Sunday 8 December 2013

The Girls

Sofia

Magdalena and Alena came to stay with us for three nights recently. You only ever referred to them as 'The Girls' never quite coming to grips with their names. They instantly became your friends, adopted to provide fun and entertainment.

Maddi stayed with us in 2005 as a 15 year old AFS exchange student from Austria. Some eight years later she joined her friend Alena to spend a month travelling around Australia, visiting all the places that the life of an exchange student attending school makes an impossibility.

I'm constantly inspired by the exchange student process, watching teenagers mature into adults who very often return to the land that challenged, excited, scared and engaged them.

Maybe one day you too will embark on such a journey.

Absence


Sofia
 
It's been six months since I last updated this blog for you. A lot has happened. We have been busy, but not in the conventional work, social, consume kind of busy. It's been more about work, search, dream kind of busy as we continue looking for a rural property to start the next phase of our family life together.
 
There has been a lot of driving, hours in the car as we head into different corners of South East Queensland to inspect properties that for a number of reasons seem to have potential on the internet but lack certain qualities in person. Your tendency towards car sickness seems to arrive in bursts. We are learning to limit the amount of fluid you drink before a big drive as the reality of stopping on the edge of a busy freeway in the middle of road works on a windy road in the middle of a misty rainforest to clean up the contents of your stomach and change your clothes adds drama and distraction to the drive that I can always do without.
 
You too are expressing your reluctance to look at more houses but as you get a little older we are able to explain that the house we are looking for is also for you. We want to share the space with you, acres of space instead of the little patch of garden we currently have at the back of our cream brick suburban house. It's been a lovely house to raise a toddler, but daddy and I are both ready for something different. I dream of you helping me collect the eggs, giving the food scraps to the chickens, exploring the bush and watching daddy as he yells at the goats that have eaten his underwear off the clothesline.
 
It is a big dream, and daddy and I are struggling to find the right house on the right piece of land for the right price. Yesterday we looked at another place. It's a difficult process, and the disappointments are mounting but I know in my heart that our piece of heaven is just waiting for us to discover it. We have a list of things the house and land need to do, but just as importantly the local community needs to be right as we plan to stay there for most of your schooling. Time will tell.
 
Tomorrow is your fourth birthday and despite all of the Christmas preparations, busyness at work, our long days away driving to inspect properties I am feeling like I have some space to reconnect with my writing and this blog.
 
It may appear that I've been absent, but ironically I've been very much absorbed in our daily routines and reaching out towards our future. A little more pausing in the present though will surely be good for us both.
 
PS This photo is a selfie you took, setting the camera up on the table, reaching out to press the button and then waiting while the flash went off...all while I was writing this post.
 
Mummy