More Exciting News Will Not Likely Be Posted On this Blog*

So several weeks back I think I mentioned that we had this unspoken prayer request and I had this big news to share with you that I just couldn't share yet. Then I threw you another bone a couple weeks ago saying I would spill the beans soon. Well this week I've been putting it off pending the notification of some of our close friends and family and then came the potty training so it's been a busy week.

Potty training is exhausting, yes, but not nearly as irksome as trying to figure out IMMIGRATION. Yup, it's true. Seven years ago, I endured most of the brunt of the horrid chaos that is U.S. Immigration, but this time, my friends, the tables are turned! The story goes a little something like this:

In late November/early December, we got an email from my Uncle. The email contained a note and an attachment advertising an opening for a job in LJ's field in my home province (*squee!*). Friends and family who live around there have been keeping their eyes peeled for some time but most of the jobs around there are split up - so you do one job half the time and another job the other half of the time, the second job being one that LJ isn't qualified for. Well anyway, completely on a whim, we prayed about it and the next night fancied up LJ's resume and off went the email. The NEXT DAY, he heard back from the clinic administrator who wanted to be in touch with him as soon as possible.

Not two weeks later, there had been enough communication between the administrator and LJ to solidify their interest in hiring him. However, one very major thing needed to happen first: The clinic had to check with the Canadian government to prove that they couldn't find a 'local' to do the job and that they needed to hire a foreigner. Getting the Labour Market Opinion took only about two weeks and it came back positive.

To make a long story slightly shorter, while we were excited at the prospect of this job, we didn't say anything to very many people because it still seemed like such a long shot. Then the week before Christmas when my Mom was diagnosed with cancer, we started to let our hopes get a little higher. That God would give us this opportunity at just this time seemed almost a little unreal.

We have gone through several immigration hoops already and we have the forms filled out and ready for LJ's work permit application which can't be done until his medical results clear somebody's desk in Ottawa. Once those results clear, we can take the application down to a Port-of-Entry (where you go through a border crossing into Canada) and apply for the permit. Once he has the stamp of approval, we are ready to go (well, technically, the LG and I could go anytime....but we're already Canadian). Hopefully the medical results will clear quickly, because we need to be in my hometown before May 19th since that's the day LJ writes his Canadian Certification Exam so he can legally practice in Canada. Then we'll be settling in to our NEW hometown to commence work and life!

I'm vastly oversimplyfying here because the whole story could take a long time to write but I'll tell you a few really great things about this move:
1) The town is only 2 1/2 hours from where my parents live (and I don't think I have to tell you how excited I am about the prospect of being so close to them and my best friend Chandra after being so far away for seven years)!
2) The town is only about ten minutes away from the illustrious Erin K. & Co. (which means the LG can actually have a little toddler friend at her birthday 'party' this year)!
3) The town just so happens to be chock-full of college friends and more importantly - my relatives! YIPPEE! Actual people our age! Actual friends who are already friends! Actual family nearby!
4) The new job means a pay-raise (despite the currency conversion). It also comes with more responsibility and the possibility of LJ becoming a supervisor of a department as well as the opportunity to train in a completely new field, courtesy of the clinic.
5) The town is like Mennonite-central, people! Perogies, Farmer's Sausage, rollkuchen, watermelon and all the other Menno delights that we've missed for so long, plus the town and the one next door both have a major summer festival, one of which entails a giant barbecue cook-off which the LJ can hardly wait for! (The man loves his barbecue!)
6) This has been an incredible opportunity for God to stretch our faith and cause growth in us (see the next list below) as well as an opportunity to share with our friends how God's grace and sovereignty have been so particularly active in our lives as of late.

Now the downside:
1) The climate is pretty much exactly the same as here so we will, sadly, have to bring our shovels with us.
2) Our house here remains unsold and as you can imagine, paying a mortgage and rent at the same time isn't feasible. We are trusting God with the sale of the house because it belongs to Him and He will sell it in His time. We are also extremely grateful to have a place to stay, if temporarily, with my Uncle R. & Aunt E. (THANK YOU! A thousand times - THANK YOU!) when we get there. Please pray with us for the quick sale of our house. We know the market is poor right now but again, it's not truly our house to sell.
3) We are playing the waiting game with immigration at the moment. We need LJ's medical results to pass quickly so we can be underway and on the road on or around my birthday (4 May). If it comes any later, we may be stuck here until July after Sibling XX gets here.
4) Nearly everything in Canada is more expensive than here (eg. the giant box of honey nut cheerios that costs $4.12 here, costs about $7.69 there), and we are bracing for things like car insurance, rent, gasoline, and just paying to get there, while rejoicing in the prospect of free healthcare (no matter how much most Americans diss it, I would trade long lines for free almost any day, plus the chance to deliver Sibling XX without getting a medical bill back from the hospital), and monthly checks from the government to help with the costs of raising kids...and all the other good things I already listed above.

A friend of ours who is in the same line of work as LJ but in a different Manitoba city, told me that every person in their field in Manitoba would've seen this job ad, yet of all those people (and we don't know how many applied) the clinic chose to pursue LJ! That gives us even more confidence in this being part of God's plan for us even as we are daily praying and trusting for Him to finalize all the details that need to be in place before we move. We are sitting at about 90% sure that this move will happen and praying that if for some reason, God chooses to close the door, He will do so in the most gentle way possible. Please pray with us for grace and guidance as we wait for whatever is next, and know that we are (to the best of our ability) giving God glory for how He has blessed us in this process so far!

NOW, you are in the know! FINALLY!


*Unless of course we ever actually get pregnant with a boy child, in which case, I will NOT be able to contain my excitement for anywhere NEAR this long.....