News

Hello to our dear family and friends!

I hope we have done a decent job staying in touch with you guys (at least individually?) throughout our time here in Aussieland. As you can see, I am not a very good blogger. :) Perhaps it's my lack of time? Ah, I won't give excuses for myself... I would rather sit and do calculus than write a paper. Math is more my thing. :)

Anyways, we still seem to be standing despite the gravitational pull being a lot stronger down here... hahaha j/k. Nah, but we are doing pretty well. Josh is continuing to rock it with his studies. Greek seems to be the class he has to put most of his time to... everywhere (literally) we go he seems to be carrying Greek flashcards in his plastic baggie-- church, the grocery store, long car rides, friends houses... He has a pretty busy schedule at the moment: working Monday, Friday, Saturday and classes Tuesday-Thursday. We have also gotten involved in serving at a Hillsong extension service 30 minutes from our house. We have enjoyed the community at that church and the different experience.
I am still working at the cafe, working Monday through Friday, yet still working over 40 hours a week. I joined the gym a few doors down from work and found a trainer that seems to thoroughly enjoy working me to the ground each session. The gym has some great classes that I have enjoyed as well, just to change up from my usual running. I am really enjoying the cycling class and the boxing class (which is run by this crazy nazi-police woman who I am TOTALLY intimidated by... she literally almost made me cry the first class.). It seems I have found my own little community at the gym now and some of the regulars that come to the cafe always are friendly to me when they see me.... I am actually doing the cycling class with a few of the 50-70yr old ladies that come into the cafe regularly. :) LOVE IT. I have also become quite close to a lot of the regulars that come into the cafe and it has been so fun to get to know them beyond their "Large cappuccino, two sugars" order.
Josh and I have made some additional great friends through our connect group through church. It's awesome to have friends that are from all over the world.
Australia life has seemed to fit more comfortable for us (well, really me because Josh could honestly live anywhere and be fine..). Our routine seems to be a bit more set.

On that note, we do have some news for you all.  With much prayer and thought, we have decided to return home for GOOD when we come home for Josh's brother's wedding in June. This is for a few reasons-- finances and my health. Don't get me wrong, my stomach pains and severe bloating that I had earlier have gone... but now my hormone levels aren't right and my "body processing" is still out of wack. I have seen the doctor several times now and they cannot seem to figure out what is up so Josh and I have decided that I seems much safer for my health if we return back. Hormone levels are definitely not something we want to mess with, especially if we would like to have kids in the future. Our prayer and hope is that everything will balance out once we are on American soil... this seems to be what SEVERAL American girls have experienced for some weird reason. One girl I chatted to the other weekend seemed to think that it was the water here...perhaps? Who knows!
Financially, we save a couple thousand dollars by having Josh finish his courses online from the States. I have NO idea how this works.. doesn't make sense to me. Josh will still finish by February, as we had planned... and he will only be taking three courses online that he would have actually done in a classroom setting.. so he is not missing out on as much as would be expected.

With all this being said, please keep us in your prayers-- we are trying to establish a living situation, purchase another car, and both find jobs. Josh will be looking for part-time work and an internship (counting as class credit). I will be looking for a full time job, either doing admin work, HR, or something of the sort. Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Also, if you see any great car deals, we would love to hear about that too!

We are SO looking forward to seeing you all so soon! We miss you guys HEAPS!

Lots of lovin',

J & L