smithers summer, top of the Microwave mountain

Hudson Bay's!

 And then it was back to Rotterdam for me for 10 days...

October 2014

Although the future is a little terrifying when we look too far ahead, we know that God is in control and therefore we just know that it's going to be good! Until then we (I mainly) try not to worry too much, and gain many flying points!