our new adventure

I was hoping I would get around to this update sooner than I have, but lets just say missing almost a week of work because of being sick, after being off work for 4 weeks means you have a lot of work to catch up on! This week has been very busy, but thankfully i'm pretty much feeling back to normal. I still have a bit of a cough, but thats heaps better than I was feeling a week ago, so i'll take it!

I've mentioned in several posts over the last few months about things going on with us and asking for prayers, well here is some more about that! When we got married we moved into a small flat at the back of our friends house. We knew this would be a good opportunity for us to save money, adjust to married life before making a big decisions, etc. For the last 6 months my husband and I have been praying about whats next for us. We love our little flat but its not a permanent home for us, we would really like to buy a house down the track, but we know with buying a house comes with a lot of responsibility. I'm not sure we're ready for that yet because we really want to travel some before we settle down. We've been praying for some time and have really felt like God has closed some doors for us and opened others. We really feel like He is leading us into a new season and we are really excited to see where he leads us. For me a part of all of this was feeling like some doors were closing for me at my job as It was never going to be a permanent job for me because my heart is in the classroom. So as of last Friday I have resigned from my position as Coordinator at Narara OOSH & Vacation Care. I have so many mixed emotions about it. This school has been such a huge blessing in my life. I have met so many wonderful kids and families. The job has certainly been a huge challenge for me but I feel like i've accomplished something and thats a good feeling to leave with. So that is the first part of our "new adventure" as we are calling it.

The next part of our "new adventure"is...we are going to travel!! I'm so excited! I love to travel...obviously or I would most likely not have ended up moving half way around the world. I love airports, stamps in my passport, long flights, packing etc...all those things that most people hate, I love. I'm so thankful my husband is excited about traveling too because I can't think of a better travel buddy. We decided to celebrate our 1 year anniversary by just taking off for a few months to travel, visit family, etc. We don't have a lot of plans. We have booked flights to the USA to go spend some time with my family since its been 6 months since we've seen them. It will be so nice and refreshing to visit with friends and family as apart of our adventure. Other than that, we don't have any set in stone plans yet, other than our return flights back to Oz in September. We are excited to see where God leads us! So, you never know the Fowlers could be coming to a town near you sometime in the next few months!

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we embark on our "new adventure!" I will try my best to keep the blog up to date once our travels get under way. So until then its work for the next 6 weeks, then 3 months of traveling...yahoo!!!

sick days

 I tell you what I am ready for a holiday! We have had so much going on over the last several months, especially the last few weeks and now I get sick. Not fair, not fair, not fair! Ok, i'm sorry i'm done complaining. I think I mentioned a few post ago about being sick, yeah I'm still sick. Anyone who knows me well, knows I do not do 'sick' well. I started feeling a little better after starting antibiotics but have not been able to get rid of the cough. So after 2 days of people making comments to me about how horrible I sound I went back to the doctor. Verdict is...I still have a upper respiratory infection and now have an ear infection. Ughh! So now i'm on a new, stronger round of antibiotics including an inhaler to help my cough. My doctor smiled when I asked if I should miss a day of work and then she handed me a medical certificate with bed rest orders for the rest of the week. Not happy!! I've just been off work for four weeks I don't want to miss the rest of this week as well. As I said, I don't do 'sick' very well. I know I need rest but I don't like sitting still, so i'm going to follow her orders and pray I get better soon. I think my poor hubby is ready for me to get better just as much, if not more than me! He is a TROOPER! I'm so thankful God gave me just the man I need. Let's just say he hopes our children are not like me one day when they are sick. He has been so wonderful helping out with things around the house, taking care of me, coming up with herbal tea 'remedies' and forcing me to drink them (not an easy task!), and forcing me to take medicines constantly. I love that man so much. He deserves way more than the bag of peanut M&M's I bought him today! So let the resting begin and hopefully I'll be feeling better by the weekend because we've got a very special little girls 1st birthday party to attend on Sunday!

Happy Mother's Day!

 There are a lot of things I miss from home. I miss Target (we have Target here but its nothing like American Target) I miss happy hour at sonic, I miss NBA basketball, I miss mexican food, I miss my friends, I miss Marley (my sweet puppy) but most of all I miss my parents and especially today I miss my mom! I so wish I could be there to give her a big hug and take her to lunch for Mother's day but I guess i'll have to settle for a skype date.

My mom is the best. She is my best friend. I tell my sweet hubby all the time, that I love him a lot and he is my best friend but sometimes I miss my other best friend, my momma. He always responds with, "I miss your mom too!" Now that i'm a grown up, mature, married lady (I am, right?!) I can assure you I'm pretty sure I was a handful for my parents growing up. Can you say, drama queen?! I have so many great memories and my mom was in all of them. From throwing my many elaborate themed birthday parties growing up, taking me and my girlfriends on trips, going shopping to buy things for my first apartment, teaching me how to sew curtains for my classroom, our many shopping dates, picking her up at the airport when she flew all the way to Sydney by herself so she could help me finalize wedding plans and working with her to surprise my dad when we came home a day early for Christmas. There are so many amazing memories, I could probably write a whole book, but i'll spare you :) I look back now and I'm so very thankful God blessed me with the best parents in the world and the best mom. My mom is not only one of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet in your life, she is patient, caring, strong, creative, organized, stylish, a great listener and great at giving advice and hello, she is gorgeous! Even though we've spent most of the last 2 years living on different continents, I feel like in some ways its made us closer and its certainly made the moments we do get to spend together so much sweeter.

