We are now officially moving to Ireland. That is if we ever want to live with our belongings again.
The movers were here on Thursday and Friday loading up everything we hold dear and useful, except our children! Gary was transported back in time when he use to work for St. Georges Moving and Storage and quickly fell right back into the groove. He was like a third man on the job.
We managed to take everything we wanted to take and more, now we just have to find space for it. The house we are moving into is less that half the size of this one. Oh but I'll make it fit, HEE HEE. It gets taken to Vancouver buy truck, gets loaded into a container, loaded onto a ship, travels down the west coast to the Panama Canal, crosses that, and then proceeds across the Atlantic Ocean to Cork! Hope it makes it. On the other hand it is insured, makes you go hmmm. There are some things I can't replace though. Now we are living like Irish Travelers (gypsies), out of suit cases and sleeping bags starting at our house then maybe the Juliens cottage, then Tianna and Lukes, then Nanny and Pappy Swabeys, then John and Elizabeth Swabeys then over to Ireland to Peggy and Garrys and finally our new home!!!!

DATE SET .We are arriving in Ireland on July 11. We will leave Summerland on July 5 and go to Calgary for 5 days to visit siblings. Then leave on July 10. Pray for our flights. They will be long for the kids.

THERE ARE NO SNAKES IN IRELAND!!!!
Praise God for St. Patrick. This fine specimen was just outside our yard. We think it was a rattle snake. Maybe a bull snake, whatever it was it was from the pit. It was hit by a car. Not a nice way to go but OH WELL. See how close it was to our house!! Yikes. We also have black widows in our back yard. Shanaya wants to know if there is anything that can kill you in Ireland. Hopefully just other humans?

Garys heart is sad, his Jeep now belongs to someone else. After a 10 year love affair. We think it went to a good home. Gary will miss it. I say it because I don't think he ever named it. I guess I should be saying her though, I think most men think of their cars as girls. Oh well, the sacrifices we make for our Lord, HEE HEE! Do you like his new mode of transport? We are a one vehicle family now and it is something we have to get use to as I think that will be our state in Ireland, I'm sure we can work around it as Gary's office will be in the back yard.

Last weekend our church here in Summerland had a yard sale for Rain Happens Ministries and all the proceeds went toward Gary purchasing a shed to use as his office in Ireland. We will put the shed in the back yard and wire it up with electricity. Except for a toilet Gary could live out there. I'll have to figure out how to remidy that. This is a pic similar to the one we are concidering. Well we were over blessed and the yard sale raised over $3000.00. That is almost half of the money needed for the shed. Here is a pic of two of many people who worked extremly hard for almost 24 hours straight to price and set up everything. They are Maureen Wills on the left,(it was her idea) and Anne Bloomfield.
The sunday school kids also had a bake sale for Rain Happens and all the proceeds would go to Sunday school material for Ireland, that is what the orange sign says, click on the pic to make it larger and they raised over $400.00. This was no small feat as most items were selling for around $2.00-$4.00. This was all part of a day that the church was having called Love That Works. We also had many people in the community recieve help with such things as yard clean up and house work, free hair cuts and car washes. Here is a pic of Steve and Stephanie Erdt with their daughter Jocelyn working hard washing cars (wearing their Rain Happens t-shirts I might add). They are seriously concidering moving to Ireland for up to 5 years to see how they can help grow Gods kingdom there. Their other daughter,Danielle, is the little one in blue at the bake sale table who also worked hard with her brother, Evan, selling baked goods. Shanaya, Danielle and Evan got up at 6:30 am to start selling baked goods at 7. That is a servants heart. Our girls are very happy at the prospect of them going to Ireland as these are two of their best friends.

Well here we are into our first week home after Ireland and we have had some jetlagging to be sure. Keep praying for our house sale as it will not be final until May 8. Also pray all goes well for our house purchase in Ireland. Here is a pic of me and my new baby Mungo. Here is a pic of his mommy and what he will look like when he grows out his baby coat.
We were able to say to the breeder that we wanted the puppy because we now have a yard. The breeder said she would care for Mungo until we get there permanently. We were lucky because she only had one left.This was one of many things that we had happen that we called God Things. The others were that Joe had the whole week off of work because the university was preparing for exams. We did not know this when we booked the flights. In Ireland you only have one real estate agent. The one the house is listed with so, you have no one to show you around and take you from house to house, that is where Joe came in, he was a God send and definatly a God Thing. We would have literaly been lost without him. The other God thing was how we bought our house. In Ireland you place an offer on a house above the asking price and wait to see if someone out bids you. This can go on for months, until the seller feels he is satisfied or can get no more. People laughed at us when we said we were there to buy a house in ten days. We just didn't know any better! The house we put an offer on had one other offer but when the owner was told what we were moving to Ireland to do, he wanted us to have the house and would take no more offers. A God Thing. Here is are a few pics of us enjoying the Munster vs Leinster rugby game with Joe and Dawn French. Take a good look at the pic of the tv screen, I got the player sliding across the line for the winning try for Munster, our team(my new sport to watch). Check out our rugby shirts. Here is the awsome couple we stayed with called Garry and Peggy. They were very hospitable. The weather was nice,only one umbrella day and at least 6 sunny days. Well time to continue with life in Canada. Right so!