You're Driving On The Wrong Side Of The Road!!

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I drove today for the first time - in England, that is.  It was intense!!  I was test driving a little Mazda Joshua and I are thinking of buying (really good deal - used cars are very inexpensive here) just to help with things like getting groceries and picking up furniture and get places that are a little too far to walk.  So... back to the car driving... first, I walked to the right side of the car - by that I mean I went to the CORRECT side of the car, which for us "yanks" is the left.  Oops!  No steering wheel over here!  So around I go to the other side.

Ah!  OK, so I get in, buckle up and do all that good stuff - did I mention that the car is a manual, standard, stick shift, all of the above?  Yep.  I'm driving a non-automatic vehicle with the steering wheel in the wrong place on the wrong side of the road.  Brilliant.  Oh!  It gets better!  Since it is a manual you have to shift.  Well, the gear shift is in the car just as it would be in the US meaning I have to use my left hand to shift.  No biggie, but one would think that first would be up and towards me, right? I mean, when the steering wheel is on the other side, you shift with your right hand and first is up and towards the drivers leg/knee.  Nope.  The shift is EXACTLY as it is in our cars here, so first is still up but it is away from me.  Still, I did very well, did not stall once!  And, as far as I know I did not run into the other lane of traffic either.  As for the other drivers on the road, well, they kinda looked like this...

Trials and Blessings and Harry Potter

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We are in Bristol!  Have been for a week now.  We moved into our house, the house that I REALLY wanted.  It's so cute, so British and it even has a little cupboard under the stairs ala Harry Potter.  I have to think of a name for the house now, after all, that's the English thing to do.

But things aren't all great with the house.  We had quite a few issues with it, some of which still are not resolved.  For starters the place was not clean and they did not get it cleaned for us until this past Wednesday.  Of course, I cleaned the main areas so it was at least livable until the heavy duty cleaners came in.  The washing machine has serious mold spores in the rubber part and the landlors refuse to replace it.  There are broken shelves in the kitchen and when I got home on Tuesday there was a big, black, fat spider on the CEILING of the guest bedroom!!!

Although I have been acting like the Israelites lately, whining and complaining and just plain feeling sorry for myself, I have to admit that God has been so good to us.  He has blessed us so much.  He has blessed us with friends like Jeff and Marley Wisnoski who gave us a place to stay for 2 WHOLE WEEKS while we looked for a place to live.  They took us around London and Windsor and welcomed us into their lives.  We are so looking forward to many more adventures and explorations with our new friends.  God has also blessed us with Dan and Betty Jo Hall.  The Halls are not new to me, having served as missionaries in Brazil with us many years ago.  They are now ministering to the Brazilian community here in London.  They welcomed us into their home (and served us the most delicious home-made pizza!), took us to see Platform 93/4 (more on that later).  The Halls also loaded their car up with ALL of our boxes (about 19 in all) and drove them from London to Bristol for us.  They then spent the day with us going around to Ikea and other places helping us find furniture.  They were a real blessing to us.  We are looking forward to spending more time with them as well.

Another huge way God has blessed us has been with work for me.  I have some leads on some full-time positions which I should hear more about within the next several weeks.  In the meantime I will stay busy with some temp work.  In fact, I already was hired to do some temp work yesterday and today!  Ha!  How's that for a quick answer to prayer?! 

So... the adjustment has been a WHOLE lot harder than I thought it would be.  I have been really lonely and down.  But I'm sure things will get better when I get into a routine.  I'm not exactly sure why I have felt so incredibly sad, melancholy and depressed but I have.  England is beautiful, the people have been very nice - except for our landlords - and Bristol is a fascinating place.  But it isn't about the place or the people, or even Joshua and Bentley, after all, they seem happy.  It's just me.  I'm just going through a hard time right now.

On a happier note.  Uncle Dan and Aunt Betty Jo went on a fun - dare I say, MAGICAL - excursion with Joshua and me when we were in London.  We went.... wait for it... to King's Cross Station and we actually saw it - it DOES EXIST - Platform 9 3/4!!!  It was so exciting.  We even tried pushing a trolley through - but it didn't work (us being Muggles and all). 

We even got to ride a double-decker bus!

And visit the famous Blackwell bookstore.  It's funny, there is a Blackwell bookstore and a drugstore/beauty store called "Boots."  I think Dad would have liked it here.

I'm going to leave you with a short video of our trip to King's Cross Station.  Enjoy!