Home Sweet Home

Two Saturdays ago, Damarise and I moved into our first home! After figuring out that money would be saved by us moving off campus, and after not wanting to be in the dorm for another year, God blessed us with a cozy little one room house behind a wonderful Covenant staff family. We couldn't be happier!

Here are a few views of the house:

This is the kitchen. I love the long counter and the two windows. They are wonderful for my plants. (Also, Davey and I were making a Calzone... which is also something I am SO thankful for – finally being able to cook again!)

This is a rug that Mrs. Hoffman made for us. We love how it fits snuggly under our bathroom sink.

We bought a coffee table from Ikea. Damarise put both a coffee table and a nightstand together in the time it took me to put together a lamp. Damarise is a pro! 

This is our dining room/kitchen area. We could not be more thankful with how open it is. It is perfect for having guests over and we have enjoyed opening our home to several fellow classmates throughout the past week, whether it be for meals or just letting them relax on our couch and get away from campus for a bit.

This is the living room view from the kitchen. The door leads to our bedroom. The couch came with the apartment and it is one of the most comfortable things I have ever sat on!

This is the other side of the living room.

And last, but certainly not least– the bedroom. This is my bed and I love it! 

There you have it. A glimpse into our home. We love it and are so thankful for it! It has been fun to start a lot of firsts – like buying toilet paper for the first time in our lives! It is exciting and I can't wait to see all that is in store for us. 

Time for a Photo Update

I don't have time to write a lot, although if I could pick the perfect day to just sit down and write it would have to be a day like today. It has been raining non-stop since yesterday and it is the perfect weather to snuggle under some blankets with a warm cup of tea and write to my heart's content. However, time won't allow me to do that, so I'll leave most of the stories to the pictures, since pictures are worth a thousand words. 

1. Tomato plants. To the average person, getting tomato plants would be interesting and maybe a little cool. For me, they made my month! They were about the most wonderful thing anybody could ever give me. .... And here's the tale behind how I got them. 

Once upon a year ago there was Earth Day. Now for those of you who may remember I got two free Fraiser Fir trees from Lowe's for Earth Day last year. It was so exciting! I'd always wanted to grow and nurture something and trees that would live for over 80 years seemed perfect, not to mention they were free. Well, grow those trees did... until the day they died. It was sad. I ended up getting an aloe plant because those were easier to take care of (and I'm happy to report that it is still alive)! 

Well, this year Earth Day rolled around again. I googled what Lowe's was doing for Earth Day 2012 and found out they were giving away free trees again. I was elated! If at first you don't succeed try, try again, right? I had to go down to that part of town to get fingerprinted for Student Teaching, so I planned to head down on the free tree day. I was about to leave when the fingerprinting place called to tell me they had to cancel. I was bummed. I wasn't going to drive all the way down to that part of town just for free trees. I thought all hope was lost until I called Micah, since he lives closer to that part of town, I asked him if he would be going anywhere close to there and could maybe pick me up a free tree. He said probably not and I decided that that was that. I'd try nurturing a tree some other year. 

Then came the next day. I was sitting at work when Micah called and said to meet him outside cause he had trees for me. I was thrilled! (I know... it's strange...) I came outside and told Micah how excited I was. He told me that he had something to tell me though. Apparently it wasn't free tree day at Lowe's, but he felt bad coming back empty handed, so he bought me tomato plants! I was more than excited and thrilled! Tomato plants would not only be easier to keep alive, they would also produce something edible! I was SO excited! It was the best gift and I couldn't be more thankful! 

The plants are currently in a BIG pot basking in the sun and rain and growing fast. It's wonderful!

2. Virginia. She graduated last Saturday. She has been a wonderful RA to me the past two years and I am so thankful for her.

3. Hannah Brammer. She is amazing! She lived on our hall this past year and is from Germany. She can make anyone laugh and is so sweet and kind. Saturday at graduation we had to say goodbye to her and she went back to Germany. Who knows when I'll get to see her again, but I'm so thankful that God let her come to Covenant and let our paths cross. She has been a huge blessing to me.

4. Ohh Davey! Saturday after graduation Davey, Damarise, Janessa, and I went all around town just to hang out with each other before we all went out separate ways for the summer. It was fun.

5. All together until the fall. I miss them both already!

6. Damarise and I went to our first wedding in twelve years! We got to see one of our close friends here at Covenant get married to a wonderful man. It was beautiful.

7. Alicia and Karly – two of our amazing friends who we got to know from working B.E.S.T last summer.

8. The groom and bride – Paul and Kristin. They are an awesome couple!

9. Our first dinner of the summer. Chicken breast and salad. Yum!

10. Global Trends. I am currently in this class for three hours every morning and working in the afternoon for four hours. It is a lot, but it is good. I have learned SO much in this class and am thankful for the ways it has been opening my eyes to the world around me and to God's ever abounding grace!

