The Golden Road

Since our engagement life has taken on a sparkling shine that somehow pulls upward on the  corners of my mouth so irresistably. Having made the choice to marry Maurits, my (mostly misplaced) doubts of the past have disappeared as I now make the conscious choice to love  him in the very best way possible. Being absolutely certain about where God is leading adds so much stability. And being absolutely certain makes a two month  engagement seem too long! All our planning is done, now it is just a matter of waiting!

We are so enjoying the excitement of anticipation, talking about how to decorate the house we will share together and beginning to make it a home, having a few surprise engagement parties and sharing this excitement with my colleagues and students, (and the gifts, o the gifts!! Im afraid that on my will I will have to include the hundreds of tea towels and allot them to my children as I don't think i will be able to go through them in my entire life time...)

We were speaking yesterday about how God must be a priority in our lives, actually the biggest priority. Yet so often, especially in exciting times like these where the road is paved in gold, I almost seem to forget Gods presence except for a quick prayer of thanks to God before bed and a brief devotional in the morning. Sure, we still show the character of a Christian but are we doing this simply because this is our character or are we setting a higher standard- "whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord". I have realized that I am living in the excitement of the moment more than I am living consciously for God in my daily tasks. It is helpful to have Maurits as my accountability partner who loves God as much as me, and wants our relationship to make me more holy. We realize that we have to take more time out of our day to spend  time communicating with God.

On another note, my room mate moved out yesterday!  The house is getting emptier as most of my stuff is also being moved to our new home! Changes are in the air!

Life has been so full lately, with planning for the wedding, finishing Maurits visa, three soccer games per week, playing piano for  a wedding, maintaining quite a bit of a social life...the list goes on! When the visa and wedding are done I think we wont know what to do with ourselves...

On Saturday we had a coEd soccer game. I scored my first goal! (From eleven feet away from the net on a penalty shot, and I even used a toe punt which  makes me an official woman player! Still, I scored a goal ;) Maurits scored his fourth hatrick of the seaseon but I think was more excited about my goal than his three! Gotta love having a cheerleader on the team when there are no moms around to embarrass you by cheering so loudly  :/  After the game we went for drinks (and mac and cheese for me :) with some of the soccer players and their wives. We stayed til midnight, thoroughly enjoying the evening and were thr last to leave! I love that Maurits is so social too, can have fun and chat with everyone. And he is soo good looking!! Sorry, but it'd just one  week before the wedding so i have a legit excuse! I really feel like an infatuated teenager lately, I just cant stop thinking about him! Typical i hear of the engagement period, and we are enjoying every little moment of sucking the marrow out of life!

Lenie and Pieter arrived yesterday. It was amazing to see them again, even though they were dead tired when they arrived. We kept them up for a bit, but couldn't hold them for long before they needed their beds. Excited to share this week with them though!

Maurits spends a few days per month in the Okanagan on a business trip. Thats actually also where we are going after our wedding, and then hoping to do something bigger in August while Maurits visa is processing and he cannot work.

Life in a hobby farm when the sheep get loose!

Meanwhile, Miss country chick takes selfies with cows (I think im becoming citified!)

Been doing a few hikes with different friends up tea pot hill, just fifteen minutes from my house!

Falling so deep for this guy.

Friday date night at Fort Langley

My smart cookie, the sweet boy who has taught me Gods love, has grown incredibly since the beginning of the year, and who I am so excited to work with again next year!

Hiking tea pot after work with these gals

Road trip to Smithers last month, teaching these beauties the duck face pose!

 Next week my family comes on Wednesday, and the week will mostly be preparing for the big day. There are not a lot of last minute things to do, but I think enough to keep us busy yet at the same time enjoying our company. Its so nice to have no stress!

I SAID YES!!

We are so thrilled to announce that WERE GETTING MARRIED!! 

