work permit - DONE!!

in spite of being extremely tired tim and i woke up early yesterday morning and headed for the border. we arrived before 9 and in 45 minutes and very little questioning later, we had a work permit for me!!! which means i can apply for jobs and actually be allowed to work in canada. i am extremely excited, especially because the first time we went the people treated me like i was crazy to think i was allowed to ask for a permit. but after much research and talking to people at regent we found out i am in fact perfectly able/allowed as a spouse of a full time student to obtain an open work permit in canada.

we also went and looked at a possible place to live and saw drew and bekah yesterday. so it was a great day as we get more and more excited about living in vancouver.

too many hours to count later

we are in bellingham. we arrived this afternoon after many, many hours of driving. overall the trip went well. tim was a bit stressed in the middle of wyoming with wind gusts up and beyond 45 mph. and i didn't like driving the truck much, so poor tim drove all but 2.5 hours. we both feel a bit out of it and tired, but we are glad to be here. i took many pictures along the way which i will post sometime this weekend. we spent the night at k.o.a. campgrounds. an interesting social phenomena to say the least. we also visited more mcdonalds than we have been to in a mighty long time because we were given a gift card and had a hard time rationalizing going to any other fast food place as tim thinks they all taste about the same. needless to say as we were driving through the northwest tim suggested some kind of intense vegetable/fruit based cleanse in the near future to get all of the nasty out of our bodies. haha.

well i am tired. good night. pray for us tomorrow. we will be crossing the border in hopes of getting a work permit for me.

car - SOLD!!

this morning we sold the jetta!! all-and-all we are glad to have sold it. a huge blessing to have the car sold before we head north tomorrow.

tomorrow morning we will pick up our moving truck - load it up - and head to bellingham. we are glad to not have a car to drive, so we can be in the truck together. we hope all of our things fit :) we would appreciate your prayers for safety and a smooth drive. we are looking forward to all of the time we will have to talk and process these past two weeks. we also are excited about beginning to read out of the silent planet together (by C.S. Lewis) - a highly recommend first installment of the space trilogy (thank you kurtis). tim and i have actually read it before as part of our freshman year at Taylor, but it will be good to read again.

well. that's about it. we hope to be in bellingham for dinner on friday. and saturday we are going to cross the border and try for a work permit for me. canada here we come!

dinner together at red robin

we met gabe and brooke in castle rock for dinner at red robin. yum. yum. the storm outside stopped long enough to get some pictures.

again we have a picture of gabe giving hugs - he loves hugs. it looks like brooke and janae do too.
father - daughter love (notice the anvil hat - my dad's employer - love you dad!)
not bad for not being able to tell what he was taking a picture of (good job tim)
not sure what to say - we are both smiling, that's nice.
oh, to be in love...

a picture where all of us look normal - a rare, but wonderful, thing.
we will all be together again in october in the midwest to celebrate grandpa and grandma stockman's 60th anniversary. we will miss gabe and brooke - it's great to like each other so much.

a dear friend and a hike

saying goodbye to our dear friend sonya (with her son dylan, niece kya and maci)

below - tim, dylan, and kya showing their guns, while maci looks on
tim, gabe and ken had a great hike climbing Mt. Princeton - here is the chalet where they spent the night
up, up, up
the man is cancer free - praise the Lord!

dad and son
three pretty cool dudes
brothers
crazy tim
they had a great time. and i am glad they are home.

please continue to pray for a place for us to live and a job for me. canada isn't exactly foreigner friendly but we are figuring it out. hopefully by the end of august i will have a work permit. pray with us that we have a friendly border crossing worker. we are here in colorado springs until wednesday. we will pick up our moving truck wednesday morning and we hope to be on the road by lunch time. vancouver here we come.

denver

saturday afternoon we met gabe and brooke in denver. we said goodbye to vickie and janae for a few days and have been enjoying time to be with our brother and sister in law, as well as with good friends for a few days. here are some pictures.

gabe loves hugs - i think brooke and janae do too.
beautiful brooke.
brother and sister-in-law - we like them a lot :)
brothers.
charlie, tim and gabe. we spent sunday afternoon with keri and charlie - such good friends.
brooke and i.
one of the highlights of being back in denver was visiting the gathering on sunday morning. we just enjoyed being with the community. it is a beautiful thing (now being an outside witness) seeing them worship the Lord and worshiping with them - they are genuinely love Him and love each other. we are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be with them all and see the Lord's continued faithfulness to the community.

today we will have lunch with my dear uncle jim. and tonight we will be with good friends - kendal and sonya, and mark and brooke. it is good to be with friends.

a birthday celebration

last night we had a great celebration at the knipps last night. i felt very loved and cared for.

beans!! kurtis and erin taught us this great game in Israel and i was thrilled to get it for my birthday. we even had a chance to play with ken and vickie and had a great time! i think it will soon be a new family favorite.

together again on the side of the road

moments after landing in denver we learned that our dear sister and brother were stranded on the side of the road. bummer. a busted tire. oh well. so we had our family reunion on the side of the road. either way you slice it though - it is good to be together again.
tim offering words of encouragement :)
sisters.

we are now in colorado springs with plans to be back in denver on saturday. we will spend sunday morning at the gathering and the next few days after getting together with dear friends who we have missed these past few months. it feels a bit strange to be home - but a good, sweet kind of strange.

