Goodbyes to North America, Road trip.....

Luke and I have been on the road for the past month. We arrived in Nashville, Tennessee last month to hot weather, no trolleys for our baggage, and complete exhaustion. A man came by a offered Luke to help us with our luggage while I left to look for my stepmother, who was waiting for us. Now, if this had happened in Australia, it would have been a sign of helpfulness, as the man offering help would have done it out of generosity and not any expectancy for a tip. So, knowing this, I walked up to Luke, and rubbed my fingertips along my thumb, inciting a wide eyed "Oh!" response. We ended up having to ask Sally for the tip, which ended up being her only bill that happened to be a $20. Her response? "It will be a good day for him."



There were no other mishaps in the American chapter of our experience, I just wonder how many moments there will be like that on my end with coming here.



Being in Tennessee was relaxing, and Luke and I needed that. After moving everything, spending a week visiting friends in neighboring cities, and everything else that comes with moving countries, a time where we could sleep and vegetate was good.



But after that week of relaxation, we went on the road again-this time to Washington D.C. I could give you all the boring details regarding every site we visited, but I will spare you. The only details I will give is that my (danielle) personal favorite museum was the National Portrait Gallery, as well that we had the privilege of seeing someone from our DTS, Jessica Liddle. Luke had not seen her for 5 years (since the school), and I had not seen her for over 2 years. So this was a gift in addition to everything we had the chance to see and experience.

Tennessee and the trip to Washington D.C. was relaxing and hectic, but mainly great to hang out with my Dad and stepmother Sally.

While Tennessee consisted of seeing two people (though we saw some cousins as well), California included seeing friends and family. We had the question asked of us several times "Where do you want to go on this trip?" And our answer was "Well, no where." After living in California for 20 years, I had experienced the myriad of tourist spots- and with Luke's past visitations and a treck across D.C. within the past week, sitting at home with family and hanging out with friends was all we wanted and needed. The real adventure was surviving my sister's kitten, who would mislead you by purring and then going onto to bite your hand within a 10 second period of time.

And the month of visiting ended. It will most likely be several years before we see most of the people we visited in Canada and the United States, though we do know some of the adventurous type whom we hope will come down and explore a bit. We will keep you posted on any recent news coming out of Oz, and any funky or quirky news to come out of here.

Things so far:

1). danielle is learning how to drive a stick shift as well as dealing with learning to drive on the left side of the road.

2). We have already had multiple kangaroo sightings, as well as a koala sighting today.

3).Danielle has already felt a sense of guilt over not tipping a waiter.

4)Luke played a game of soccer this past week.

More to come-If you have any questions let us know.


Please pray for our adjustment, moving to a new place includes culture shock, which can be difficult emotionally.

Good night everyone.