We have no solid plans yet as far as when and where. We hope to know by the end of this month about visas, and can make plans based on that! We're praying that God would open doors for us to stay here in Canada for now at least, but are able to end with "Your will be done". Wherever he leads there is so much reason for joy :)

Life is Beautiful in Spring!

Spring has sprung in all it's vibrant splashes of beauty. I am thoroughly enjoying weekends sitting on the dock, doing small hikes, taking time off work to be a tour guide to a Manitoba snow girl, and showing some of Maurits' dutch friends around! 

Cultus Lake sunshine

Maurits Valentine's gift that he made himself!

This man takes care of me so well, makes me laugh til I fall off the couch, is trustworthy, and a great friend. 

Hiking in the States

Ladies ski free! Except it was $50 to rent and the snow was almost slush so we only did four runs :/ Still a fun day!

Girl's evening with Miss Anthea's school girls!

Spot something strange in this picture? Yup, the wooden cutting board burnt to a crisp on the bottom, and the pizza top also burnt, while the bottom of the pizza was still mush. Note to self: next time don't use a cutting board as an oven tray! It was still worth it tho!

I stretched my miniscus in my knee a week ago at the first Co-ed soccer practise. My sweet room mate figures that chocolate can cure everything, and I'm pretty sure she's got the best cure!

A weekend spent with Aunty Cec! It was a nice treat for her to be away from Manitoba snow world and into the sunshine and flowers!

So many good chats, laughter and selfies :)

The morning after I stretched my miniscus I couldn't walk so my handsome brought me a delicious breakfast! He's a champ!

Brad also rolled his ankle so these two invalids took a day off work. Misery loves company :/ And Sudoku!

Harrison Hotsprings with the Dutch guys! It was really neat to see this place through their eyes for a couple days, they couldn't imagine how we could get used to such a beautiful place! It reawakens in us the eyes to see the majesty of God's creation, to breathe deeply the clean air, hear the stillness and be surrounded by God!

Family Day weekend spent with the famjam!

This was a $200 view with the Dutch guys. O man. (rant alert). So everyone in BC has Spring break in the next two weeks. Like everyone. Except for this one school in Harrison. I was taking Maurits' two dutch friends to Harrison lake two days ago, as he was working. Anyway, first off we started with getting lost. After half an hour we decided we should turn back and we found the right way. Then, my GPS stopped working. I'm pretty sure the guy in the passenger seat wasn't showing it enough love, it is quite temperamental and needs tender care. And now my 'A' doesn't work on the GPs so he was probably using man hands to try make it work... Anyway. Spring break. After all that we were finally on the right track, following some highway signs to the lake. When. suddenly. From behind. Came some flashing lights. Joy to the world, a police man stepped out of his ghost car, and told me I had just gone 67 through a school zone. Well, hello respected police officer, it is spring break so I don't have to slow down to 30. Well actually miss Devries, this little school, in the middle of nowhere, is probably the ONLY school in the WHOLE province!! that doesn't have spring break at this time of year!! Well ok, that makes me going 37 km/hr above the speed limit, and if you go 40 above the limit your car gets impounded. Plus I had two guys in the car that don't speak English very well, and didn't know what I meant when I asked them to get my insurance papers out and spoke in Dutch in front of the officer so he was probably wondering what on earth a young girl was doing in the car with two 30 year old guys that don't speak English! It was so funny though! Anyway, I got off with just a $200 fine, pretty good considering what it might have been! And the guys thought the whole situation was hilarious. They promised not to tell Maus when we got home but I was so conscience stricken that I told him almost as soon as he came in the door! 

Fun times

While going for a walk one day we saw yhis hideous thing and assumed it was an old gross christmas tree that nobody wanted. So we piled it in the back of the car and took it home. It actually looks good in the dark when you can only see the Christmas lights, believe it or not!

Maurits is doing really well in his work by the sounds of it! He has had sone excellent feedback and warehouse managing is definitely up his alley he has discovered!  The glasses...not so much ;)

When visiting a farm...