I love you mom. Thank you for raising me the way you did, thank you for taking care of me when I was sick, thank you for putting me in my place when I was a pain in your behind, thank you for always letting my friends come over, thank you for teaching me how to make the best chocolate chip cookies, thank you for teaching me how to be strong and independent, thank you for being an encourager, thank you for never giving up on me, thank you for always pushing me to do my best, thank you for letting me move half way around the world to discover the adventure of a lifetime, thank you for being the best example of a loving, Christian wife, and thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for being my mom.

I'm jealous of those of you who get to see and hug your mom on mother's day. If you live close to your mom, be very thankful. See and hug her every chance you get!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and all my 'other moms' and friends who are now moms!

Me and my sweet momma :)

back at work

 I feel like I was on a roll with my blog updates, but then again I did have a lot of free time while I was off work! I feel like this week was a whirlwind, but i'm thankful its over and the weekend is finally here. Even if I was up at 6:15 this morning with my hubby who has to work Saturdays. I HATE that he has to work Saturdays! I long for the Saturday morning we can sleep in, go have breakfast at the beach and actually spend a whole day together. Instead, now that i'm back at work we're back to have 1 day off together. I'm very thankful for our jobs but I miss my husband and long for us to have "normal" work schedules so we can spend time together. It certainly has not been my favorite thing in our first year of marriage.

Ok, i'm done complaining...back to the whirlwind week.

I guess like in any job when you've been gone for a while you have a lot to catch up on. Thankfully I have a wonderful staff member who was filling in for me and she did a fabulous job keeping up with things in my absence so I didn't have too much work to come back to. But nonetheless there were still emails and phone calls to return, meetings, and trying to adjust to my crazy schedule again. I'm very thankful for my job, but the hours and schedule are hard. I'm sure i've shared this in the past, but I run the Before/After School Care program aka OOSH Care (Out of School Hours). So naturally that means I have to be at work before school and after school...so thats 6:30am-8:30am and 3:15pm-6:15pm, plus all my office hours which I generally do on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so on those days i'm at work all day...yes, 6:30am to 6:15pm, if i'm lucky I can try to get away for lunch. Working a split shift isn't always terrible because it does give me flexibility to see friends during the day, do my shopping, cleaning etc but when you live 20-25 minutes away from work that just means you spend a lot of time in the car. The schedule is hard, most days I don't get to see my husband until I get home at night (yes, even though we may work at the same school that doesn't mean I see him all the time!). I guess this week i've just had a harder time adjusting back to my schedule/routine and on top of that I've gotten sick. One of the joys of working with kids, lots of germs! It started out with just a little cough, then I started feeling miserable so I made a trip to the doctor and I have a chest infection. Not what you want to hear your first week back to work. So i'm on antibiotics for the first time in almost 2 years and have instructions to rest over the weekend so I can be good to go on Monday. So it certainly has been an eventful first week back at work.

Besides adjusting to working again and getting sick we've had a lot of other big things going on this week. Even though our Australian visa battle is over, we still have some other big things going on. Not going to go into all that now, but please keep us in your prayers.

good, good day

I am finally a (temporary) permanent resident of Australia!!  Insert (giant) sigh of relief here! I have been impatiently checking my email every 10 minutes all week, praying and hoping for a response from immigration but surprise, surprise rather than communicating by email they actually sent me a large envelope with a letter granting my visa and they even sent back all the pictures, invitations, cards we had to include in our visa application-aka proof of a genuine relationship. The temporary, permanent resident thing probably confuses most people. When you apply for a partner visa it is done in 2 parts, but you apply for them both at the same time. I am considered a (temporary) permanent resident for the first 2 years we are married. After 2 years are up they check up on you, and basically make sure you are still married and then you are considered permanent. Although now being a (temporary) permanent resident I am able to come and go from the country, work without restrictions (yay!), receive Medicare....basically everything of a citizen but I can't vote, which citizens are required to do in Australia.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited and blessed we are! We first started this immigration journey over 9 months ago and even though we will always have to "deal" with immigration issues in our relationship, we are so excited that this huge step is behind us! Personally, I feel like its a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. We've kind of been in limbo the last several months, but now knowing that I can go back to work and having this visa behind us we can finally start to move on an make plans.

Thank you to our many friends and family that have been praying for us. We are so thankful to have such an incredible support system all over the world! Not many people can say they have that, but we can. Know that we have had so much love, support, and prayers during the last 9 months is overwhelming in the best possible way.

I'm so thankful for my incredibly supportive husband throughout all of this. He's had to put up with a lot of stressed out moments from me and a whole lot of tears, but he's been amazing through it all constantly reminding me of God's plan and timing. I'm so thankful God's plan and timing are better than ours. God has taught me so many lessons throughout this experience and probably one of the biggest is to let go! I'm terrible at that, I love to be in control but i'm so thankful he is still patient with me. God has been with us every step of the way from the beginning of our visa journey to now and I can't wait to see what big adventure he has for us next!

pity party of 1

Some days are just hard. Some days I just want to pout. Some days I just want a hug from my mom. Some days I just want to cry. Some days are just overwhelming. And some days i'm just over it. Today is one of those days. I'm not good at staying home and not working. And I'm really not good at being forced to stay home and not work! I'm just used to being busy. I've been off work for 3 weeks today...3 weeks too long. It was nice the first few days. I was able to sleep in, catch up on my to do list but now i'm just ready to be back into my routine.

I received my medical check results in the mail on Friday and I sent them straight away to Immigration in Sydney. So now we wait, or keep waiting. It frustrates me to no end because we've been waiting for 9 months! I understand why they have rules, but that doesn't make things less frustrating for me. I just hope and pray that a decision is made soon. I know it will happen, I just need to be patient.

I saw this on Pinterest today. It put a smile on my face and was a beautiful saying and something I really felt like I needed to hear.