Our New Church

Two Sundays ago we went to International Baptist Church for the first time. One of my Dad's friends knows the pastor there and told him that we should go check it out. It's a little bit far from our apartment, so we were hesitant at first. We planned our trip, which included a bus ride, a tram ride and then a 1/2 mile walk. So, Sunday morning came and we decided to give it a try. But we waited and waited and waited and the bus never showed up (apparently, the public transport is less than reliable on Sundays). We decided that if we were going to make it on time, we would have to take a cab. It turned out to be about a 25-minute cab ride, so it wasn't too bad. And it was definitely worth it. As soon as we walked in, we had several people greet us, including a girl who lives somewhat close to our area and immediately offered us rides to and from church (we'd just met her!). Everyone was very nice and made us feel very welcome.


The service was really good and the pastor ended up talking about things that Anthony and I had just been discussing the night before. God works in awesome ways! After the service, we met the pastors who ended up taking us to lunch! Two other couples came with us and we got a chance to know some new friends. We felt like we had known them for much longer than a couple of hours. After a great lunch, the pastors drove us all the way back to our apartment, which was completely out of their way and incredibly generous. It was a great day!

We went back yesterday and pretty much decided that this is the place for us! The regular pastors were away on holiday, but the guest speaker did an awesome job. He ended his message with an incredible acapella song that gave everyone goosebumps. More people asked us to go out to lunch again this week and we got to know 3 new people. One of the girls took us home as well, which was such a blessing! Apparently, the "young adults" get together about once a month for a game night or some kind of activity. I'm so excited for their next event!


Anthony and I had been struggling with finding a church and meeting other Christians. God has definitely blessed us and answered our prayers (thanks to all our family who were praying for us). We can already see this as our church home. We are so excited for what God is doing.

Christmas 2008

We have now been in Australia for about 8 1/2 months, so we were very excited to go home for Christmas this year!

On the plane from Melbourne to LA, we were actually bumped up to Premium Economy...man, we were spoiled! Not quite First Class, but a good step up from Economy. The seats have foot rests in them, recline a bit further back, and are a little wider. The blankets and pillows are better, as well as the food options. It was hard going back to regular ecomony on the flight home.
On our way to Portland, we made a stop in Sacramento for the weekend. We were fortunate to be able to spend some time with our good friends there. Here's a few pictures from our brief time in Cali.

We were supposed to fly out of Sacramento on Sunday night, but our flight was cancelled. The Portland area had several inches of snow, which is highly unusal for them, and the airport was basically closed. When we called the airlines to find out when we would be able to get home, they told us the soonest flight out would be Christmas morning! That was an unacceptable option for us, so we looked into train options, but they were either completely full or cancelled as well. So, we called Budget and asked if we could keep our compact car (Mustang!) for an extra day & drop it off in Portland. They allowed us to, so we bought some chains and headed home at 5am the next day. A normal trip from Sacramento to Portland takes about 8 1/2 hours. And 12 hours later, we pulled into my parents driveway. We made great time all the way to Salem (about and hour from Vancouver) and then we pretty much crawled at 20 mph the rest of the way (4 hours instead of 1!!). We were so happy to finally be home though that we really didn't care :)

The driving put us about a day behind and the snow slowed us down a lot. We ended up rearranging some plans and weren't able to see everyone on our list. But, we really enjoyed seeing the snow and being with our family!

We spent Christmas Eve with Mom, Tyler, and Laura. We played games, took some fun snow pictures, had an amazing Christmas dinner, opened lots of awesome presents, and just enjoyed each other's company. We planned on going to church for Christmas Eve, but it was cancelled because of the snow storm....we still can't believe all the snow we had!

Christmas Eve night we went over to Dave & Sandy's house with my Mom's side of the family. It had been about 5 years since I'd been able to be there and Anthony has never been there for Christmas Eve, so it was really special for us. Almost everyone was able to make it and we all had a great time!

Christmas day was spent at Mom & Dad's with Katie & Jason. We slept in after a late night and woke up to open stockings, have a cinnamon roll breakfast, and then open presents. Jason wrote each of us a letter that was really special and definitely one of the highlights of Christmas this year. We all took turns opening gifts and we didn't finish until the early evening! It was so much fun and we lost track of time until it started getting dark outside :) Anthony's Mom and my grandparents joined us for the traditional prime rib dinner...yum!! It was so good - the perfect ending for such a great day!

We had to postpone Christmas with Dad & Joyce due to the crazy weather, but we had a wonderful time with them as well. Grandpa & Grandma Harris and Joyce's Mom were also able to join us this year. Joyce made a wonderful ham dinner that topped off the evening. It's always great to visit and catch up...especially since it had been so long!

Grandpa & Nan came down from the Tri-Cities to visit with us the week after Christmas. It was so great to see them! We really appreciated them making the trek out to see us in the crazy weather. We were able to have lunch with them at the infamous Olive Garden (this side of the family is where Anthony's Italian heritage comes from) and then breakfast at IHOP before they left the next morning. We always have a great time visiting with them.

New Year's Eve was spent with my parents and Katie. It was very laid-back. We ate some good food, played our new Wii, and watched the ball drop at Times Square.

Our time home flew by way too fast, but we enjoyed every minute of it! Our parents and siblings had lunch with us at McGrath's (our favorite seafood restaurant) before we headed to the airport. It was bittersweet - we always hate the leaving part. We miss everyone already, but are looking forward to some more travelling around Australia. Our time here is almost 1/2 gone, which is amazing to think about. We are so blessed to have such awesome friends and family and we wish you all the best for 2009! We love you all!

Back in Oz

Anthony and I landed back in Melbourne yesterday at about 10am. We had an awesome visit home and miss everyone already! Our flights went smoothly and now we're just trying to adjust to the time difference. Anthony was really excited because we got to fly in the new Airbus A380 from LA to Melbourne (he's fascinated with airplanes!). It's a huge double-decker airplane that was just introduced this year. It was really nice!

Today was about 85 degrees and it was nice to be in warm weather after a snowy Christmas. We loved having a white Christmas though - we can't even remember the last time that happened! But, the sun feels soooo good! :)

Well, it's back to work for us tomorrow and right into busy season for Anthony! But, we'll sort through our pictures from our trip home and post them soon. We had a wonderful Christmas and a great time with our family!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!