home

the other night when i couldn't sleep i got thinking about all the places we've lived since we've been married and all the times we've moved and how it shouldn't be legal to move that many times and also at the same time i was thinking about the importance of "nesting" and settling into in our home in Uganda (whatever and wherever that will be) and how if all goes according to plan, when we move back to Canada, we'll have lived in Uganda longer than in any one place during the course of our marriage.
that is ridiculous.

when we got married, jamie and i were both living with our parents in toronto.
we moved from toronto to a fantastic 2 bedroom apartment in kitchener (about an hour west of toronto). jamie was commuting between the university of waterloo and the university of guelph working with campus for christ. i was working as a bank teller (or customer service representative) with td canadatrust.
i loved that first year of marriage.
we got married at the end of june in 2004 and had the rest of the summer to hang out with our friends, stay up late, watch tv, have dance parties, and well, you know. do what young married couples do.
ahem.
anyway...
during this year i wrestled with my desire to serve God but not being entirely certain that working with campus for christ was where i was supposed to be.
eventually i realized it was and so i joined staff with campus for christ in april 2005. i left my job at td and we moved out of our apartment and into jamie's mom's place in toronto.
so we lived in toronto with jamie's mom and sister while we raised my portion of support (campus for christ's staff raise 100% of their salary) for the next 8 months.
once we had raised almost all our support we moved to guelph (roughly just under 1 hour away from toronto)  in february 2006 to work solely at the university of guelph.
we found a 2 bedroom 1/2 below ground apartment in a 3 storey apartment building.
 we would have stayed in this apartment for a lot longer if i hadn't got pregnant in january 2007.
we wanted to keep our home office and our bedroom separate so we were on the hunt for a 3 bedroom apartment.
we almost took a town home but as costs kept adding up a 3 bedroom apartment opened up in the complex we were living in for only $50 more a month.
we took it.
and moved across the parking lot.
i was 8 months pregnant.
and it was on the third floor. no elevator. which was okay because i just figured it would be like my built in exercise. no biggie.
and this was a great apartment. i laboured in the living room and then gave birth to noah in our bedroom. it was perfect.
we would have stayed there with subsequent children if it hadn't been on the top floor. with no elevator. and there was no way i could do stroller + 21 month old toddler + baby in an infant carseat + groceries by myself - just forget about it.
so when we found out in october 2008 that i was pregnant again we knew we had to move. again.
onto a new home.
we found our home in an actual house - still renting, though.

when i was (again) 8 months pregnant we moved into our lovely (and current) home.
i laboured in the beautiful and spacious backyard. i gave birth in our bedroom. i have played with my sons and baked up a storm in our kitchen. to have had a garage to park our car during the winter and laundry just steps away have been huge blessings.
we had planned to stay here until we had saved enough to buy our own home and then move for a final time.
and then God called us to Africa.
so we're moving. again. and a lot sooner than we thought we would. and while living in this house has been the longest we've stayed in any one place, we'll still end up being in uganda for longer (if all goes according to plan).
each place we've lived in holds some really special memories and the fact that we still do not own our own home was sometimes hard as it was too easy to compare our lives to others around us in similar life stages. but we realized that we could just "up and go" without having to worry about paying a mortgage or finding
suitable renters who won't trash the place while we're off the continent.
maybe some day we'll own, but for now - we're happy with where we're at and anticipating where we'll be in a years time!