We're here!!!

Wow... hard to believe we're actually in the Philippines again! It was a little surreal driving though the streets of Manila from the airport- it's been a while since we've experience the craziness of this city and it's kind of overwhelming to grasp that this is now home. Cody was super pumped to see so many motorcycles, big trucks and buses and even a train all at once!


The flight here went really well. We had the bulkhead seats and the flight wasn't full so we had about 6 seats to ourselves and lots of leg room! Cody fell asleep at 2am before we even took off and slept on the floor in front of us for 8 hours straight and Makai slept great in a bassinet on the floor too.

As we were landing it was just getting light out and Cody was so excited to see the wing of the airplane and the ocean below. He kept saying "wow" with his crazy enthusiasm:)

We had to wait over an hour to get our luggage and for most of that we didn't have the stroller. It was very tiring for Cody and once we did get the stroller, he was asleep in minutes.


I ended up getting comfy on Cody's carseat for a while... who knew my butt could actually fit in his seat, hey!

We were so thrilled to see Dann Pantoja when we walked out of the airport! He flew up from Davao in order to welcome us here and was so great to right aways be with our mentor and friend.


When we got in the van the carseats were piled into the trunk and with some hesitation on my part, we drove through the city with our kids on our laps. It was really strange to nurse while driving! Traffic always moves really slowly here but it still felt wrong to be ditching the five-point harness!


After napping all afternoon we had dinner with some people that Kuya Dann knows- all people who are really passionate about the gospel in action and have adopted a peace theology. Two of them took a course taught by Jack Suderman (former Mennonite Church Canada executive director) that rocked their theology and set them on a different course in life. It was amazing to hear everyone's story and we're excited to already have some people to support us and possibly do church together. 


Our first night in the Philippines was long.... Cody woke up at 2:15am and Makai was up too.  It is pretty much impossible to get a little boy back to sleep who's wide awake and ready to play! He only just went down for a nap now and it's already past noon. But we had a fun morning still and took our first ride on public transportation.... a motorbike with a side car, called a tricycle here. With Cody in our awesome little back carrier and Makai in the sling on me, we took a fun ride and then walked around a great park near our guesthouse. First outing on our own was successful! Tonight we might hit the mall for dinner. So far so good:) 

I just also want to mention how thankful we are for everyone's support and prayers in the last while leading up to our departure. We have felt so loved by everyone at our church and all our family and friends. It's really hard to leave a life that we loved so much, full of so many wonderful people. We will keep in touch, though.... and we're excited to be here! Thanks for all your love.

Purging and Preparing

I have always enjoyed bringing my unused belongings to the MCC thrift store. I feel refreshed when I purge and I tend do it quite often. Lately we've been on quite the purging spree and while it does feel good to get rid of stuff that we don't need, this intense purging comes with some hesitation and a fair bit of sadness. It's hard to believe that for the next 6 years I really won't need my warm winter coat, my comfy boots, or my favourite wool scarf. And so off they go in yet another recycling bag full of my belongings. 

And come Saturday, our furniture will be off to new places too and it will be time to say goodbye to the only place our family has called home. I say this with a tear. I love this house, I love our backyard, and I love our neighbourhood.  I think if I were moving across town I wouldn't feel so attached to this place, but knowing that when we leave this home, we leave our entire lives in Abbotsford makes me cry. I will miss the time we've shared in this space. I'll miss having friends over for dinner here. I'll miss seeing Cody run to the window to see Daddy come home. I'll miss walking around Fishtrap and chatting with the neighbours. I'll miss our trees and our great deck. I'll miss seeing Cody play in the yard. 

We're not just purging for a move across town, we're leaving almost everything behind and with our suitcases and babies in hand, flying to the other side of the world. Seems a little crazy to me. But it's also exciting...  while this purging and packing and saying good bye makes me teary-eyed, the adventure ahead is something we've been looking forward to and we know it's where God has called us. But that doesn't take all the sadness of this intense purge away... pray for us as we prepare to leave our home, our family and our friends.

In only a month

One month from today we will be flying over the Pacific to start a whole new chapter in our lives! After a 14 hour flight with a baby on each of our laps (we'll see how that goes!) we will be in Manila and our lives will become full of newness- friends, weather, language, home, culture, food.... the adventure begins!

When we arrive, we plan to stay at a guesthouse for a week while we adjust to the time change and then we'll be spending a couple weeks meeting the Mennonite pastors in various regions surrounding Manila. In July we're spending time in Davao, where we lived 3 years ago- we are excited to reconnect with the staff at Peacebuilders Community, our friends from church, and many connections around Mindanao. We plan to move to San Jose City in August to learn Tagalog and build connections with the Mennonite Church there. And by Christmas we hope to finally move to Global City in Metro Manila where we will be living longterm and planting a church. So that's the plan for now.... but who knows, a lot could change. When we lived there before, I learned how wise it is to write plans in pencil because our life never seemed to follow the plans we had!

For the last month Darnell has been off work already but has been busy doing a lot of reading and housework (building a fence, fixing our drainage, drywalling the laundry room, landscaping the front yard, sealing the deck...  a man of many talents!).  We have been enjoying our two boys and trying to have as much friend and family time as we can before our departure date. Here's some pictures of Cody with some of his best buddies. In only a month, he'll have to say goodbye to some pretty awesome little pals of his (breaks my heart!) but luckily he'll be bringing three of his favourite buddies with him:)

Cody LOVES riding on the bike with Dad... he talks about the "biyoclecle" ALL the time!

Cuddles with mommy before bed:)

Cody is pretty cute with Makai... he loves giving him kisses.

Kolsen's birthday party... these 2 boys just LOVE each other!

throwing rocks and dirt into Cultus Lake this morning

hiding in a tree stump

Cody and Joel at Mill Lake... they were very excited about a boat and ducks!