Finally the cold is giving some evidence! 

Afternoon walk after getting off work early

Canada vs. Honduras in World Cup Qualification round. We got cheap tickets going with a bunch of friends. The friends were a little crazy. Somehow they got the security guard of the train we used to get to the stadium, to smile, shrug and say "weell, i guess you only live once!" as she unlocked the control panel of the train and let us drive and honk the horn :) The little child in us was tickled.

New normals

Things are more or less settling into a routine these days, with  work, piano lessons, soccer, etc. (Well those  things mainly). We feel like we have tons to be thankful for as things begin to settle down into ordinary life. Still, there are a lot of spontaneous moments, which are always a lot of fun! 

Sunday afternoon relaxing beside a river (that smells very much like rotten fish...romantic)

Ice cream after an evening walk

Last weekend was spent at Harrison Hot Springs. We were soaked to the bone, lost and scrambling down cliffs, sloshing every step. It was an adventure :)

Our lovely view was made more mysterious by these rain clouds, giving us a free cold shower.

My handsome beside the natural sprinspring because the water was hot in top and very cold on the bottom. I think this is because the spring is a few feet away from the lake, so the ground water mixes with the hot water. Really nice to see!

And to top off a fun day, the sweetest, funnest, most respectable guy I know even gave me a kiss!! Haha Im still so thrilled that he is here, even these rainy days are full of smiles.

A new normal

First off to my faithful followers, no, my absence on the blog does not mean that I have jumped off a cliff in a panic all our crazy plans began to turn into reality. I considered just skipping out of town to escape and disappear, but hiding under my pillow proved to be an even better escape, as there was no rain involved. And with a wave and a smile that seemed very well put together, I stepped out of the Rotterdam airport, away from my second family and all Maurits has ever known, into a plane. As simple as that. 

I think that because of making a lot of pretty big moves and leaving loved ones and security behind, I have learned to simply pray, then turn off the 'get emotional' switch in my brain. Maybe it's just the feeling of being overwhelmed, maybe I've just learned to look forward rather than backward. We both couldn't cry at the airport, and while we were waiting we had a rare hour of almost-silence, probably the first since we began dating. But we both stepped on the plane with a smile and a wave to those waiting below, and forward into the uncertainly terrifyingly void of space and blue sky and sunshine,  somehow kept up by whirring engines and God's hand. 

And he still holds us.

Gradually the uncertainty is unraveling into first three weeks getting to know the family better and being confirmed in our decisions, and then to Fraser Valley jobs and routine. 

While in Smithers we hiked the Hudson Bay mountain Peak. All our photos are on Maus's phone, and he is at work, so Google Images to the rescue today (I hope this is not the definition of plagerizing...)!

The highest point on this photo is the Peak. Walking along the ridge (pictured below) for about 2 hours, and through the trees before that, this incredible view of glacier and forest open up.

The wind was blowing pretty hard nearing the top so that one had to always keep three points of contact on the mountain... two feet and one hand. Or two hands and one foot if you are really agile ;)

Catching up with friends and family was also really good. It is so interesting how all our lives change in a year. Pregnancies, marriages, growing up kids, our experiences in Rotterdam... all of these things drastically change old-style conversations and way of life. It was wonderful to pop back into their lives for three weeks and connect. At the same time it was on a completely new level that sometimes made us feel a little foreigner-ish. Yet I think Smithers will always have a huge chunk of my heart of the place I call 'home'.  A lot of people asked us if we are planning on moving back to Smithers once my schooling is done. 

We simply pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" which also happened to be the topic of one of our sermons while in Smithers. 

At the same time we are so content, making a life back in Chilliwack. This place is truly beautiful. Maurits is renting a renovated rustic barn, with a pool table upstairs in the loft and a TV projector with theater sound and ping pong table. A pool and hot tub in the back yard complete the place, it is so much more than we were expecting! I think we got 40 dinner invitations from people in my church on Sunday. One plus of moving is that one gets a lot of free food ;) It sure is great to connect with these people again though!

