Movember Mania and November News

Some updates on the family front:

Nate is growing a moustache for Movember.  He is a man always happy to support causes with facial hair growth.  We were both pretty unfamiliar with this movement until this year, but it seems to have large awareness base in Canada overall.  If you are unfamiliar with the Movember movement, it is for men to grow moustaches in the month of November to help raise money and awareness for men's health issues and cancer research.  If you are interested in donating to the cause you are welcome to do so by copying and pasting Nate's MoSpace page address:

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/5032421.

Or you can just check out photo's of Nate's progress on growing his moustache. =)

We have moved into our new temporary home!  We are thrilled to have a place of our own to call home even for just a little while.  Saturday was move in day.  I can honestly say it was the fastest move EVER!  When you basically just have a suitcase of clothes and shoes, it doesn't take long to pack and unpack!  Nate is thrilled to have an office to work in for sermon's and church work, while I have ecstatic to have a lovely tub to take regular baths in again!  We continue to be thankful for the small things even during these challenging times.

We met with an immigration lawyer a few weeks ago to get a professional consultation on realistic wait times etc for the paperwork we are waiting on.  We left the appointment with increased frustration and disappointment as he told us the standard time to expect is a full year from start to finish.  So we would be looking at September 2013 as a realistic guess on when we will have completed the process for Nate to work in the US.  We had been hoping more for a 6-8 month range previously.  He did also walk us through some options for me while we are waiting during this time for us to remain together.

Nate celebrated a birthday last week, one of his first times to celebrate with family at home in many, many years.  And by coordinating multiple family monetary donations, we were all able to pull together to get Nate a much desired iPad...  Which was successful in leaving him surprised and speechless!  He is now enjoying the process of familiarizing himself with the new technology.  I think he most enjoys dictating instructions to Siri as this has not been a feature of his previous Apple products.

The weather is cooling but we are still enjoying some beautiful and sunny days, including today.  Another perk of the home we are staying in is its access points to the hiking trails directly off the housing addition.  So I am off to enjoy this incredibly mild day by taking some time to enjoy the nature around us!

We appreciate and value your continued thoughts and prayers.