My love

This beauty was taken from one of our many escapades in the beautiful city of Vancouver! :) This was a great day we spent riding or bikes with some new friends down by Fraser River this summer. I love it so much because it captures the raw-ness of my burly man and the first of many shots within our little eden up here in Canada. I guess I want to give a little shout out to the one who stole my heart many moons ago...well, not that long, but you catch my drift right?! I think I will cry the day he ever shaves this beard and chops these long locks, both of which I have fallen in love with! It's true, being married definitely has it's challenges, but oh, how I love him so and the many memories we've made in this place. I look forward to so many more and I am blessed and thankful to the Lord Almighty for picking us up and planting us here. These years are gifts and I hope to treasure each one thoroughly! I love you J, you are where my home is and I stand amazed at what our God is doing in your heart each new day.

<3,

SEA

what we do

When Sarah and I started looking for a place to live in Vancouver, we hoped to find a place that was comparable in size to our quaint apartment back in Texas. This is rather ironic because I spend the MAJORITY of my existence in a 9x11 room reading books! I have always wanted to read more books and now I certainly have that privilege, even that responsibility. I imagine that in 3 years I will probably read as many books as I've read in my entire lifetime. So far the Regent experience has been pretty amazing. I am thrilled and privileged to pursue a life that I'm so passionate about. The summer term is unique, because you sign up for 3 credit hours that are compacted into 2 weeks. So you have class everyday for 2.5 hours for 2 weeks straight, then you have an additional 6 weeks to read and write an essay. The best part is that for the summer term, professors come from amazing institutions to teach: King's College, Yale, Oxford, Duke, and all kinds of other cool places.

The major news is still the same....we are looking for jobs. So although Canada is very familiar in many respects, it is still a foreign country and we are sojourners. As such, we are foreigners even though our home country is just 31 miles away. It is a challenge to find a job because we stick out as non-Canadians and we can't really hide it because all of our work experience shows we are recent transfers from Texas. Sarah is starting to get a lot of job interviews, so that is definitely an encouragement. Please continue to pray that we would find jobs soon. The LORD is amazing and knew that we would be in this situation, so things have been fine financially for us. Jehovah Jireh in all things.

In the meantime, Sarah has taken up a new hobby and become an amazing chef, or is it chefette? We don't eat out much, but honestly there's not much to miss right now....well, except for Vancouver has amazing sushi for cheap, cheap. 2 people could stuff their faces to the point where they would regret it for $20!

If Sarah's cooking was a stock, I'd be a majority shareholder. We've had anything from homemade blueberry muffins with a sugary crumble topping to the ultimate cheeseburger to homemade mexican rice and beans. Our kitchen is like Jack in the Box and Burger King combined--you can have it your way and it's made to order. Needless to say, we've had to start excercising more. What's more is that our entire kitchen counter space is only 24" by 24". I can't imagine what we could have with a normal sized kitchen. I've eaten better food at home in the past 2 months than I've had at most restaurants. Now, I know that is a huge statement...but, seriously judge for yourself. Sarah's cooking is the talk of town...or, at least the talk of this basement suite.

Well, this is the perfect city for that, too. We live 5 houses down from this huge forest with hiking, biking, and running trails. The forest runs along the edge of the beach here. So you can ride from our house to the beach and do some bald eagle watching or some people watching....but just not at Wreck Beach (that's the local clothing optional beach). And trust me, it is a wreck to see. Vancouver is surrounded by mountains as well. This is the first place we've been where you can sit at the beach, eat an ice cream (cookies n cream in a waffle cone in case you're wondering), watch a sunset, and see snow capped mountains at the same time. It's pretty unrealistic. I wish we could capture the brilliance in pictures, but it's like telling this incredible story only to realize halfway through that 'you just had to be there.' So, we will try to get some picture of it, but honestly...you just have to be here. So come visit people!

