FIRST DIGITAL LAYOUT EVER!!

I stayed up a little too late last night playing with this Digital Scrapbooking template. I do have all of my scrapbooking stuff here, but we are not organized yet and I am itching to get back into it. I have so many trips, events, etc., to scrap book and I need to start somewhere, so I thought why not try a few Digital Pages.

I am really new to this, like have never done it before in my life. So when they started talking about layering for example, I was already lost. However, thanks to my good friend and scrapbooking genius Heather, she had sent out a link to this company Two Peas in a Bucket. Well they have a link on how to digital scrapbook and they even allow you to download some free templates and use them. So I played last night and I will show you my first ever Digital layout. I really did have a lot of fun with it.....a little frustration at first, but once I figured it out it was smooth sailing. Of course I still have so much to learn.

Prayers Please......

We could really use some prayers please!

First for our nephew Cody who just had surgery because his appendix ruptured. He is recoverying well and should be out of the hospital tomorrow. He is most upset that he won't get to play hockey for a bit. It is a big ordeal for a little guy like him to go through and I am sure the pain is a little unbearable at times. So please pray for a speedy recovery, free of any complications.

Second, we could use a lot of prayer right now. Every day there has been something that has come up or completely blind sighted us. We are questioning what God's plan is for us over here. We knew that it would not be easy, but we never expected this many problems. We keep wondering if we are trying to force something that is not God's will, or if we are supposed to somehow endure the trials---or the storm (that's what it feels like right now)! Please pray that God will speak to us and make His Will clear to us. We are feeling like we are on our last straw now and are ready to pack things up and head back to Canada. So please keep us in your prayers!

Hope you are all having a good week!

God Bless!

First Steps.....

Someone just decided to take his first steps yesterday. Of course when he decided to do it we did not have our camera or video camera. We were actually at our old place cleaning it and handing back the keys. John was on baby watch duty, while I was on cleaning duty.

Zech has been standing up for a week now or more, and by that I mean he will be in the middle of the room, yard or beach and just decide that he wants to stand up, so he does. He reminds me of a gofer, or a rabbit when they stand up to check things out.

Well yesterday he stood up and decided to take a few steps. So the most he took was 6, but he was so proud of himself. He would stand up and take a few steps and then fall down and clap and laugh for himself and then try it all over again. Oh I wish we could have had it on video!

When we got home he was trying in the yard and I got my camera, but he would do it with his back turned to me, or else he would do it and then as soon as I went to shot a picture he would sit down and laugh at me! I did get this cute shot yesterday and the black and white one today. He still isn't confident and steady on his own, but today we walked around the yard and he was just holding my one hand and was doing fine. So before we know it he will be off and runnning!

Paradise Point

So here are a few pictures of our new place in Paradise Point. We are slowly getting organized, unpacked, settled, etc. Zech loves it here. He has his own room, which he spends hours in, but most of his time is spent outside in the nice big yard. He gets so upset when we take him inside for his nap, bath, to eat, etc.

We do have room for visitiors. We have turned the garage into the Spare/office/storage/laundry room. Houses here are a little smaller and do not have the storage space like in Canada. That is probably because they spend most of their time at home outside.

Hope to see some of you soon! :o)

The front

The front/side view

The side

The back--along with all of our boxes

Little Rueben

Everytime we went to visit Grandpa Halwa in the Manor, Zech was known as "little Rueben". It is a fitting title as he does have so many characteristics that remind me of Dad. We took these pictures and I had to share these, as when we were reviewing them we could not get over how much Zech looked like Dad. I guess it is just the facial expression and the way he is sitting that reminded us so much of Dad.

Another long week!!

We moved into our new place yesterday and it was a long tiring day--especially for my dear hubby who had to do the second load all by himself. He is such a strong, wonderful man!! We were up late unloading and then this morning we had to have the truck back first thing, so we were up early. We still have the old place for a week, so it will give us some time to do all the cleaning, etc.

We are trying to unpack and get settled and it is now starting to feel a little more like home. We also went on a nice walk around our new neighbourhood and we really, really like it here (plus we are sick of moving)! It is really quiet and peaceful here and of course we are close to the beach and there are tonnes of parks and running trails!

I will post pictures of our new home and area later this week, once we get a little more settled. It has almost been like Christmas time here, unpacking and opening all these boxes of our stuff that we haven't seen in almost four months now. Zech was in his glory with all of his new (well old) toys and the big yard for him to roam around in.

Just thought I would post some pictures that I took a couple of weeks ago. It is the rainy season here and it does get quite chilly, so we have had to put on pants and long sleeves. I have quite a few outfits for Zech that he has never worn and I was afraid he wouldn't get to wear because of the heat, but I was wrong. He has had a chance to wear a few now. So here is a favourite that Grandma H gave him.