While he was planning on working at an electrical company, Maurits got a job offer as a warehouse manager at Global Reach Confections, a warehouse that imports Dutch products. This is quite a bit more up his line than electrical is, and he begins his first day today! Pretty exciting. I've worked at this place before and I think Maurits can really be a huge benefit for the company, as the company can also be for him.

My day also was full of meetings at school, going over policy and procedures and all that stuff. It's pretty interesting actually, there is so much more to running a school than I realized while growing up! 

But Maurits is very happy to be here, very happy also with his co-workers and boss, his place and church community. And that makes me completely content :) We have so much to be thankful for.

Anyway, there's a quick update!

I hope you enjoy your week,
Kim

The beginning of the end (or the beginning of the new beginning...)

These past two weeks have been pretty busy, and a ton of fun. I helped out with the summer camp that the church puts on. Hearing all week a language i cant understand was a pretty interesting experience... "bla bla bla Engels vrouwen!" meant "pass the ball english woman!" Many inspiring stories were created, from a prostitute coming to find peace while at the church with us all week, to the little kinderen who shone God's light in their homes by singing the songs we taught them (many were unchristians). I managed to convince my kids for a few days that my name was Frankenstein ("its a Canadian name!"), and met a lot of inspiring people,  once again.

After the busyness of the last few weeks we finally have a chance to reflect, also on the changes ahead! For the most part we are very excited, a little uncertain, and ready to embrace whatever comes our way! Yet these last couple weeks are booked full with good bye dinners with family and close friends. Last night the whole family was together for a last time, perhaps in a year. For the next three evenings there are more good bye dinners... So the excitement is a little shadowed by reflecting on what we leave behind.

Yesterday was spent with an  old friend on the beach!

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I make my home on the farthest sea, even there you are with me, your right hand holds me fast. -psalm 139:9

Beautiful blue skies

This past week some friends from Alberta came to visit! I was their tour guide for a couple days, as we enjoyed more beautiful weather. 

The Netherlands and Canada are beautiful in their own unique way. Yet there are so many differences, not only in the landscape and the language, but the people are also quite different than Canadians. While I am in Canada I typically say proududly that I am Duth, but here I am forced to realize I am actually way more Canadian than I am Dutch! It is wonderful to be here and live a totally different world, expanding my horizons and views. At the same time, there truly is no place quite like home, where one can take off their shoes and relax, completely understanding what is going on around and being completely understood myself. It was really refreshing to spend time with these girls, not having to constantly translate languages and also being able to communicate on culturally at the same level! With that being said, I love my Dutch roots homeland more than I can say, and I think that while in Canada I proudly say that I have Dutch roots! Its nice to be taking a part of this place home to Canada as well through Maurits!

Yeah, this guy kinda forced me to drive his scooter home one day. Last time this happened a duck almost became road kill, but we are both still alive to tell the tale!

Boquet from my english class on our last day

Bouquet  now just a week and a half until we are travelling back to Canada. We try to always look forward, and we are pretty excited about what the future will bring. Maurits is especially excited to begin, and is counting down the days! I am excited to begin a job I love, but terrified at the same time when all the little worries crowd in...what if Maus doesnt like his job...why is he stepping away from the job every young guy dreams of...will having no family in the fraser valley make things more difficult...how will friend groups shift after being away for so long and no longer being single...what if a bee stings us on the way to the airport and we swell up and have to go to the hospital and miss our flight while we are unconcious with needles all over us....aah yes I am sometimes a bit of a non-rational woman.

But life is quite the adventure, and even in irrational moments I know that God holds our future and He promises to make our path straight. Anyways, whatever happens we are still  belonging to Him and that is most important! For now we try to be wise and follow Him, simply trusting.

And for my faithful followers in Smithers...see you in just two weeks!!