CHIPOTLE!!!

CHIPOTLE!! August 12th - between 6:30 and 7 (depending on our flight) at Buckley and Quincey - we would LOVE to see you!!

Denver here we come!!

since we've been home

the neighbors went crabbing and we received the benefits:
d and jacob
tim - a bit tried - just 2 days after we arrived

beautiful isa (our dear friends drew and bekah's daughter)

tim and ben - listening to the wind (drew and bekah's son)
faith!
sisters
tim and me

it has been great being home. the olympics are on tonight. i am making dinner and we will be watching. this weekend we will celebrate my birthday. and soon and very soon we will be in denver!!

pictures of nepal

so yeah for a fast internet connection and the alleviated fear of computer viruses. we are at kurtis and erins house and i have some time to post a few pictures of our last few weeks in nepal.

here with are with gotham and reka (calvin forgive the way i am spelling their names - please let me know if the spelling is incorrect). they are parents of the home word made flesh has for girls. they have adopted almost a dozen girls and treat them as their own - bring them into their family. it is a beautiful thing to watch. we had the privilege of getting to know them better and eating meals with them - such amazing dal bhat. they also prayed for us before we left - a blessing to be surrounded by them and their children and prayed over.
tim with gita, rita, and sumitra (girls we knew from 2003. good friends and wonderful to see them again - they are all sisters).
tim with calvin, andrew and jesse. word made flesh staff in nepal. great guys - this was taken at our last dinner in kathmandu.
tim and calvin. we love calvin. he is such a good friend to us. it was a great joy to be with him and around him and his community for 2 months. please pray for calvin and the word made flesh staff in nepal. they are doing great work in the name of and for the glory of jesus. calvin's blog is linked to ours on the right hand side of the screen. so please pray for calvin and if the Lord leads you to give to the field of nepal he would be able to tell you how.
tim and roop - we got to know roop in 2002/2003 as well. he helped out with the drop in center for kids. he is on word made flesh staff and primarily drives the girls to and from school and also brings them their lunch everyday. we had the privilege of having dinner with roop and his family. great guy.
kids at peace children's home - one of the homes run by Tiny Hands International. and the kids' hero here is our dear friend mike. mike in 2002 had the vision to see quality christian orphanages here in nepal - so he started one - with the help of his church. mike is now connected with tiny hands, as he is good friends with john, the president. we were able to visit a few of the homes run by tiny hands. it is difficult to express the joy we felt as the kids asked us about mike, showed us their pictures they have of mike and ask when mike would be back. we are so proud of the faithfulness of our dear friend. these kids' lives will be changed forever because of the Lord's use of him and his obedience.
motorcycles. fun times. we are hard core bikers.
calvin and charlie - equally hard core.
me with sumitra and her son james. sumitra is also on word made flesh staff. she supports the home for girls with her time and energy - cleaning and as their tutor after school. she has the biggest heart and warmly welcomed us into her home for meals and freely offered us her friendship. pray for her as she and her husband are praying about big changes for their family. she gives the best hugs too.

the Lord truly blessed us during our time in nepal. getting to know better our friends and the culture as well as seeing His work changed us. He enlarged our hearts further for the oppressed, orphaned, widowed and poor. He also granted us rest and healing and a time of sweet intimacy for us as a couple - for i don't think we have ever spent so much time together. it was great. i love it that tim and i are best friends and our friendship was grown through this experience. thank you for your prayers and journeying with us.

many have asked - so i wanted to let you all know that i will continue to blog. i imagine there are many more adventures, funny stories and challenges ahead. for now we are enjoying a month to reconnect with life in north america. i already have some super cute pictures of drew and bekah's children. we saw them a few days ago! and the adventures of moving to canada have already begun - previous thoughts to the contrary - canada is a different country - not just an expansion of america. and things are a bit different here :) (that thought is for you kurtis - our proud canadian friend).

we still do not have a place to live nor any outside source of income - prayers for a home and a job are appreciated. thank you for them.