He actually let me put his hat on and he kept it on!

He was so mad at me for switching his hat around! This is a good indication of the mood that my little man has been in for a while now--whiney and angry, but I guess I can't blame him with all the transitions and all the teeth! (I love this picture, even though he is so mad, he is so darn cute!)

And now for the speaches. Zech gets into speach mode and he goes on and on and on. Of course we can't understand a word, but the more we agree with him, the more he talks. He is so animated too, he loves to use his hands and his finger. I think he gets this from Grandma H--I remember her talking and using her hands and Dad would imitate her gestures in a exaggerated fashion--it was too funny. I am so glad that I was able to capture these photos of him in speach mode. Usually he gives his best and longest speaches in the car and it is kind of hard to capture those on the camera!

Steve Irwin Day

Today we celebrated 'Steve Irwin Day'. It has been just over a year now since Steve Irwin passed away. They chose to make November 15 the State of Queenslands 'Steve Irwin Day', as this was the day (two years ago) that Harriet the Sea Turtle passed away. Harriet was an Australian Zoo icon. She was over 150 years old and Steve's favourite animal in the zoo.

We got up early, dressed in Khaki and headed to the Zoo to celebrate Steve Irwin Day. It was packed, there were thousands of people there, but we are glad that we went. I have always liked Steve Irwin, I thought that he was a little extreme and yes a little crazy, but he had such an infectious personality. His research and documentaries are invaluable and he has made so many of us more aware of nature and of how we need to protect it and conserve it.

A bit of history about the Australian Zoo: it opened in the early 1970s and was a mere 4 acres. It is now 70 acres and over the next five years it will expand to 100 acres with the end goal being close to 500 acres. Oh Crikey, that is a lot!! It just received the award for being Queenslands major tourist attraction for 2007.

Terri Irwin and the kids were present. Terri released and was signing her new book My Steve so people were lined up for hours to get her to sign it.

Terri unvelied this new memorial which is located at the front of the Zoo just past the admissions area. Steve was known for his love of his family, conservation and of course having fun.

The crocoseum (designed by Steve so that people could see how the Crocs really act in the wild) was packed for some pretty neat performances. Bindi Irwin and the Crocmen received awards for their album reaching gold. Bindi was also the youngest Australian to receive an Aria award. She preformed two new releases that were dedicated to her Dad. She is pretty cute and loves the camera and people!

We also heard Olivia Newton John sing three of Terri and Steve's favourites. She does have a beautiful voice.

We did get a chance to check out the Zoo. There were lots of activities that we could have stuck around for, but we did want to see the Zoo. Some favourites were Kangaroo Island. You can get up close and personal with the Kangaroos. Feed them, pet them, talk to them. We got some great video of us petting them (my camera batteries died, but thankfully we had the video camera with us). We also got to pet the Koalas and that was really neat. The snake cave was really neat too. I do not like snakes, but it was really neat to see the different venemous snakes and where they live--yikes! Of course the Crocs were pretty cool too. Terri did a Croc show in the Crocoseum. We got it on video and it is pretty amazing.

I have a lot more pictures to share, but will have to do it on another post. In the end we had one tired little boy, who was so excited to see all of the different kinds of animals. He loves animals, especially dogs, so every animal to him is a papapa--that is how he says puppy!

A Long Week....

It has been such a long week. We have been searching for a new place to live and have had to make the drive to the Gold Coast every day last week to view places. Some days were such a waste of time as they were either complete dives or nice places located in a complete dive of a neighbourhood.

Finally on Friday we put our application into 4 places. The first two places that we viewed were quite nice and the one in particular we really liked, but it was not available until the 17 th of December (their ad said the 17th of November) and then the second place was also not available until the 14th of December. We weren't too impressed. We did like a third one, but we could not get into viewing the place. It had a really nice big yard and was available immediately. We decided to put our application into this third one with the big yard and put a subject to viewing clause on it and then a 4th one came up that we could go view that moment. So off we went and it was a block from the beach, super clean, but quite small and no yard. It too was available immediately. By this time we were desperate so we put our application into both of these.

We started heading back into Brisbane, feeling pretty low and wondering what to do now--trying to have faith and trust in the Lord. THen our cell phone rings and we have been approved for the last two that we put our applicaiton in. Of course our first choice was the one with the big yard that we had not yet viewed, but the owners were out of town--althougth the property manager was pretty sure we would be approved. So we had to wait all weekend until today to find out. There were other applications on these properties, so we didn't think that we would have a chance, but the lady at the front desk put in a really good word for us (praise the Lord) and that is why we got approved so quickly in front of those other people.

