the aussie abbotts

I guess our days and schedule here are becoming more familiar (which feels strange to say) and we’re beginning to feel like there is less interesting news to post here…maybe I’ll make up a good story….hmmm…

We enjoyed a fun visit last weekend with lovely Amy Truscott (intern at Grace last summer from Brisbane) and she was as excited as we were to join Amy Christie’s infamous Oscar party for a few minutes. We called (and do not want to know what this cost from our mobile phones) and got to hear some familiar voices and then we were sooo sad! I think the new rule should be: no fun allowed until we get back. Ok?

Tuesday was one of a few “mental health days” the staff here takes each year. They all go out together, just to have fun for the day. We went lawn bowling (commonwealth sport) and to the beach. It was a beautiful day – I actually have a photo of me watching the waves that I’m supposed to send home to the Outreach team. John Gray said, “tell them this is your office.” I know, it’s mean….and funny. How’s the snow?

Preston has been showing his talent with teaching kids by taking on 3 “scripture” classes (the thing where we go into schools and teach kids for a bit – it’s like a short Sunday School). They loooove him and were fascinated to learn about tornadoes in Indiana. Preston ordered posters from Omsi for them!

I think we’re beginning to find our footing here. Always taking connections to home as a drug - can you believe: still no phone or internet at home!! I know some of you haven’t heard personally from us at all and I’m really sorry. Soon! Right now, I’m already feeling guilty for typing this at work.

Love, love, love to you, home. You are missed in so many ways.

I guess things have become pretty busy and this poor blog got neglected in the meantime. But we’re still here and it seems surreal that we are already beginning our fourth week. Almost a month!

Turns out quite a few people on staff or connected to the staff have birthdays near Valentines Day. So, we were invited along to enjoy various versions of celebrating including being introduced to the Sydney club scene. Preston is quite the dancer – as I’m sure you can imagine! The club we went to is located right on Darling Harbor which is beautiful at night. Thursday night we’ll celebrate my birthday by going into the city to see Damien Rice play.

Here’s a little story that will be meaningful to just a few people: I went one night to a womens thing at church, mostly for the purpose of meeting people. I was feeling a little homesick and sad that night and sat looking at all the unfamiliar faces thinking, “God…? Hello?” Then, right on cue, I heard on the mix being played as people came in, a song by the Weepies. The Weepies! I only know a few people that have heard of them and I LOVE them…and the words….they were just right. Later I asked who put the mix together and I was told it was a complete accident that the song had been included. Yay! I love accidents!

Preston has been writing and making connections and even has some meetings with people this week. He read me a poem he wrote in response to communion at church and I was reminded how crazy talented he is.  It’s amazing that he has this space to focus on this gift….I know he feels some pressure to produce a lot ot work and would appreciate your prayers.

The phone and internet are supposed to be in this week….I’m starting to doubt that will ever actually happen. Can’t wait to talk on the phone and catch up for real! I received some birthday calls at work last week and that was INCREDIBLE. Also a couple cards and gifts and…well, it’s just life-giving to hear from people. It seems I’m addicted to home. Thank you for thinking of and caring about us.

Lots of love! More soon!

Tomorrow will mark two weeks in Australia. Holy crappers.

The biggest news right now is this: Preston saw a koala! Isn’t that cool? In this area they’re not seen very often in the wild, but the other night preston heard something crawling around outside, went out and looked in time to see it crawl up the tree next to our porch! I was sleeping…. (Pity me.)

The days have stayed gorgeous – warm and sunny. I hear it’s pretty frigid there…so I have an idea: come visit us!! Yay! Good idea! Ok, see you soon.

Thank you for emails and comments. I promise to be better about replying when we have internet at home. We’ll also have Skype eventually which will mean free phone calls. We miss home so much for so many reasons…it’s really wonderful when we hear from you and we do want to be more personal than this blog allows, so thanks for your patience.

This weekend I’ll get to teach the lesson to all the kids – ages nothing to about 12. And then I’ll do a training session for all the leaders on Sunday afternoon. There is so much to learn about this job – I’m a little overwhelmed this week and plan to take some time to myself tomorrow.  You know, tend to the introvert inside. Preston has been tracking down writing leads – spent the day in the city today. I’ve got him scheduled to teach twice a week in the schools (they do a “scripture in the schools” thing in the state of NSW) but no worries, that’s only an hour a week.

Interesting facts about Australia: there is no tipping whatesoever in restaurants, food portions are refreshingly smaller than the states (no big, huge cups for pop or coffee…), everyone hates starbucks and loves good coffee, thongs are flip-flops, rubbers are erasers (those two can cause problems), and you only care about valentines day when you’re dating.

We’ve taken to bribing the horses to like us with sugar cubes.

Much love!

Oh yeah, no home phone or internet yet. Trying to get to the library for personal emails now and then. I can sometimes call home from a payphone with a calling card but not many opportunities for that. Soon…

I tried to post pictures this weekend but I’m having trouble making it work….I’ll go through and make all the pics smaller and see if that works. Sometime soon…

We have officially been here just over a week. Some moments it feels like it’s already been months, other times I still can’t believe we’re here at all. This weekend was really great – finally being around the kids brought back a little of my confidence. The program here is run very similarly to the inner-city kids program I co-led at Taylor.  I never knew how helpful that experience would be. I got to wear my red polo shirt for the first time – and you know how I love polo shirts – so that was awesome. (All the kids staff wear red polo shirts on Sundays)

Preston went to a Super Bowl party yesterday morning (yes, the super bowl takes places Monday at 10AM here) and got to watch the colts win. In the afternoon, we drove 35 minutes to the beach. It was gorgeous – especially with Josh Ritter singing in my ear. (Oh, how I love ipods) There were all these tiny blue jelly fish on the sand – I guess they show up when it’s windy. They looked like rhinestones all over the beach.

Everybody here dries their clothes outside on a line instead of in a dryer. I had my first experience with that this weekend and it was so satisfying! Everything smells lovely and it’s not even wrinkly….I thought it would be for some reason. Oh, and the horses are becoming our friends – we’ve been feeding them carrots once a day. Maybe we’ll be riding them by the time you all start to come visit us.

That’s all for now. Go to work! Much love!!

Today is day #3 at work for me and unbelievably, I seem to be surviving. There’s a lot to learn, but I’m starting to get a picture of what my responsibilities will be. This weekend the children’s ministry for the year begins, and I’ll get to see it in action. Tonight I give a speech at the leadership recruiting “launch” night, so….that’s crazy. Working on that speech now.

Preston is home learning about gardening all the acres of land we live on – we’ve been asked to help with that by the owners of the property. Soon he’ll be writing during the day – internet at home will help with that. Fun info: Preston has discovered lemon, lime and orange trees in the yard and it turns out we might get to help take care of the horses! Yay!

Sorry for not being in contact much. Soon, we’ll have time to write personal emails from home in the evening.  I’m stealing this bit of time out of lunch to quickly tell you we’re still alive. Thank you for emails and comments. I can’t tell you how nice it is to hear from home.

More soon…