A Year of Change (so far)

The Story Bridge, Brisbane

This year has been a year of change for my husband and I (and our doggie, Oscar).

{I wrote this 2 months ago, but the facts and my thoughts remain the same}

We have:

• packed our belongings into a 6x4 trailer
• sold, given to friends, or donated the remainder of our worldly possessions
• said goodbye to my family, our church family and our friends
• left our jobs - for me, that meant saying goodbye to coworkers who I thoroughly enjoyed working with and had become friends with, and giving up a very nice, secure job
• road-tripped and camped our way from Adelaide to Sydney to visit my brother and friends, then from Sydney to our final destination, Brisbane
• lived with friends for a week and a half while house-hunting

Rob, me, Andre and Aaron about to unload furniture into our new home.
We lived with Rob and his family for the week and a half prior to finding our house

• settled into a new home

This is what moving can look like!

First meal in our new home - fish & chips, from the seafood shop right next door

These are all (yes, I mean ALL) of our kitchen cupboards, apart from one shelf where we keep saucepans and bread boards

• searched for jobs - by the grace of God, I found one in less than 2 weeks; the process for my husband has taken much longer
• learned new systems and policies and met new people at those jobs
• been church-hunting!  We've visited every Church of the Nazarene within a half-hour radius from our home, trying to find somewhere we can call our church home {update: we are settling into a church that is just 3 minutes from our house}
• adjusted (or should I say, we are still adjusting) to a lower income overall {update: we are doing very well now}
• (this one is for me only) enjoyed becoming a student again and learning about counselling
• had our dog run away many times - in this process we've suffered fines from the council, he has gotten hit by a car twice, and we've been overwhelmed by our neighbours' kindness in looking out for him

Our front porch [with Oscar in the yard, for once...]

• enjoyed living on a little street where we have gotten to know a few neighbours and quickly gotten used to living right next door to an IGA... so convenient!

The view from our kitchen sink - IGA

So much more has happened, but can I just say, in some cases, change is definitely not as good as a holiday.  I have LOVED so many parts of our journey this year; however, it has also been a struggle at times.

Leaving family and friends and my hometown behind has been relatively easy (thank goodness for texts, phonecalls and video calls!), but there is definitely a sense of loss of the familiar - friends who I have known for years are no longer a coffee-catch-up away, and Sunday lunches aren't quite the same without my family.  I'm so grateful that, overall, it has been easy so far, but that doesn't stop me missing the people I love.

It feels like we gave up a lot to move here.  I guess it's a matter of perspective, but we left jobs and furniture and places full of memories as well.  It really felt like a lot to leave behind.

Andre and I have realised that this year, of all years, is one that we want to look back on and smile and say, "Yes, that year was tough, but it didn't matter because we stuck together and grew closer together."  By God's grace we ARE growing closer together and learning lots together!

I'm so grateful for this year - this year of change.  Giving up so much has shown me how little I really need, but it has also shown me how much I have.  I can see now that I don't need a lot of "stuff" (although we still have too much!); I can easily make new friends to share life with; moving away from the familiar doesn't have to be so sad, because there is so many new experiences to look for!

In fact, while it has been hard at times, I would recommend to anyone to move away from home at least once in your life - whether short-term or long-term - because, in my experience, you can learn so much about yourself.  Plus, it's simply fun looking for new places to visit and experience!

This is a random collection of thoughts, but I hope it shows a little of what has been happening in my life so far this year, and inspires you to look for new experiences in your life.

~Rachel

House-sitting!

As the title suggests, I am currently house-sitting :D

I started on Saturday July 10, and I'll be going back home tomorrow - Thursday July 22. So, I will have had nearly two weeks of house-sitting. It's awesome!

I began at Gawler East, in a beautiful, huge, two-storey house - by myself (although I had Kim sleepover on my first two nights there). I had to look after two cats and one massive, active dog. Remind me never to buy a huge dog if I live in a small house-yard. It's pointless, really. I took the dog for runs nearly every day, to try and expel some of his energy, but unfortunately each day I'd come home from work and find the newly laid lawn dug up :(
I [miraculously] had a few nights at home!!! This very rarely happens! I enjoyed watching TV, which was especially momentous because they had Foxtel :P

On Thursday July 15, I moved houses, to Blakeview. I have house-sat at this place before, with Elyse, over New Year's in the summer school holidays (2009-2010). They have two cats, about six birds, one rabbit and two guinea pigs, so there's a fair few things to take care of! Julia and Elyse are staying with me, so for the most part we all just do a bit, and it's not too bad.

I've really been enjoying the extra independence having my own house brings - although, it is really hard to coordinate everything around work. Things like cooking proper meals, doing the washing and feeding the animals. That's certainly a challenge!!

I mentioned to a lady at work that I'm house-sitting, and she asked how often I do it. She said that she's getting married next year, and she has two dogs, and doesn't really want to send them to kennels or anything (she's getting married in Fiji!). She asked if I'd be interested in looking after her place... Of course I said yes :) It's a long time away, but still!! - The more contacts, the better!
She also gave me the telephone number of friends of hers who are going away for about two months, from August or so, this year. She said they're looking for a house-sitter, and they live in Gawler East as well, so it's nice and close, too.

I went to the shops one day to buy some groceries, and was talking to the girl at the check-out. She was saying how she'd been working all day, and she was tired, etc... Then I told her I was house-sitting and everything, and she became really interested and wanted to know how to find places to house-sit! As she asked me, I realized (and told her) that I really just house-sat once, and then as you mention to people that you're house-sitting at that time, they think of you later on when they're going away; or the people you house-sat for tell their friends... It's really just word of mouth! Pretty cool, really!

So, if you want to get into house-sitting... It just takes one time to get your career started! ;)

~Rachel