So today, the propery manager still hadn't talked to the owner, we were a little confused becuase she had pretty much said that we were approved, but now we were back to being in limbo. However, the owner just happened to call while they were on a layover and gave the approval for us to move in over the phone. Just before we received this call we sat down tired, exasperated and confused and prayed. We asked the Lord to make things clear for us. We said that if this property did not go through it was our signal to head back to Canada. We have had enough of looking and our little boy is really sick right now because he hasn't been able to take his naps and just have his normal routine. So the Power of Prayer is Amazing. Why do I doubt it so much??

We move in this Saturday!! Praise the Lord once again!!

Oh just thought I would post these pictures....to get into the Christmas spirit a little. Yes these are wild Pointesettas!!

Around Brisbane

Just in case anyone was interested, I thought I would post a few pictures of Brisbane (more specifically of downtown and the area that we live in for now).

These were taken when we first arrived, as we took a little walk to explore, but I just never got around to posting them.

There are many walking paths along the river.

There are also lots of parks and BBQ's along the river. The Aussies love their "Barbie's" as they call them, and you will see public BBQ's along the river and also at the beaches!

The express motorways along the river, quite the complicated drive--especially the downtown!!

Brisbane CBD (downtown)

They have Fast Cats (ferry's) that run daily on the river. We decided to take the tour one evening and it is quite a long ride, but very pretty at night!

I do have more to post, but for some reason the blogger and I are fighting and it will not let me post anymore pictures......so I will post more later.

An Answer to our Prayers.......

We have been actively trying to find a church here since arriving. Surprisingly it has not been an easy task. Churches here are not well marked or advertised--even in the phone books, not to mention the internet. We would find ourselves driving around looking for signs (they actually would have signs stating that a church was down the street), we would pop in at internet cafes (becuase it took so long for us to get hooked up) and try and search some online. They do have different denominations here that we weren't too sure about and what their doctrine is.

The first church that we went to was a small church in a theater and we actually came across it over the internet. It was a good church, but they did not have many programs for kids and for the parents and that was quite important to us. So we started searching again, vowing to go back to that church if we couldn't find anything else.

The second church we attended we also found on the internet. This church was huge. They had thier own complex, a restaurant, a bookstore, and a College on their grounds. It seemed to be a little too much, but we thought we would give it a try. They had a great daycare program for Zech, so we were able to enjoy the service together. The music was more like a rock concert, with the lights, the screens and the show they put on. We talked to one of the Pastors after the service and they actually had a visitors room where some elders from the church would meet with you and talk with you and then one of the Pastors would pop in. We got free coffee and desserts from their restaurant and they gave us an information package that featured a magazine (their own publication), a DVD and various other pamphlets. It was important for us to talk with the Pastors and some of the elders as we wanted to ensure that their doctrine was biblically based and there are some key issues that are extremely important to us and we wanted to make sure that they shared the same beliefs.

We were a little unsure about this church but decided to go one more time. So we went and we prayed about it and asked God to speak to us about this church. Well, we got our answer. The sermon was titled something like "the amount you give (with big dollar signs on the screen) determines your destiny"! We both looked at eachother in shock, but thought ok let's not jump the gun here, let's at least hear what he has to say (this was also the senior pastor speaking). Well after the service we were angry and upset. The message was unbeleivable. I am a fairly young Christian and do not know the Bible as well as my husband or even other Christians, but I knew that this guy was twisting scripture. What he was preaching was complete heresay. I will tell you though that he was a good speaker, a great sales person and there were times where he had me questioning things. This was PROPSPERITY GOSPEL at its finest. Now we know and understand why they have the complex that they do. We were really disappointed and angry!! We saw now how important it is to interview the Pastors, really look into their doctrines, statements of faith and beliefs. We thought that it was really sad that in this day and age we are having to 'church shop'. What is happening to the Christian community??

So we were back to church shopping and by this time we had made the decision to move out of the city to the Gold Coast. So we had seen a couple of big churches during our many excursions to the coast. We decided to pop in and ask some questions. We found a pretty large Baptist church which had been around for a long time. John went into the office and asked some questions and got some information. We then came home and did some research. They were looking for a new senior pastor and did not have some of the programs that we wanted. They seemed really biblically sound though, so we weren't going to write them off.

