Here's What's New...
We have now been living in Guildford for three months and it's starting to feel familiar.
I really like it here actually. It's a great place to be in terms of location for us; easy for Ben to commute from; near Ben's parents; near my sister; easy to get to my family etc. The Boiler Room community is great too, we're settling in well and making some good friends.
I have been enjoying seeing more of my family since we've been back, and it's been great to reconnect with friends too.
Our little girl is growing nicely, I am now 27 weeks pregnant and officially in my 3rd trimester! I've been lucky to have a really easy pregnancy and I'm loving it!
I am registered with various temping agencies and am doing office based work as and when they call (which so far has not been very frequently)
Ben's been working as a contractor full time, based down in Portsmouth, but he only has to go in twice or three times a week and work the rest from home.
We are just in the process of buying our first house *eek* which is all very exciting, and we're hoping to move by the first of june.
Ben is still looking for permanent jobs and has an interview next week, and we have a 3D scan booked for a week on friday so i'll post some pictures after that.
Lots of love,
Becky
Missing Stuff
I am sitting in my friend Rebecca's bedroom in Belfast looking out of the window and watching the world go by. I've been here since monday. Last week I spent a few days in Coventry with my family and a night in Bristol at the weekend. Ben is away on a course for 2 weeks, he's down south in Totnes. I miss him a lot.
I was just reading Brian's blog and it made me really miss him too. I miss Tracy and Ellis and Dan and Helen. I miss the bright blue sky. I miss the beach. I miss the hills and the countryside. I miss our balcony and eating breakfast looking out over the bay. I miss how peaceful and quiet it is there.
Having said that, I'm not too sad! I have loved being back in England, and the sky has been grey on far fewer days than I was expecting. I have loved catching up with people I haven't seen for a long time. I have loved the adventure of being in a new place again. I have loved shopping for baby stuff!
I guess it's natural to miss things you love when they're not there.
When i was in Ibiza i missed England!
And we're back, sort of
Well we made it.
We left Ibiza on the 13th of January, a year exactly since we arrived. It was very sad to leave, but we were excited to come home too. The car made it back with no problems which we were very impressed with.
When we got back, we put the car in for a pre MOT test. We knew it would fail an MOT but we wanted to see what it would fail on and how much it would cost to fix. The mechanic came back to us with an A4 sheet of problems and told us our car was a disaster and he was amazed we had made it back from Spain!!!
It would have cost more than the car is worth to get the work done so our Golf is dead.
We have just been given a Rover 216 though which is very lovely to have, so we are mobile once more.
We have been welcomed so well in Guildford, everyone we have met at the Boiler Room has been wonderful and we are excited to be part of the community there.
We haven't actually been in Guildford all that much yet because we've been visiting friends and family we haven't seen for a long time.
Our travels during the 4 weeks we have been back in the UK have taken us to :
Portsmouth - Guildford - Hemel Hempsted - Chesham - Gerrards Cross - Guildford - London - Guildford - Petersfield - Guildford - London - Guildford - Devon(Ben)/Coventry(Becky)-Bristol- Devon(Ben)/Coventry and Belfast(Becky) - and finally back to Guildford on friday night!
So on friday night we will be be able to say properly "we're back", and since we don't have any more plans to be away after this weekend, we'll hopefully have the chance to settle in a bit and really start to feel like we actually live there!
Nipper
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I had another scan today. It wasn't as much fun as the first time because I had a different medico lady who was unimpressed that we didn't speak much spanish. She was pretty horrible to be honest and hardly even let me see the screen. Ben saw it all though and he said it was trying to do backflips! I did get a little bit upset that she was such a five-star meanie, and it made me feel more like I want to be at home in england so I can understand everything that's going on. The baby has almost doubled in size in the space of two weeks - still only 6cm though. I'm not feeling sick any more and not so tired all the time either. We have just got a load of cardboard boxes from the supermarket and are gonna start packing tommorrow. I still can't believe our time to leave has come around so soon.
New Year, New Home
Well, it's a New Year, and the start of a whole new season for us.
We only have eleven more days of calling this beautiful island our home.
We had planned to wait until mid february to leave, But ben is going on a course for the first 2 weeks of feb in england and it seemed silly to pay for return flights just so he could fly back here only to drive to england again.
So we we're looking for ferries at the very end of january, but they were quite expensive, and this particular ferry kept popping up even though it was almost 3 weeks before the date i was searching, and it was so ridiculously cheap compared to the others it seemed to scream "pick me, pick me!"
At first I ignored it because it seemed so soon, but then it dawned on me that the date it was suggesting would be exactly a year to the day since we arrived.
So we set foot on the island on january 13th 2007, and we will be setting sail for our journey home on january 13th 2008. Funny how things work out.
Peace and Solitude
It's very peaceful here at the moment. Blue sky, sunshine, no one really about. All I can see are the stunning hills and the blue water of the bay, and all I can hear is the occasional car in the distance.
Ben is out doing some work and i'm really enjoying a little bit of solitude. I don't have solitude often, because I never go out of my way to find it; but on the odd occasion when it finds me, I realise how valuable it is.
The road less travelled
Change, it seems, is becoming something of a habit for us! Christmas day this year began with Breakfast with Bob the Vicar, his wife Claire and 3 others we'd not met before. These brunch-time companions proved to be very interesting conversationists.
The usual introductions took place, Who are you?, where do you live?, what do you do? Since this was no ordinary Christmas for any of us the conversation turned to What is a normal Christmas for you? When directed at us, we turned to each other and then realised that we certainly do not have anything like a 'normal' christmas. Since we got married we've spent one christmas in Portsmouth, one in Thailand, one in the USA, one in Coventry and one in Ibiza! There doesn't seem to be any kind of pattern there!
I have to say that when I first met Becky, I was a creature of habit. An obsessive hoarder, I was terrified of throwing anything away, and carried around with me the junk from over 10 years of 'one day I'll use that'!
In the 6 short years we have been together we have truly enjoyed a rollercoaster existence and we have both changed in such dramatic ways. I now recycle or remove the unnecessary possessions from my life choosing a more simple existence. I choose adventure over comfort and this year I have chosen to overcome some of the fears that hold me back. In 6 short years I have graduated University, given my life and all that I am to Jesus, found the woman of my dreams, got married, lived in 6 different houses in 3 countries in 2 continents, travelled to 12 countries, and now we are expecting our first child!
And now, change is upon us again. With Becky pregnant, our journey through life is taking us to Guildford. Another city, another community, another set of friends and adventures to be found. A new place to find God and to be found by Him.
This life we lead is uncomforting to most people I think, but there is something of God in it. The adventure, the trials and tribulations, the unknown; having faith in something beyond ourselves, someone we cannot see, but whose actions are undeniable in guiding and shaping us. The heart of adventure is still within us, I know we will never likely tame it; though I do know that in 7 months time the adventure of country hopping will be stemmed with the arrival of a new and far greater adventure.
I'll finish with a quote from Wild at Heart by John Eldridge (a book that makes my heart come alive),
Two roads diverged in a wood and we,
we took the one less travelled by,
and that has made all the difference.
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