Sometimes it’s hard to know what to blog about, what to share and what will be interesting. And sometimes to be honest we just simply don’t have the energy (Exhibit A: our last post being almost 2 months ago. Oops!). Awhile ago I was feeling a little bit lonely and forgotten…yes it happens sometimes…and when I shared it with a friend back home she said that people likely just see all the adventures and good times we’re having and don’t think about the hard stuff. So while I feel like I have lots of great things to share about our life here over the past few months, I thought I’d start with some of the hard stuff.

So it turns out, it can be really, really hard to live on the other side of the world. I don’t consider myself to be someone who gets very homesick, but over the past few months I’ve had an ache that I haven’t really experienced before. The hardest part by far is missing family. And in recent months we have missed birthdays, a baptism, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, family weekend at the farm and the birth of our nephew. We are close with our families and missing out on these experiences, especially when we know everyone else is together, sometimes just plain sucks. Good friends are a close second to family. While technology is wonderful, I miss being able to share a meal with some of our friends, watching our kids play together or having a good chat with a kindred spirit over a mint chocolate chip waffle.

Besides people, there are other things we miss.  I miss having a grocery store less than an hour away with unlimited choices. I miss fresh salads and berries and access to any kind of food I want with very little effort. I miss church that is less than three hours long. I miss the gym and swimming. I miss having places to go and paved roads to get there on. I miss going on dates with my husband. Apparently the boys miss their wooden train set which is always the first thing they mention when I ask them about Canada. The list could go on and on, but you get it. We miss home. And while Macha has very much become home and we have wonderful friendships here for which we are very grateful, sometimes we just long for what we have left behind. And never more so than in recent days.

So while we share about all the good stuff, know that those of you who sent us off on this adventure and continue to support us from afar, are never far from our minds. We look forward to sharing more about what we’ve been up to, in the near future.