After 6 weeks life is starting to find it’s rhythm. Through dear friends God provided a vehicle. Through the help of a patience realtor we have a new place to call home. And as a family, our resilience and positivity has helped us make Ottawa feel like home.

In terms of income, the Lord has answered our prayers with jobs for all four of us! Liberty was the first, finding a job downtown; she loves interacting with the customers. Van was most recent, impressing the manager at a local pet food store enough that he was almost hired on the spot! Van has started, and been scheduled for almost the entire week next week already. Shane pressed on with his desire to work/serve at an Aboriginal health center, and started 2 weeks ago. It’s consultant-based, so his hours will slowly increase over the next few weeks as he finds his footing in the new role. Michelle is the most relaxed… for now! She was second in the family to be hired (to teach grade 4 at a local school), but doesn’t start until late August. She is grateful to have this “down time” to get the house in a more livable state with things like furniture (Facebook Marketplace has been a boon!), kitchen items, decor, etc.

When moving countries, many people tend to bring with them remnants or reminders of where they came from, even though they know they are going someplace new. The ones who make it for years and decades find a balance of adapting to the new place and adopting lifestyles. Those who don’t either hang on too long to the ways of their home, or paradoxically, completely immerse themselves into the new place, trying to be local. A balance is important. Interestingly, for us returning home, we find that “we never left”, as I explained it to a friend recently.

They asked how it was re-entering Canadian culture, and what challenges or difficulties we were facing. I thought about it a moment, and apart from more obvious road-rage around us, & other cultural shifts, it still feels like home, because we never left it. That is to say, when we went overseas we kept as many ties to Canada as possible – banking, shopping, family, church, friends, etc. We didn’t move away, we were just working in another place. And when we got to our location overseas, we never told our kids that this was home. It was a home, a place where we eat and sleep and play, but home was always back in Canada.

Well, on that note, enjoy this video which Google Gemini made, using a picture of Mishi and a made-up image of housing: