Summer highlights

Some quick highlights of the week:

A day off sometimes calls for fresh chocolate chip cookies. A delicious carrot cake also came with it, birthday cake for one of the bro's that evening. Lekker.

Esther Souman is in Holland, and I got to go with her, her mom and two brothers to Loevenstein castle. This history buff absolutely loved it, and it was also a ton of fun spending the day with them and a couple Aussie relatives. It was also a little exhausting ;)

Part of Rotterdams Oude Haven (old harbor). Another girl from the Fraser Valley (Amy Vanderhoek) needed a tourist, and after 20 kms of biking and a bit of hiking it made a perfect finish to the tour

A really bad picure of me, but these guys are so stinkin cute. And a ton of fun.

A small town we explored with Esther... Zaltbommel. These narrow cobblestone streets catch my cameras eye every time!

Church in Zaltbommel

Kubus houses in Rotterdam, part , part of your online tour ;)

Dinner one night

Beautiful Holland

And as per usual, falling pretty hard for this guy. I am so incredibly blessed.

This week was a barbecue.

The week here in Rotterdam was pretty much a barbecue. Most evenings were spent basking in sunshine, skin getting a little crispy next to a lake, with good friends and family, and ten different types of meat on the grill. Which is why my belly is jiggling a little bit. And a bit squishy. And the rest is a little sunburnt. Evidence of a good week ;) On wednesday Maurits took the day off work and we went to a beach town 30 kms away (an hour by scooter) and spent the day swimming in the ocean. Which was 16 degrees, numbing enough to enjoy it.

Last night finished with a chocolate covered ice cream at 11:30, we couldn't ask for a more perfect (and unhealthy...) finish to the week!

On Friday I spent the day polishing Maurits boss' s boat, and the paycheck was a saturday spent on the water with the boss and his wife! 

Holland's cozy coastline

Every evening this week finished with a beauty sunset

Falling pretty deep for this guy

New sunglasses from the market!

Rotterdam by boat. Notice the green water, these guys drink the stuff as their drinking water (filtered with UV but still! No wonder theyre a little crazy!)

In church yesterday a nice old man asked if he could take a picture :) This girl is from Iran, a muslim country. When she converted to Christianity her property and family was threatened so she escaped to the Netherlands. A very inspiring story. 

Dinner (sushi!) with the company. Maurits boss is on the right, his wife sits beside me (no, thats not Maurits, although pretty close! They have a great relationship). The evening finished in a wine tasting bar at about 11:30, after which we had to bike home for an hour. Usually biking is the best, but at 12:30 with a really full stomach its a little bit too Dutch!

I tutored some children at the local reformed school here for a few months. As school is out so am I, which is really unfortunate! One of my sweet students gave a thank you gift on his last day. I love teaching.

Typical bbq. Way too many delicious flavors and varieties to not become round.

At some point we also climbed the euromast, I think its the tallest building in Holland. Notice how green the city is!

Doing laundry for Maurits mom. For some reason she didnt believe my "this is how we always do it in Canada!"

This past week Maurits also confirmed a house in the Fraser Valley where he will rent. Perfect location, price and home. 

2 Corinthians 9:8, "And God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things at all times having all you need, you will abound in every good work."

I hope you all had a great week as well, enjoying some summer weather also! Blessings on your coming week.

The Path Forward- Our One Year Plan

For the past year many people have asked about our long term plans. There is a lot of uncertainty and we have always been able to say simply that we are trusting God to provide, as we just have no idea what the future holds. Whatever plops on our path we will embrace and simply work with it! We are now really excited to tell that we do have a one year plan! A few weeks ago Maurits received his working visa to come to Canada for one year and work. He gave his notice at work, and we booked the flight a couple weeks ago. August 4 we will be in Canada together! After 2 weeks spent in Smithers with the family we are planning on finding a place to live and work for Maurits in the Fraser Valley. As of yet we do not have either a job or a place, so if you hear of anything let us know! Again, there is uncertainty but it stretches our trust muscles yet a little further, and we know that with exercise comes extra strength. So we go forward, believing this to be our best option and from there simply working with what God will provide.

I hope you are all doing well also! Enjoy your week, 

Maurits and Kim

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