the aussie abbotts

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…

At a internet cafe in Sydney now. This city is out of control – I’ve never seen anything like it! Preston has the driving down no problem now. I haven’t tried yet….I know you’re all relieved to hear that.

So, for my more fashion-conscious friends, you should know that I have not yet seen one woman wearing any type of wide-legged pant. Almost everyone wears those dresses like the ones they sell at Forever 21 (all the stores carry them), and if they’re not wearing those it’s the skirts with leggings or skinny jeans. I have seen (among hundreds of people) maybe 1 or 2 pairs of regular jeans. I assume those two people are Americans. I feel…um….unique in my wide-legged pants today. The new 80’s thing is everywhere. For men, the style is very asian. Everything looks just a bit too small, nothing baggy, sharp colors.  So….that’s important information.

Went on a long drive today and the area we drove through looked a lot like the Colombia River Gorge – except for the eucalyptus trees. It was beautiful. We watched for kangaroos when we saw the signs that they might be crossing, but none yet.

Not much else to say today. I start work tomorrow (Tuesday evening for you) and I should at least have internet and phone at work for those of you (aunt cyndy!) who really, really, really miss me. Preston starts work (writing) as soon as the internet is up at the house.

Thanks so much for the comments! With love, Ang and Presto

This is the first time we’ve had any communication with the outside world since we left LA on Thursday night. Now we’re at the mall in Castle Hill (just a few minutes walking from our house) sitting at a tiny kiosk. This should prove how we are craving home. (it’s been a long search for internet – it was down at the church.)

So. We’re alive. Thursday night we had a really great time seeing Jeremy one last time before flying out. We made some teary phone calls and even teary-er texts just before boarding…and then started out on that 10-hour flight to Fiji. Apparently, the gods did not want me to go to Fiji because I was sick all night on the plane and, after getting sick a few more times in the airport once we landed, recovered slowly on the beach. No complaints really, sleeping under a palm tree is a great way to recover. Preston made friends with the locals and brought me papayas and coconut that had been knocked out of a nearby tree. We’ll post Fiji pictures soon.

The flight to Sydney was no problem – we both slept. We made it to our house by about 12:30 AM on Saturday. (We’re 14 hours ahead of Indiana here) The house is….really unbelievable. It’s hard to describe how perfect it is. The view is gorgeous, the smells of flowers get carried through all day and night with the warm breeze, and the birds – all kinds of parrots and the kookaburra and other strange birds – start singing early in the morning. It’s a very peaceful setting, about five minutes walking from the church and 10 from the city of Castle Hill.

We went to church on Sunday (they brought us up front to be introduced and then I presented family dedication certificates!), lunch with Ian Barnett and his family, short nap in the afternoon, and then church in the evening. Preston has been enjoying every minute, getting things set up, making connections, taking care of me. I’ve been surprised at the amount of anxiety I’ve felt. Yesterday was pretty bad – I’ve never felt like that before. But today is better and maybe after awhile I’ll feel as peaceful as our little home is telling me I should.  Everyone here is incredibly kind and we’ve had a fantastic welcome.

Oh yeah, Preston is already speaking with an accent.

HIgh Points:

Showers in the Fiji restrooms. (Greatest discovery of my life)

Jeremy’s mix CD

The horses below our home (Maddy, they made me think of you!)

Letters from friends to read on the plane

Most incredilbe youth band I’ve ever heard at church (all high schoolers including horns, strings, various drums , a small choir, 5 or 6 guitars, a tamborine….and it was COOL, and more)

Amazing AUstralian lunch on Sunday afternoon.
Today or tomorrow we should have phone and internet at home and we’ll be calling and writing as much as we can. I’m homesick and sad and Preston is too (we’re also feeling grateful to be here and excited for what’s happening). We would love to hear from you.

Love and miss you tons! We’ll post pictures soon!

The FBI check came back! Neither of us have an arrest record! Phew….

Ok, but this is good news because it was the last thing we were waiting on. Now we just send it the Australian Consulate in Washington DC and…I think we’ll be out of here. Like…maybe by next week.

Click here to see our little porch…just waiting for us… 

Not much news, but a brief update is this: I heard from the Australian Consulate office on Tuesday and it sounds like our application may have been moved to the top of the pile thanks to whoever has been talking to them from the Australian end – apparently St. Paul’s has someone advocating on our behalf. Before today we were asked to compile several medical forms, wait for our FBI background check to arrive, and then send everything to the office together. Now they want us to go ahead and send the medical forms and they will mark the FBI check as “pending.” This way our application can continue to be processed while they wait for the FBI check to arrive. This is good news! If our FBI check comes in the next few days we could be on our way soon!

So far i suck at updating this thing. I’m going to depend on Preston to take care of it once we get to Sydney.

So, the Australian visa office asked us for strange bits of additional information like chest x-rays and FBI background checks. We’ve been working on getting these things in – almost done – and once it’s all there, we’ll just be waiting again.

 This is much, much longer than we expected to be in the states. Pretty discouraging. If you pray, you could pray that we’ll get out of here soon.

 In the meantime, I went to Florida to see Dana, Preston went to Oregon to see his family, we’re both going to Chicago this weekend to be with Mark and hopefully Nate and Dana too. It was a lovely Christmas and we’re trying to savor our time here with so many people we love.

 More soon.