Wow! Is it February already? It’s kind of hard for me to tell as the seasons are all different here. Instead of snow, we get rain. Instead of the landscape turning from brown to white, it turns from brown to green. I can still wear my shorts if the sun is out and we go walking in park. What do I think of all this? I have mixed feelings. I don’t miss shoveling snow, scraping windows, and minus 40^o (either C or F, it’s the same). I do miss looking out my window after the first big snow fall, making snowmen, and Don Cherry. I find myself asking questions like “How in the world did I end up here?” and “Will I ever find a job?” and “Will the twins ever learn to use the toilet?”

In answer to the first question, it all started about a year ago when I received word from US immigration that my application for a Green Card had been approved and I was to go to Montreal for an interview. Within the next two months I had a job in Silicon Valley, a place to live with Lorie’s family, a Canadian wife (she is now a dual citizen), and a sold house. I have since learned the real meaning of rush-hour traffic, asthma, the Canadian dollar, and the terrible two’s. We found a church to call home and I started playing in the worship band twice a month. Then within a month, three of five pastors announced their resignation, including the senior pastor. All have followed God’s call to other ministries; a youth pastorate in Seattle, a church plant in St. Louis, and a missions organization in Santa Cruz. There was no sin or shame, just a move to where God called. Then the bottom dropped out of the dot-com world and I got laid off at the end of October with 3 days’ notice and no compensation. It was not a pretty sight.

The answer to question two is …??? Only God knows and He hasn’t told me yet. I’ve been feeling quite disillusioned with corporate America and feeling like I should be in some sort of ministry. So I’m sending out both worship pastor and system admin résumés and leaving the results to God. So,… if you know of anyone looking for a System Administrator, PC Support Specialist, or Worship Pastor, let me know.

For now, my job is to be a daddy. (How’s that for a segue from job hunting to potty training?) And what a job it is. You could even say it’s a “big job”. (A little potty training humour there.) Besides learning how to use the potty, the twins are growing like crazy. They’re talking and learning new words every day, running (and tripping over things – they haven’t the fine art of avoiding obstacles yet), jumping (up and down, off of furniture, etc), and wrestling (or whatever you call bouncing on each other). They enjoy watching Veggie Tales and Sesame Street, going to the park and climbing, swinging, sliding, and playing with the water fountain. Brianna is not only walking, but running (and she’s fast). She won’t eat unless there’s a Veggie Tales video on and has never used the potty (unless you count the times when she sneaks in and plays in the toilet).