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Blogger Boss needs to decide what this is going to say about how crazy her life is & how she loves coffee & walks with her hubby.


Friday, August 16, 2013

An eye opener

I feel like I keep sliding forward on a banana peel!, trying to keep my balance with a crazy grin on my face and my brain in a jumbled mess.

Rewind.
In the last 2 weeks we have packed our overseas shipping container.
We got it sent away with whatever we thought we wanted to keep and some extra stuff.
(for example: LOTS of Finnish candy!)
I hope no pirates get to it...
The day after we cleaned and moved out of our house and drove to Helsinki to catch the ferry at 5 pm the same afternoon (a 3 hour drive).... all in one breath.
The night before we were up to past 2 am, and enjoyed our last sauna in our house, somewhat awake.
At 1 am I realized that we had waaaaay too much luggage to fit in our Suburban for our Sweden trip, so the oldest girls and I repacked all of them and split things up so that we shared space and could leave half of the luggage behind.
I honestly don't remember much of what I packed, so my dear hubby had an interesting selection to choose from... (he was busy with construction btw, in case somebody had the urge to blast him for not packing his own stuff!)
When we left our house I was quite wiped.  And realizing that "it's over"... made me cry.
It was very bittersweet moving out.  I really didn't have time to dwell on emotions while packing and cleaning, but just below the surface there was pain.  That house was special in so many ways.  It started on a piece of paper and I did most of the designing and it was build by my husbands own hands.  A special experience for sure.
We made it to the ferry and exhaled.
Whew. 
We did it.
We moved to Finland.
We built a house here.
We got the experience we were looking for.... and on paper it looks pretty good.
Kind of like "Wow, did things ever work out well for them!"
What happened behind the scenes and the journey to this point is what many forget.
We have had some trying times in many ways.
I suffered two miscarriages, we struggled with money and well, things did NOT go as planned in many ways.
There were many, many, many hours of planning, organizing and hard work.

But at the end of the day I feel thankful.
Things went the way they were meant to go.
On the day we closed on our house this became especially clear to Hubby and I.
For the first time in our married life we are economically ahead.  
Not in a crazy "we are officially sickly rich" way, but in a way where we for a while don't have to worry every month how we are gonna make ends meet.
To "celebrate" we went out for lunch and took a brief break before going back home to our chores.
As we sat there I got a real eye opener.
Before that day we already had it all.
We had a beautiful, happy marriage.
We had healthy, fun, crazy kids with whom we have great relationships.
We share the same faith in our hearts.
We have true friends.  Lots of them.  In many countries.
We are cared for in all ways that matters, and to this day God has kept his promise to provide for each day. Not one day have we gone "without".
It became so clear to me that when our bank account was below zero, we still had it all.
We didn't change or became happier after closing on the house.
The quality of our life did not drastically improve.

And after realizing this.... I felt a huge sense of thankfulness.
No matter what tomorrow brings, we have it all.
And the things that matter are things without price tags.

We spent a wonderful week in Sweden and it was so nice to see my parents and one of my sisters.
We also spent a few nights with one of my cousins and her family.
Coming back to Finland meant yet again rolling up the sleeves.
There are so many places to go to and things to take care of before moving overseas.
I will not bore you with a list, but today hubby and I spent 6-7 hours running errands!!
Felt good to get a bunch done though.

This last week we have also had time to stop and enjoy some time with friends.
On two occasions we have visited friends where many people have gathered to bid us farewell.
It's a good reminder of the good things this move brought.
These friendships will last and they are true and strong.
It's hard and sad to leave so many dear friends behind, but it also brings me great joy knowing that we are so loved and cared for.  Maybe I need a lot of approval, but I can't help appreciating feeling loved.  If any of you guys read this, Thank you.  Thank you for being there.  Thank you for listening to my complaints and frustrations.  Thank you for being patient and a good listener.
I feel so very blessed, and I think I am speaking for my whole family.
And to all you Scandinavian friends: "Welcome to Canada!"