11. Blue feet! We played footballish monkey in the middle the other night on a soccer field in the dark. Apparently it had weed killer on it. It made our feet blue. It was hilarious. 

There's a little update in pictures until I can sit down and write more. Maybe after May when I'm done with my class and have time to think about something other than homework. We shall see. 

It's that time of year...

Packing, moving, cleaning... it's been routine for a lot of my life, and it's that time again. We are cleaning up and packing our dorm room for the last time. Next year we will be living in a house. It's a little bittersweet. 

Dentists and Packing

Dentists and Packing. I know, I know, a weird title for a post, but that describes my last two days. :) Yep, going to the dentist and packing. Not much else besides those two things. But why share about them? Well, because I had some thoughts about both topics, and thought I may as well share them on here... to whomever reads this :)

First off: Dentists. My summer has been booked with appointments for my teeth. Everything from my every-two-week appointment for my braces to my wisdom teeth getting pulled and now a check up to see if I had a cavity. Yesterday I was once again in the dentist's chair. This time to see if my tooth had a cavity. It did as well as the one next to it. Ugh! But I'm thankful that the dentist took care of them :) He had to numb one tooth because the cavity was so deep. Bummer. But the weird thing was after I got feeling back in mouth. The last few times I have been to a dentist they numb my mouth because they are pulling out teeth, so I was grateful to be able to feel all my teeth still in my mouth after the numbness wore away. :)

Since this summer was so full of dentists, orthodontists, and oral surgeons, I thought that maybe I would end my summer realizing (finally) why people would ever want to have a job dealing with people's mouths! So my observation: I still have absolutely no idea why anybody would ever want to spend the rest of their lives dealing with people's teeth. It's such a nasty job. But I'm grateful that there are people who do that job, because I certainly find it ... gross :)

The second point of my post: Packing. I'm not sure if you know, but somebody bought the house that our Uncle has been letting us live in. Right now, we don't have another home to move into, but our Grandma has graciously opened her house to us during this transition stage. So, we have begun something that I have come to see as a family tradition ... almost :) Yes, that would be packing. We've been packing and moving to a new location every since I was ten. It's exciting and it's life :) Packing up to move gives a great prospective that this earth is not our home. Our true home is in heaven. It's nice to have that mindset that none of this material stuff on earth matters because none of it will spend eternity with us. Every time we are back in the packing and moving process it's a good time for that reminder. :)

Well, I have been hiding out with my computer avoiding the packing process for a little too long now. Whoops. Back to packing! Until later... the once again packing and traveling banana :)

Time to Blog!

I think it is time for me to actually write a real update. Ever since leaving Mozambique I've been trying to keep up with what has been happening, but not actually writing much. I'm finally getting the chance to sit down and write a bit, so here it goes.

It still seems hard for me to believe that we have actually left Mozambique, the fourth country I have lived in and the second longest place I have ever lived in my life.

I can still remember the last few weeks we had in the States before coming to Mozambique. I was nerve racked! I had no idea what to expect and everyone who was in Mozambique said to expect the worst. Whatever is the worst place you could think of, imagine Mozambique like that. Yikes! That was scary enough! Then as the weeks dwindled to days and the days to hours we finally said our goodbyes and boarded the plane to South Africa. After ten days in South Africa we flew up to Mozambique, home for the next 2 years 7 months and 1 day. I remember that first day in Mozambique, driving along the road from the airport and seeing all the poverty and all the Africans. It was totally different from anything I could have ever imagined. And, it wasn't as bad as I was told to expect or imagine, just very, very different. Our first few weeks in Mozambique I kept remembering that I only have three years to live here and then I'll be back home. But as the months passed Mozambique started feeling more and more like home. And when we finally realized that our months left in Mozambique were dwindling down to weeks and our weeks to days, it became harder and harder to think about leaving. There were some things that I couldn't wait to get away from, but for the most part it was sad just to think about leaving Mozambique.

Our last Sunday in Nampula, we said our goodbyes to the church. After we gave our despadida (A goodbye and thanks for everything) one of the elderly ladies in the church got up to say something. First she asked the whole church to sing a hymn. It was a really sweet hymn! Then this lady said how much she appreciated having us in their church. She said it was really neat to have a white family in the church and how the family of Christ is a family and it doesn't matter what colour they are. Anyways, she talked for a while and it was really sweet. It reminded me of leaving Portugal and our last Sunday at the church there. The church had said something about us, and at the time, with my limited... ok, I'll be truthful, with my extremely limited Portuguese, I had no idea what they said about us, but it sounded really sweet and everyone hugged and kissed us afterwards. So it was really special to be able to understand almost everything this lady said to us.

