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I Will Come Home

Jessica • July 9, 2015

We are on vacation in Chicago right now. The first 11 days were spent as a family and the next 3.5 weeks will be just me and the kids because our bread winner must head back to Toronto. When I dropped Rusty off at the airport the other day he said, “I’ll see you, IF you come home.” He was of course joking, but I have a feeling that deep inside he is nervous I won’t come back to Canada.

I have been very open about the struggles I have dealt with after moving to Canada. I have dealt with depression and anxiety, I have spent weeks at a time angry, I have spent way too much time distracted from my beautiful family. If you follow me on Instagram you know that I have had trouble getting the family signed up for Ontario’s health care program, I have had trouble registering our cars, and I also had a hard time signing Carter up for school. All of these minor irritations have added up to one giant annoying experience with the Canadian government. But, through all of the storytelling I have done on this blog, there has been one thing I have forgotten to share… all of the things that have gone right.

We eventually received our health care benefits and we finally registered our cars. In September, Carter will be starting junior kindergarden at the nearby catholic school. And, on top of all those annoying logistical things working out, we have had some pretty fun adventures in Canada so far, this summer. We have visited High Park, we visited Niagara Falls, we bought season passes to Canada’s Wonderland, we took a trip to Cottage Country, we have hosted a ton of dinner parties with our new friends, and on top of all that, we took an 11 day family vacation.

Every couple of days, Carter says, “We have done 4 special things. 1. High Park 2. Niagara Falls 3. Wonderland 4. Naperville River Walk (something we have done on vacation here in Chicago).” It wasn’t until the 6th or 7th time she went through her list, totally unprompted, that I realized how silly it is that my 3.5 year old is so good at counting her blessings and all I do is complain.

So this post is me counting my blessings. We are so blessed that we live 5 miles away from a giant amusement park. We are so blessed that catholic education is free in Ontario and even though we are not actually catholic, we are able to send our daughter to a school were Jesus is welcome to go with her. We are so blessed that we were able to take an 11 day family vacation, our first long vacation that didn’t involve working from location or a paintball tournament. All of this is possible because we moved to Toronto and I almost let all of it pass right by me because I was so busy blaming Canada for my problems.

So, if the heartfelt blog posts are few and far between this summer, please forgive me, it’s because I am busy soaking up summer blessings with my family. And Rusty, don’t worry, I will come home.

high_park-4       high_park-3

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

 

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