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!