On our way home from stopping in at this church we noticed another church across the field amongst a cattle farm. My kind of church! :o) We decided to check it out and see what kind of church it was. We pulled up and it really was in the middle of this cattle ranch, but it was a fairly new and large building and they were building another addition. We happened to get a name and it was late so we did not stop in. We went home and researched this church. It was a Baptist church and was a church plant. It was nine years old and had tonnes of programs for kids and families. Their values and belief statements were biblically sound and they also believed in the gifts. This was extremely important to us, we wanted a church that was biblically solid and that believed in the gifts. They have healing prayer meetings and they speak openly about the gifts. So we decided to check them out.

On Sunday we made the hour drive to the church. They had an awesome daycare facility for Zech. We were amazed at the amount of young families. When the kids were dismissed for Sunday school, half the church disappeared. We picked a great day to go. They had a dedication for a sweet little girl Abigail, and they also had a Baptism and I just love watching these!! SO inspiring and amazing to see how God has worked in people's lives!

It got even better. The guest speaker was Rabbi Greg Hershberg. A Mesianic Jew, who was unbelievable. His sermon was unbeleivable and really challenged JOhn and I in so many ways. Did you know that there are 1.2 million Mesianic Jews! That there are 150 Mesianic Jewish congregations in Israel alone! We had no idea and this was something that he in fact pointed out to us, that most people believe that the Jews do not believe in Christ.

His message was powerful, inspiring and challenging. He shared with us his testimony, which was miraculous (his wife and him were saved on their Honeymoon in Israel by a vision) and he shared with us the hardships he has had to endure and miracualous way that God always provided. He had the whole congregation in tears when he shared with us the miraculous healing of his eldest son Jeremy (as parents we can relate to this so much now and I just kept thinking about our little Zech and how many times we almost lost him and God came through). He is speaking again this Thursday evening about a really interesting topic and this coming Sunday he will be leading the whole church through the traditional Jewish passover feast, just like Jesus had with his disciples. We are so excited for this!!

After the service we were quickly greeted by a wonderful couple who's youngest daughter is two days older than Zech. They were so nice and offered us help finding a new place and offered their house to us if we got stuck and couldn't find something in time.! The welcome committee then greeted us and provided us with a bag of information about the programs, beliefs, etc. of the church. The Senior Pastor then came and introduced himself to us and would like to sit down for coffee with us and discuss any questions or concerns we have.

When we were leaving I grabbed a book that they had on display for everyone to take. The book is called "Answers to the 4 Big Questions", and is put out by an organization called Answers in Gensis. John has been researching a lot lately about Evolution, Intelligent Design, Creationism, Young Earth versus Old Earth, etc. This organization produces amazing studies and information. This small book is packed full of information and always points it's discussions to the Bible. It is amazing how many Christians believe in Evolution and how many churches believe in it and do not believe in a Young Earth. John is really passionate about this. Yes I know there is lots of controversary around this, but all I will say is that there is so much information out there that corresponds to what is written in the Bible, so much information to back the Bible up scientifically, archaeologically, historically, it is mind boggling. We may not have all the answers but you do have to have faith. We can not put God in a box---He is amazing and has performed so many miracles, so why on earth is it so impossible to believe that He created us and the world we live in, in 6 days?

The point behind this was that this was an important issue to us and we definitely wanted to find a church who took a stand on this issue and stated what it believed. They do not believe in evolution and they support an organinzation (Answers in Gensis) that has been a huge help to us (mainly John). Don't get me wrong though, we both know that these issues will not determine whether or not someone is a Christian or can be a Christian. God knows our hearts and it is by accepting him into our hearts that we become one of His children. However, these questions do come up and the Bible also does state that we as Christians need to 'study to show ourselves approved'.

So to sum it all up, God truly answered our prayers. We found a great church that is solid biblically, places a huge emphasis on families and relationships, believes in the gifts, believes in our mighty Creator and has many exciting courses and programs available to us.

I also want to mention that before we left Canada, John had been researching a lot about Mesianic Jews and went to a Christian book store in Edmonton to get some more information about the Mesianics. They did not have one book, nothing! John had even tried to contact a Rabbi and see if we could sit in on a Mesianic service. We ran out of time, but God is so amazing in how he works. What are the chances of attending a church for the first time that we just happened to see on the side of the road and have a guest speaker that is a Charismatic Rabbi from a Mesianic congregation in the States speak. Wow, God is amazing and He does answer prayers.

We still need a lot of prayer though. We are looking for a new place to live. We already gave our notice without having a new place to go. I know that seems kind of silly, but we do have faith that God will help us and provide for us. We also have so much paper work to complete and so many questions and details to work out about work, daycare, school, etc. SO PLEASE, keep us in your prayers. This has been a really difficult month and a half for us and we could use all the prayers we could possibly get.

God Bless and sorry for the long winded post--and lack of pictures! I really wanted to share this with everyone though!!