1. I have found the church I will be attending during my stay in Melbourne, Australia - Compass Church (link below). It is in close proximity to the family's home, has a good size young adults group (college students and young professionals), they have contemporary services, and the sermons are fantastic. The leader of the young adults group and a PhD student in the young adults group have both been e-mailing back and forth with me to answer questions, give advice, check in on the progress of the planning, etc. They are really excited to meet me and say that other church leaders and young adult group members are excited for my arrival as well. God is seriously looking out for me. I'm not even over there yet and I've already got people planning get togethers, shopping trips, coffee dates, and just loving on me through answering my questions and calming my worries.
2. I am all set to get my IDP (International Driver's Permit) at some point this week.
3. Almost all of the gifts for my Australian family are purchased. I designed and ordered NC, USA t-shirts (picture below) for the 3 children. I also got the children a NC alphabet book titled "T is for Tar Heel" and the parents a NC coffee table book with photographs of iconic NC cities, buildings, locations, landscapes, animals, etc.I am working on finding a few smaller items for the family and items that are in the US but not Australia.
4. Other than my family in Ohio, I have officially said my first "see you later" (I refuse to call it a good-bye) on Friday. Unfortunately that "see you later" was to my Hopie (picture below). Needless to say I certainly am not looking forward to the rest of the "see you later"s I'll have to say in the near future.
5. My Australian family had their baby boy last Monday!!! He is healthy and everyone is doing well!!! (picture below).
6. The mom sent me an e-mail a couple weeks ago saying, "Michelle and Ben are also getting very excited. They talk about you coming all the time. And it looks like you are already part of the family: there is a program on the computer where you can create a person (choosing hair style, colour, clothes, etc). On the weekend Michelle made pictures of herself, Ben, Daniel, me, the new baby, my mum, and you. Then she wrote something about each person. The text reads, 'she wants to own a child's centre'." (picture below)
7. The family and I have already talked about all of my food preferences and they are ready to help accommodate my needs as well as explore new foods.
8. In addition to the gifts for the family, I am going to take some American money over for them to have because I discovered that Australian money looks like monopoly money (picture below)!!!
9. The family has added me to their Friday photos list that they send out to their friends and family so I every week I receive updated photos of the family, the house, their outings, etc. I have also received updated pictures of my room.
10. The family car that will be used to transport the children is an automatic, but the car that will be available for my personal use is a manual... so I am leaving now for my first official manual car driving lesson with my big brother Collin!
Link to Compass Church: http://compasschurch.com.au/
Note: Move the cursor off the slideshow to view the captions
This is great Nikki! I am glad that you are going to be happy and taken care of in Australia. I cannot wait to skype about how your adventures are going. I love ya! And I love the Monopoly Australia money, I think it is adorable!
ReplyDeleteGod has seriously blessed me with this family and how warm, inviting, and caring they are. I cannot wait to Skype either!! I've also got some stuff worked out with Skype that will allow us to call each other. Love you too! I'll be sure to bring back one of their bills for you! =]
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