Sunday evening we went to the missionary fellowship. Dad led that night and afterwards Mr. Cunningham and Kent said some things about us that were really sweet. After they were done talking Mr. Cunningham asked our whole family to come to the front of the church so they could pray for us. Allison, our cousin, asked if they could go up to pray around us and next thing we knew everyone who was there had surrounded us in a circle and started to pray for us. It was SO amazing and sweet! The missionary body in Nampula is so special and I miss everyone so much! It was hard not to cry while everyone was praying for us, especially knowing that we may never see these people again. But one day we will see them again in heaven, and that is comforting :)

As Monday dawned on us, we moved over to the Woodrow's place. They were brave to have all 7 of us over! There were 14 people in the house all the time! It was fun and definitely great to make some last memories with them! But Friday came all to soon, and we hit the road and were out of Nampula. After the long trip down, we arrived in South Africa and we've been here since April 5th.

And now once again the countdown has begun, only this time it isn't for a place that is totally new or different, this time we aren't told to expect the worse, this time we are going to a place that was home over two and a half years ago. Twelve days and we will walk off of a plane and into our home country. I'm sure it will be different though. Things do change in two and a half years. And it will definitely be strange to have everyone speaking English and being able to understand every word that is being said, but I can't wait to see family and friends again. Twelve days and we will.

But dwindling days aren't just spent lying around and counting down the days, hours and seconds. No, these days are packed full of busyness. The Turnbull family is quite the sight to see a few weeks before a flight to another country. Everyone is trying to do last minute things, people are frantically trying to organize their bags so they get everything fit underneath the weight limit and it's always emotional leaving friends especially ones that are like family. So, if you think of it, please be praying as we start into the last 12 days of our life in Africa and for all the packing, last minute details and goodbyes that need to take place. It is so great to know that God is an unchanging God! And that He, who led us to Mozambique, spared Ian's life, and orchestrated everything that has happened in each of our lives, is the same God who was with us when we left the States. Though many things around us change God always remains the same! Alleluia, thank you Lord!

Packing Up & Moving Out

Friday, March 27th, we packed up everything that needed to go to Zambia. We were waiting for a container to come pick up our stuff from the house, but when it started looking like we wouldn't be getting a container for quite some time the Woodrows offered that we could store everything at their place until our container came to whisk everything off to Maputo to wait until our move to Zambia. 

So, Friday some men from the VI came over to help us load everything into the Woodrow's truck to bring over to their place. 

Here is all the stuff that needs to go :)

The boys and Sr. Mario swept out the truck before we started to load everything up onto it. 

Mr. Martin was an amazing packer! He fit everything in perfectly :)

The now "empty" house. Well, empty as in our stuff it mostly gone. ;)

The pile on the truck just kept growing!

Mr. Michael, Mr. DJ and Mr. John helped us out too :)

Then we moved it over to the Woodrow's containers to store. 

This is everything of mine that I am bringing back to the US. :) 

Ian cleaning out their room. 

And the view of the house with all of it's empty rooms. We cleaned it out Monday and moved over to the Woodrows. (BIG thank you to the Woodrows for letting us move in with them :) ) Tuesday we cleaned up the house and gave the keys back to the Dono (Land lord). But not before we snapped some pictures :)

The boy's room. 

Our lovely bathroom :)

Mom and Dad's room...hmmm I'm starting to think that I should have gotten some pictures when there was furniture in the rooms. Whoops! 

Our room. 

The kitchen :) Bright green! 

And the living room. 

The hallway that never ends ;) 

The side of our house by the kitchen and living room. 

And the other side. Our room is the closest. Then Mom and Dad's. The bathroom and last but not least the boy's room. And that is our car at the very very end :) 

Our back "yard". It has three dipendencias. The closest one is where we stored Dad's tools and stuff.  Then a bathroom. Then a little storage room for tires and wood and bricks or whatever construction type stuff was left at the house. Then is Sarah's dipendencia. She had it all decorated with animal pictures :) And did her school work in there. And the last one is where Dona Rosa and Sr. Mario would eat and iron. And where bebe André would sleep.  

Our front porch. 

Our front yard. 

And some little things around the house :)

This is our kitchen faucet. 

Our water tank. 

The Mozambican sockets. 

Our electricity. We buy a certain about of electricity ever month. Type in whatever the number is that comes on the receipt. And it tells us how much electricity we have. :) We usually go through 20 something (I'm not sure what it is) a day. 

Sarah with her papaya tree that she planted from a seed! WOW!!! 

And her neem tree. 

Sarah was telling me all about her trees. :)

Our front porch.

This is the view on the right side of our house. Beautiful eh? 

This is how we get hot water in the shower. :)

The circuit breaker turns on the heater in that big nozzle on top of the shower and vwala we have hot water. 

Ian and Andrew on the guava tree. Sarah, Ian and Andrew all have their own sitting spots on it. And it's the only good climbing tree in our yard, so it gets climbed a lot. ;)

The doorbell. :) It makes a bzzzzz sound.

Sarah with her favourite fly swatter. 

And again with her favourite soda. Fanta :) Mmmm

And that is our packing up and moving out experience from our house in Nampula. I think it was the easiest packing and moving experience ever! :D We had so many people helping us out that everything we did went by really fast. Thank you everyone for helping us move out of our house.