I'm going to start a little section here about things that you wouldn't expect to be different, but they are. I'll leave you with this section:

FOREIGN LAND

When we first signed up for a bank account here we thought it would be a pretty simple transition. We walked into a local bank and it was like jumping into a time machine and going back to 1990. Canadian banks do not have a combined debit card and ATM card. So you have a separate ATM card and another card for checking debits. There's no such thing as a check card that does debit, ATM withdrawals, and credit (Visa or Mastercard logo). Most of these cards don't even have your name on them. They are really generic cards...they look like the fake cards you get in the mail that come with credit card offers. Also you are limited in the number of transactions you can have per month. Most banks limit you to 10 transactions and then you have to pay for each additional transaction. Also, you still have to pay for checks here. Finally, if you want a credit card then is an entirely different concept here. If you want a $2,000 credit limit, then you are required to put $2,000 cash on hold with the bank until you surrender the credit card. That's not a credit card at all...that's a collateral card.

Hope all you kids are doing well. Write us and let us know how you are...we long to hear from you!!! We love you, we miss you.

Hallelujahs in the morning, hallelujahs in the night...I will wait for you

J&S

He moves Mountains & Trees

It's been a few weeks since I've posted and I haven't really taken any recent pics of us here. I tried to capture some of the eagles we spotted again the other day but they were too far away to do them justice. I found this picture among many that I took on our road trip up to Canada through different U.S. states. This one in particular was in between Colorado Springs and Vail, Co on our way to Moab, Utah to see the Arches National Park. Apparently, this road was closed, not just due to the giant tree you see in the middle, but mainly because miles ahead of where we were it was LITERALLY closed. The weather was getting crazy cold and windy and wasn't plannin on getting any better. As we pull up to this monstrosity in the road with our monstrosity Penske, we know we've hit a crossroads in our trip. Do we, a) attempt to move the tree ourselves? b) wait for super nice mountain men to saw it into pieces? or c) take it as a divine intervention from the Lord that this was, in fact, not the way we needed to drive in order to make it to Utah safely. God used this kind man who stumbled upon us to make it very clear that continuing in the direction we were going would not only cause a HUGE dent in our time, but also place us in a very dangerous situation. In the picture you see Jason grabbing the "bull by the horns" attempting to move it out of the way. God had a different plan as the kind man quickly pulled up to give us the news. We waited as another truck full of ready to service workers sawed the giant tree in different pieces as they quickly removed the debris from the road. We felt the hand of the Lord mightily on our journey and when I look at this picture I remember and meditate on His goodness. What memory can you recall to remember His goodness in your life...when you least expected it?

Love, S&J

Let Freedom Ring!

Talk about all the bald eagles we see up here...yowza! We spotted our first one while biking along a local beach called "Wreck Beach." Amidst stopping on the side of the road, we were entertained for a few minutes with what seemed to be a man and woman on a first date perhaps, he playing the guitar, while she listened intently. LAME! So, of course we were overjoyed to be distracted by the overwhelming beauty of wildlife within just a few feet of us. Being outside is a way of life here, not many couch potatoes or laziness to speak of. Sunny days here around 20 degrees celsius (around 70 fahrenheit) are reasons to put on your outdoor clothes and shake the dust off your bike, running shoes, frisbee, whatever! Vancouver is a pretty active city and has definitely caused us to go back to a time when being outside until the street lights came on was the rule and not the exception! Remember that time people?? I do! So, since Jason & I could not be in the actual US of A to celebrate our independence, we did it right here in our living room for all of 5 minutes it took to for Jason to take a break from studying and pose alongside me with his pearly whites. I in my red and white, he in his blue, we wanted to send our best to our loved ones back home and wish you a fantastic 4th of July! (ps. Did you know Canadians don't call cook-outs, cook-outs? They call them Barbeque's whether there's bbq on the grill or not...this has also taken us a back) We love ya'll and wish you were here. :)

<3 S&J