Hi guys. It's me. Yes, I am alive and yes, I am in Australia.

This past month and a half has been a whirlwind and I feel like I am only now just starting to settle (sort of) and get my bearings.

When we first arrived here on Jan 31st we stayed with some people that we knew from church. We had only planned to stay for a week but that week ended up being two and things started to get a little tense so we decided to go and staying my sister-in-law (who lived 2 hours outside of Melbourne). We ended up staying with her for two weeks, which wasn't as stressful. We were grateful she squeezed us in to her two bedroom place and it was nice to be amongst family and for the kids to have kids' toys to play with (she has a 1 year old boy).

We finally found a place to live a couple of weeks ago and moved in on Feb 28th. House hunting has been hard here, namely because Andrew is going to school full-time, I don't have a job and neither of us have rental history in Australia. (Even though we have funds to pay for rent and bond and Andrew is on a student loan and we have great rental history from New Zealand). Most rentals here go through real estate agencies and there is quite a process that goes into renting a place. We applied for many places (except a few dumps which I could not fathom living in) and didn't get accepted for any. This was very stressful and worrying.

We also bought a car, which turned out to be a lemon. We did end up returning it but we lost money on it. Then the stress was about finding a new car.

And, as I said, staying with the people from church ended up being tense because apparantly we weren't following their house rules and were upsetting their children (we didn't know about any of this until they came and talked to us near the end of the second week that we were there. They did not even tell us any house rules. And, let it be noted that we did pay them a generous amount of money for staying there each week AND contributed to groceries which we barely ate and helped tidy up).

WELCOME TO AUSTRALIA!

All of this anxiety landed me in the hospital with severe pains in my abdomen. They didn't end up being anything serious and I was able to go home a few hours later. Stress will do that to you at times.

Now for the good news.

We found a car that is more economical and runs much better than the first one. We also bought a NAV MAN gps thing so that we can find our way around. Yay!

My friend Dianne asked around and it turned out that her friend's cousin needed someone to move into the 3 bedroom part of the house that she rents so that she could move into the attached unit with her kids. She hooked us up and here we are. In a lovely, 3 bedroom place with plenty of space and a fenced back yard area and covered deck for the kids to play in. And the lady who lived in the attached unit - Ivana - is so nice and friendly. And we are in a well-established neighborhood close to all of the amenities. We are right behind a school (reminds me a little of when we lived on Tisdall because I can hear the announcements and school bells). And, we didn't have to go through a huge rigamorol to rent this place because Ivana just recommened us to her real estate agent. Such a huge blessing which I am very, very grateful for!

I have a smart phone now. Yup moving up in the world. Still trying to figure out how to use it.

So, this is the update so far. How and I feeling about being in Australia? Well, I am glad to be getting more settled in a house etc. We have had some extreme heat and that hasn't been at all pleasant. Even the kids find it hard to cope with. Andrew has started school and he is gone a lot. This means more work and more time with the kids for me and less help from him. This is a little hard to adjust too. I have been feeling very, very tired lately. Partly because of the whirlwind of everything and partly because Baby #3 is coming in October and the whole first trimester tiredness has been setting in.

I AM feeling like I miss some things that are mine and mine alone - if that makes sense. I really, really miss Kuma. I know, he is just a cat. But he was mine, and a part of me still feels resentful that I had to give him away even though I know that it was the best thing for him. I miss having friends to talk to about how I am feeling. I miss having a good friend or sister to cry too when I am feeling overwhelmed or annoyed or frustrated.

So this is how I am feeling now.